After being on the road for some four thousand miles we were hit with “civilization” in the form of highways, casinos and tons of people. It was the culture shock in reno that temporarily snapped our peaceful and relaxing ride.

We rode out of the Redwoods and into the almond groves of northern California to work our way east. The ride took us through the mountains and valleys that most people don’t relate to as California. We picked up 20 and ran along Clear Lake which was just spectacular. Picking up I 5, we header for Sacramento to jump on I 80 east to Reno.

Coming out of the mountains an into Nevada was an awesome ride. New pavement and the sun at our backs made for a smooth ride. Once in Reno we headed for our favorite Casino, the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. We had been there before for a rally several years ago and fell in love. This year was no different. We decided to stay two nights just to give the old bones a bit of a rest. I did this with a trip to the spa, and Mike P hit the Casino floor.

Little did we know but we ran into an annual motorcycle event where every September, thousands of bikes descend on Northern Nevada to celebrate “Street Vibrations”, filling the streets of Reno, Tahoe, Carson City and Virginia City. Our bikes were surrounded by hundreds of Harleys mostly from California.

We were in motorcycle heaven and spent time during the evening to walk through and check out the bikes. A lot of stock bikes were there but also a few custom bikes that were just amazing.

That night we met up with my “long lost cousin” for dinner. See our family is very small and frankly I didn’t know there was any relatives outside of the New Jersey area until Facebook came along. It was fun to catch up and find out what others in my family are doing. After a nice dinner and conversation, we called it a night. Tomorrow’s another day and our plan is to head to the canyons of southern Utah which should take a couple days.