Tuesday, July 18, 2006
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—doing a slow 30mph
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!]](/2006/07/18/rushhour.jpg "Even out here there's traffic")
Rush hour traffic just outside Alamo, Nevada
But once we hit the Extraterrestrial Highway the traffic cleared up and it was smooth sailing to Rachel, Nevada.
![[Yup, the road just kind of vanishes like that]](/2006/07/18/road-to-nowhere.jpg "Yup, the road just kind of vanishes like that")
The road to nowhere Rachel, Nevada.
Along the way, we passed one of the access roads to the mysterious Area 51, 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]](/2006/07/18/area51.jpg "Abondon all hope, ye who enter here")
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 “The Extraterrestrial Highway”) with only three permanent buildings, one being the Little A'Le'Inn, one being the gas station/super market (who's proprietor drives into Las Vegas each week and buys supplies from Wal★Mart) and the third being a thrift store/community center.
![[Earthlings welcome]](/2006/07/18/littlealeinn.jpg "Earthlings welcome")
The infamous Little A'Le'Inn.
![[The vast supermarket in Rachel]](/2006/07/18/quik-pik.jpg "The vast supermarket in Rachel")
The Gas Station/Supermarket
![[Dig the old style gas pump, back when gas was below $1/gallon]](/2006/07/18/gaspump.jpg "Dig the old style gas pump, back when gas was below $1/gallon")
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.
