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October 4, 1999
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If I thought the road to
Tonopah was desolate, then I qualify for the "you ain’t seen nothin’
yet" award. It’s 170 miles from Tonopah to Ely, and there are no populated towns
and just one gas station/store in between. At a point 15 miles east of Tonopah, I turned
around and took a photo; it was at the first curve in the road since leaving town. Over
the next few days, I would find many scenes just like that. This part of Nevada consists
of mountain ranges running North/South with broad valleys (15 to 25 miles wide) in
between. It’s kind of like this: climb up a mountain pass for 10 miles, go down the
other side for 10 miles, go through relatively flat land for 10 miles, then start all over
again.
It is kind of neat to look
down the road at these long straight stretches though. In many places, what you see are
three lines heading off into the distance – the road in the middle, a line of
telephone poles (16 to the mile) on one side of the road, and a fence line on the other.
Also, 20 feet to either side of the roadbed you see sand, gravel and weeds (tumbleweeds?),
with the weeds now turning beautiful pastel shades of purple, pink, orange, yellow and
green. |
I
stopped at a nice rest stop for lunch. It would have been real nice if it would
have had water, but it didn’t. Two Megalithic Motorhomes were already parked there
when I arrived. Guess how many cold drinks they offered me – yep, same as the number
of big trucks on the average pancake.
About the 30 mile mark (from
Tonopah), I passed a McDonald’s french fry carton – someone is either a slow
eater or a fast driver (in addition to being a slob).
I spent the night at another
rest stop. This one had drinking water, but no restroom facilities – go figure. |
  
  
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(Great
Adventures to Scenic Places)
