(Frank) We're at Stateline in Nevada. We waited in Baker until the hardware store opened hoping to get Alan a set of brake pads, and me a metric bolt. When the store opened they had neither. So Alan used the brake pad I made from an old car tire, and I held my front paniers on with a short bolt we had, and the front fender with tie wraps and tape. When we actually left Baker it was about 10:00 am, and the temperature was 81. We had mild winds from all directions. The worst winds we had were the 10 mph tail winds that exactly matched our uphill speed. For a short time we were having the same over heating problems as some of the cars.
The patches Alan and I put on last night did not stick. To make a very long story short, I ended up changing my front tire 7 times today, but never really had a flat.
(Alan) If you are ever pedalling across the Nevada
desert, be sure to stop at a casino. Even if you don't gamble, it's
worth it for the $29 room (double occupancy) and the $10.50
all-you-can-eat dinner buffet (again that's the price for 2 people).
State Line, just over the California border on highway 15, doesn't
even appear on most maps. It has 3 casinos, 2 gas stations and a
MacDonalds, all sitting out in the desert in the middle of nowhere.
A couple years after our tour it was renamed to
"Primm"
to avoid confustion with another "Stateline NV" farther north.
(Photo of Stateline downloaded from Wikipedia)