With Hansie showing proudly his amber engine light we traversed from east to west on "America's Loneliest Road". On certain portions the daily count of vehicles is 500 or so. Life Magazine unkindly coined the phrase in a 1980's article but the state of Nevada made it a tourist slogan. It seemed to have worked, because we encountered many a vehicle on this otherwise desolate stretch of two lane desert road. We detoured in the wrong direction to the city of Ely for 15 miles to get gas and it was good we did so because otherwise we would have run out of gas on this famous road. Although the next city, Austin, just over a high summit was in "gas range", the owner had permanently closed the station and left the premises.
 |
| They show ruins of pony change station |
This is the road where the short lived pony express trail can be found frequently crossing our highway. History tells that the company, employing young unmarried men with preferably no family, only existed for 18 months from April 1860 to October 1861. Riders rode ponies 1800 miles in ten days to deliver mail across these barren lands from pony exchange station to pony exchange station, sometimes chased by Indians. The dangers of this job was the main reason for the hiring standards. Marconi's invention proved too much for the fledgling enterprise. How can one ever outrun the transmission of messages in mere seconds?
 |
| Beautiful building of days long gone |
 |
| More modern neighbor of beautiful building |
On this 409 mile stretch of the highway in the state of Nevada you will find only four townships: Ely, Austin, Eureka and Fallon. We saw them all and slept for one night in Fallon, known as Top Gun town, because of its Air Force base, where pilots train in air to air combat.
 |
| Side by side with old people |
 |
| Elders have more ugly building |
 |
| Sage brush as far as eye reaches |
 |
| Do I exaggerate? |
Ely and Austin were the most authentically preserved towns, Austin was almost a ghost town speck in the desert, and Fallon had lost its charm due to modern lifestyle and rich farmland as a result of 50,000 acres of irrigated pastureland and alfalfa fields. I only recently learned to identify this crop (part of this tours educational value) and cantaloupes, which we did not see at this time of the year.
 |
| Miles of stone made names on roadside |
 |
| Sand dunes are a state monument here |
The sense that one gets traveling hundreds of miles on a straight line two lane desert road climbing and descending summits with endless views of nothing but sage brush and once in awhile bicyclists (where do these idiots come from and where are they going? Actually I know where they are going as there are no side roads, but the real question is where are they overnighting?)
 |
| Lone bicyclist with no luggage! |
Moral of this story: unless you visit Lake Tahoe and or Las Vegas, you have no business being here. Of course one does have to traverse Nevada on the way to somewhere else, as big lorries showed us in passing.
 |
| At least they battle endless miles together |
It was here where I started to hanker for Ghost towns and their stories. Ironically I had to wait until California to see one as you have already read.
Posted with Blogsy
Comments
Post a Comment