Well, it was only a matter of time, wasn't it? I've talked about it a few times in the blog, but never solidly committed to a timeframe for our departure from the city of Sin because our intended launch date kept changing. Ironically, we found ourselves packing our vehicles (a cargo van and my long-suffering champ of a Volvo) at what is the starting point of most of the best weather you'll see in Vegas and the coincidental start of poopie weather seasons throughout much of the rest of the United States. These things. I'd intended to leave a month or two earlier, when the stresses of working with someone I found extremely difficult to be around were pressing harder upon me and making my day to day more difficult, and the heat was at its peak. Things timed out so that my original plans fizzled out, but the delay didn't deter us from committing to our departure, even when unexpected car-repairs caught us off guard days before our lease was up on our little studio near downtown, or even poorly-timed trips to the DMV didn't stop us.
With everything we owned stacked up, buckled in, or otherwise crammed into our two vehicles, along with our two remaining rodents (Oliver and Buttercup) riding alongside us in each of our cars as copilot, we hit the road. There's something about going on a road trip, embarking on that journey from one state to another, that makes your booty tingle, doesn't it? Maybe that's just me, then. From Vegas, we headed North East towards the extra-terrestrial highway. It's a good 2 hours or so to get there, and we left rather late in the day, so by the time we found our way to the Alien Research Center it had closed up for the day. Bummer! Even so, we had quite a ways to go yet, so after snapping a photo for posterity's sake, we loaded back into the car and started off again. There were a few issues along the way, of course...like the realization that my reverse no longer wanted to engage, even though I'd just paid a shop in Vegas $650 to supposedly take care of that problem for me...womp womp. We had to push my old girl out of a narrow driveway when I panicked and turned too early, missing the turn-off for the ET highway in the dark, which was really nerve-wracking in the middle of the night! Once we got back on track and found our way to the extraterrestrial highway proper, it was pretty much a straight shot through to Tonopah and then up North towards Reno. The drive along the ET highway was overall pretty uneventful, aside from a close encounter with some large black cows who'd slowly been meandering their way across a highway with a speed limit of 70 mph. Luckily for everyone involved, there were no injuries or issues, just some serious spooking! It's one of America's most desolate highways, so I was a little nervous about any potential mechanical issues arising, as who's going to stop and help you? During the hours we drove through central Nevada, we barely passed anyone else along the road, and at many points the highway was barely even illuminated due to the absence of streetlights. It's pretty intense driving late at night, especially knowing you're driving through Area 51 territory. The base itself is, of course, off limits to civilians, so you won't be casually rolling up to any barbed wire gates but when the only lights are the stars above and the low-glow of your headlights, it's hard not to let your mind wander to all those stories...
Keep adventuring my friends!
💗
XOXO,
NAU
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