Reno, NV
We are back home in Reno after a great trip across the wide open spaces of Nevada. We decided to try a different route back and see what Rachel, NV looked like (more on that later). Left early Saturday and made a few stops for gas and food before heading north on I-15. At first glance that might not make sense since it heads northeast and we live northwest, but it was the start of new route.
As we were heading north on US 93 about 30 miles north of Las Vegas, we saw a sign for Coyote Springs Golf Course. Intrigued, we turned around (takes a while to slow down from 70 mph) and went down the side road.
Turns out that it is a Jack Nicklaus course which opened in 2008 and was supposed to be part of a planned development out in the desert. The developers got involved in a water rights fight with Clark County and they are still working on getting the development built. Talked with the people there about the golf course and decided it was too crowded on a Saturday morning to play, but it is definitely an option for our next trip down. I checked and it's even on Golf Now at a decent rate.
Continued north on US 93 to NV 375 which led us to Rachel, NV. Rachel is a small town ITMON which has gotten a lot of attention lately because of the Storm Area 51 project. Someone decided it was time to gather north of Area 51 and march across the desert to discover the alleged aliens who are being held there. As you can see from the below picture, there's not much around Rachel.
However, they have survived over the years because of their ties to Area 51 and the alien connection. There's not much there except for a small cafe (no gas station), several motel rooms in trailers, and a few buildings. On the sign below welcoming you to Rachel, the sign reads - Population Human Yes - Aliens - ?. The truck parked outside the cafe welcomes you to the Ale Inn (clever, eh). The big pole contains a sign which has a picture of a space ship and the words Self Park.
We stopped for mid day snack and talked to the folks. Most of the people in there were tourists like us who were just curious about the place. Didn't get a chance to talk much about the upcoming event, but we'll check the news reports for what happens. I'm not sure that the people who are supposedly organizing the Storm Area 51 event know what the territory looks like. There are no roads to Area 51 which is way south of Rachel and there's just miles and miles of desert all around. It's also an Air Force gunnery range, so it might not be safe to traverse the desert. The below picture was taken as we left Rachel and emphases the emptiness of the area.
The route we took home had no towns (except Rachel and a few similar size mining towns) between Las Vegas and Austin (on US 50 - the loneliest highway in the US). Our route took us almost to Tonopah, but then headed north to Austin. One thing about the route we took was that there was almost no traffic and very few trucks as opposed to the route south on US 95. It was a little longer and we coasted into Fallon on fumes. I think the 16.4 gallons we bought was the most we have ever gotten at one time. The driver was a little concerned about the needle entering the red zone and then the Empty Gas gauge coming on; however, the navigator was not worried (although there was very little conversation until we got to the gas station in Fallon). Must have been because we were so engrossed in the audio book.
Fun way home, but a little longer trip than the usual way; however, we arrived back around 7:00 - still daylight. Good to be home and a little earlier than we had planned because we decided to skip Dan Marino's dinner - it was just too crowded because of the DefCon convention.
In case you haven't guessed - ITMON stands for In the Middle of Nowhere. It's a good acronym for most of our route home.
As we were heading north on US 93 about 30 miles north of Las Vegas, we saw a sign for Coyote Springs Golf Course. Intrigued, we turned around (takes a while to slow down from 70 mph) and went down the side road.
Turns out that it is a Jack Nicklaus course which opened in 2008 and was supposed to be part of a planned development out in the desert. The developers got involved in a water rights fight with Clark County and they are still working on getting the development built. Talked with the people there about the golf course and decided it was too crowded on a Saturday morning to play, but it is definitely an option for our next trip down. I checked and it's even on Golf Now at a decent rate.
Continued north on US 93 to NV 375 which led us to Rachel, NV. Rachel is a small town ITMON which has gotten a lot of attention lately because of the Storm Area 51 project. Someone decided it was time to gather north of Area 51 and march across the desert to discover the alleged aliens who are being held there. As you can see from the below picture, there's not much around Rachel.
However, they have survived over the years because of their ties to Area 51 and the alien connection. There's not much there except for a small cafe (no gas station), several motel rooms in trailers, and a few buildings. On the sign below welcoming you to Rachel, the sign reads - Population Human Yes - Aliens - ?. The truck parked outside the cafe welcomes you to the Ale Inn (clever, eh). The big pole contains a sign which has a picture of a space ship and the words Self Park.
We stopped for mid day snack and talked to the folks. Most of the people in there were tourists like us who were just curious about the place. Didn't get a chance to talk much about the upcoming event, but we'll check the news reports for what happens. I'm not sure that the people who are supposedly organizing the Storm Area 51 event know what the territory looks like. There are no roads to Area 51 which is way south of Rachel and there's just miles and miles of desert all around. It's also an Air Force gunnery range, so it might not be safe to traverse the desert. The below picture was taken as we left Rachel and emphases the emptiness of the area.
The route we took home had no towns (except Rachel and a few similar size mining towns) between Las Vegas and Austin (on US 50 - the loneliest highway in the US). Our route took us almost to Tonopah, but then headed north to Austin. One thing about the route we took was that there was almost no traffic and very few trucks as opposed to the route south on US 95. It was a little longer and we coasted into Fallon on fumes. I think the 16.4 gallons we bought was the most we have ever gotten at one time. The driver was a little concerned about the needle entering the red zone and then the Empty Gas gauge coming on; however, the navigator was not worried (although there was very little conversation until we got to the gas station in Fallon). Must have been because we were so engrossed in the audio book.
Fun way home, but a little longer trip than the usual way; however, we arrived back around 7:00 - still daylight. Good to be home and a little earlier than we had planned because we decided to skip Dan Marino's dinner - it was just too crowded because of the DefCon convention.
In case you haven't guessed - ITMON stands for In the Middle of Nowhere. It's a good acronym for most of our route home.
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