Today we are off to Fernley, NV, which is near Reno and Carson City. We hope to be able to do some dancing, a little gambling, and be citified for a short while for once.
Our route is Highway 50, "The Loneliest Road in America". One of the most interesting things we notice is gates and fences made from hundreds of antlers wired together. There is a wood-framed train tunnel cut through the mountain.
Bob gets excited to see Newark Valley, NV, between Ely and Eureka. That's where his kids grew up in Central New York. But there is nothing in sight save for a fence.
We see so many cattle guards where we see no cattle. Maybe at one time the ranches were bigger? Sometimes the locations make no sense. Could they be for some other purpose?
Everywhere we go, we see rocky outcroppings with a single tree hanging by one root, or a volcanic cone with a single tree precariously perched, or a boulder with a single tree growing out of the rock.
They all remind me of the art of my friend Ben Marlan. We call him "Master of the tiny landscape". It seems each tree has a story to tell, of survival against impossible odds, or of the creature that carried its seed there, or the storm that brought the burl from which it was formed.
Rain hanging from the clouds looks like wispy gray hair.
Austin, NV is the dividing line where US 50's name changes from Altman Street to US 50 on our GPS. This is the old Pony Express Trail, from 1860-1881.
We wonder who delivers the mail to these isolated towns off US 50 where there are anywhere from one to four mailboxes every 50 miles.
The Fairview Peak Earthquake Faults are 100 miles from Reno and Carson City off US 50.
There is a sign we can't interpret: US Navy Centroid Facility. There are low-flying planes and large areas of plain, with messages written at the side of the road with rocks. We imagine those are intended for the pilots to view from the air.
Bob thinks this is a B-17 bombing range for practice, based on the planes he sees.
Along the road there are scattered mining shacks and drilling or digging rigs.
We pass Sand Mountain, and a sign that says "Fallon, The Oasis of Nevada". Is it really? This is a good location for prisons - there are 3 state prisons here.
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