nevada

driving across nevada was a blast. the route used to transect the state brought me from nowhere to nowhere with nothing in between. i had food, 5 gallons of water, and plenty of warm clothes. this was the pervasive thought running through my head the entire drive: if I were to breakdown, i'd be ok.

about halfway through the state i ran into the rain that was headed towards the grand canyon.  it was pretty crazy to have such a huge downpour in the desert just roll on past me.

i took a drive down “extraterrestrial highway” which was neat because it just kinda popped up in my trip. i did not see any aliens though but i did meet a lady who claims to have been abducted 3 times. she seemed perfectly normal in her airplane hanger selling alien paraphernalia and tequila in a bottle shaped like an alien.

my intended destination was a small town called Hawthorne at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains. i arrived just as the sun was setting and this was possibly the saddest town i've ever stayed in. when i say that i am including all the third world countries i've been to.

the town is filled with motels and all but a few are closed down and boarded up. those not boarded up have shattered glass from the windows covering the parking lot. this place borders a highway and along the highway is a few big box stores and a shell gas station. this seemed to be one of the few places habitable in this town. there was a dollar store, a safeway, and a pizza joint. as for the rest of the town, nearly everything that wasn't touching the highway was abandoned and dead. the exception being a bar, another pizza place, a war/veterans memorial museum, and El Capitan Resort Casino. one of the most tragic things i've ever seen was a lady walking out of El Capitan looking rough at 6:30am.

after stopping at numerous motels i found one that was functioning. i was one of three guests staying there and the building was obviously not built as a hotel but some sort of military housing with concrete walls. when i asked the owner what people did for employment in the area he informed me that the town is a storage cache of weapons and ammunition for the army. the largest ammunition cache in the world as a matter of fact. 2,427 bunkers. but apparently the military is no longer using weapons... or they've used up all the ammunition that was stored in this town because it's quite obvious that business isn't booming.

you can see some of the bunkers here in the background:

the town of Hawthorne NV:

I awoke the next day intent on heading to the Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemite.