The day finally warms to the 60's and life is good. We are cruising through the same desert, seeing the same sights, sagebrush and sand. We are constantly looking for wildlife of any kind. Outside Ely there was a park just for watching elk. We didn't see any elk, just one pronghorn sheep.

There is nothing else between Ely and Baker. 68 miles of nothing. As we are climbing today's steepest hill, I stop in front of the only building we have passed on the road all day. There is a house and it looks like they are building another one. As Nicole and Dan pull up, a man hops on a little motorcycle and rides up to his house. We start talking and he is one of the most laid-back, stress-free people I have met. The view from his house is incredible. Nothing but a big vista of the surrounding mountains and valley. “Yea, we're pretty spoiled.”

We finish the hard climb and start the long descent. Our map shows our destination town of Baker as being on the highway. So we tell Dottie to drive ahead to the town and get our motel room at a place I found on the Internet, the Silver Jack Inn.

To our surprise, there is a sign to Baker off to the right, five miles. I flag down a car coming from that direction and find out the town really is five miles away. Dan decides to wait for his mother at the intersection while Nicole and I ride to town and see if she is there. It is a nice ride to the edge of Great Basin National Park - Nevada's only National Park.

We find the Silver Jack Inn, which is a converted old-timey store and one of 15 buildings in town. The owner hasn't seen Dottie, which isn't good and he only has one room available. He offers to call the Border Inn, which is back on Route 50 eight miles from town, directly on the Nevada-Utah border. They have room so we ride back to meet Dan and see if he found his mom and the van. Just out of town we see Dan riding toward us. He hasn't seen Dottie. So we send him back to the intersection and we take the other road to the motel, thinking someone may have told her about that road.

We get to Route 50 without seeing anyone. It is a gorgeous ride through the Great Basin as the sun is getting low and creating magical light. With about five miles to go, Dottie blasts past us, horn blowing and heading toward the motel. We yell at her but she keeps going. Dan isn't in the van and we don't know what is going on. As we pull into the motel, we see Dottie is there. Nicole and I take some photos at the border sign and Dan rides in. We settle into the Border Motel/Restaurant/Casino for one last night in Nevada.

On the road near Great Basin National Park.

Loren and Nicole as we make it to Utah.