ET Highway

After leaving Death Valley, I headed in to Nevada, passing through some little town in the middle of the desert with tall buildings and heavy traffic...

 

Then I found an interesting highway:

 

After a couple hours on the ET Highway, I came to Rachel, NV, home of the "Little Ale-E-Inn".
For the people in Rachel, it's 65 miles to the nearest grocery store or gas station.

The Inn has everything you could want in the ET category.

But best of all, it's right on the edge of the Nellis Air Force Base Test Range.
Also known as Groom Lake.
Also known as Area 51.
:-)
The dirt road below leads 8 miles to the entrance gate which is basically a bunch of warning signs and threats of lethal force, etc. etc.

 

 

I had a meal at the Inn, and asked about camping. They allow people to tent camp free behind the Inn.

There's a huge difference between the desert in Death Valley and the desert here. In DV, I had to wait until 3am to see cool temperatures comfortable for sleeping in a tent. Rachel is about 3000 feet elevation, and after sunset the temperatures fell from the 80's to about 34 degrees. I have personal issues with crawling out of a sleeping bag at sunrise in near-freezing conditions. It's just me.

 

However, the early evening was spectacular. Pilots were showing off in their F-15's over the area. I could hear faint booms in the distance, but I don't know if they were sonic booms or bombing runs.

Google maps satellite view shows the Groom lake area covered with bomb craters.

 

As I sat next to my tent, I saw an F-15 coming from the left, flying low and fast. Then I wasn't sure it was a jet at all - maybe just a raven soaring in, because there was absolutely no sound at all. Not even a hiss. And fighter jest make a bit of noise.

Just when I was convinced that it couldn't be a jet, BOOOOM!!!!

The Mach 1 wave hit the area, frightening the children posing beside the fake flying saucer.

It was awesome.

After a few minutes, two more jets flew toward us, and when they were directly overhead, one of them snapped into a vertical climb and roared off (roared up?).

 

Since Rachel has no WiFi and no Cell service, I had to wait until I reached Tonopah to post this.

Next, I'll be going up around Lake Tahoe into California and Oregon.