Snippits from Lost Wages

Still have yet to get the write up started, so yet another snippit from notes I took:

Road [US-93 in Nevada —Editor] actually has more> traffic than I expected.

> * * * * *

Stuck in traffic just outside> Alamo [1]—doing a slow 30mph (Miles per Hour)> A wide load spanning both> lanes is slowing us down

> * * * * *

Bumper to bumper traffic> outside Alamo—400 population.> Rush hour 8:30am

> * * * * *

Alamo has a motel> with showers and telephone.

“Notes from page 36 of “Viva Lost Wages” notebook”

Yup, we hit rush hour traffic in a town of 400 along US-93 with only two towns between Las Vegas and the turn to Rachel.

[Even out here there's traffic!] [2]

Rush hour traffic just outside Alamo, Nevada

But once we hit the Extraterrestrial Highway [3] the traffic cleared up and it was smooth sailing to Rachel, Nevada [4].

[Yup, the road just kind of vanishes like that] [5]

The road to [DELETED-nowhere-DELETED] Rachel, Nevada.

Along the way, we passed one of the access roads to the mysterious Area 51 [6], which in this case, is a one lane dirt road heading off into nowhere (in the photo below, it's the white line on the right side of the picture).

[Abandon all hope, ye who enter here] [7]

Area 51 is just beyond the mountains in the distance, at the end of the dirt road.

We nearly missed Rachel as it's a small cluster of trailers on the south side of State 375 (aka (also known as) “The Extraterrestrial Highway”) with only three permanent buildings, one being the Little A'Le'Inn [8], one being the gas station/super market (who's proprietor drives into Las Vegas each week and buys supplies from Wal★Mart [9]) and the third being a thrift store/community center.

[Earthlings welcome] [10]

The infamous Little A'Le'Inn.

[The vast supermarket in Rachel] [11]

The Gas Station/Supermarket

[Dig the old style gas pump, back when gas was below $1/gallon] [12]

The old style gas pump. So old it doesn't have display dollars, hence the handwritten “2.” Gas was $2.89/gallon (this was last year—it's probably higher this year).

For me, this was probably the highlight of the trip, even though we only spent about an hour, hour and a half in Rachel. The next time I'm in Nevada, I would definitely like to spend more time out here.

[1] http://www.lincolncountynevada.com/alamo.html

[2] /boston/2006/07/18/rushhour.jpg

[3] http://www.conman.org/people/spc/about/2006/et-highway.html

[4] http://www.rachel-nevada.com/

[5] /boston/2006/07/18/road-to-nowhere.jpg

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51

[7] /boston/2006/07/18/area51.jpg

[8] http://www.littlealeinn.com/

[9] http://www.walmart.com/

[10] /boston/2006/07/18/littlealeinn.jpg

[11] /boston/2006/07/18/quik-pik.jpg

[12] /boston/2006/07/18/gaspump.jpg

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