Dreamland
one who has been to rural Nevada has come a lot closer to another planet. The desert vistas, jagged-edged with weathered rock formations and sparsely spotted (if at all) with exotic vegetation, make a perfect backdrop to any tale of science fiction — or science fact, as the case may be.
“I landed in Las Vegas thinking that I knew what to expect, but it had been two decades since I’d last been there, and the city had changed in countless ways…very few of them for the better. If I wanted to gamble, I’d just log on to an online casino USA. So I thought I’d quiet my inner complainer with a leisurely ride out to the desert.
“My original plan was to drive by Lake Mead and Boulder Dam (or is it Hoover Dam? I can never remember which came first) and stop at a park called the Valley of Fire which has some neat mineral deposits. However, while I was at Valley of Fire I read something about Area 51 and made up my mind to drive up there instead.
“It was a long trip, and my mood began to sour after the second consecutive hour of dreary desert scenery. I’d come in the fall, and the sky and rock seemed to be made of the same grayish-beige material, like once-soggy khaki left to crack and disintegrate.
“I stopped in at the Little Alienn in Rachel and talked a little with the waitress, but mainly about horses and online slots. I’d forgotten how early night came on in the desert in the fall, so I had to get moving if I didn’t want to be driving down a dirt road in the dark.
“I turned off the highway when I saw a mailbox, totally covered in graffiti (some of it pretty funny), next to a completely nondescript road. It was very dusty and cold, and quiet. There were cows right by the road, and I felt strangely sorry for them as well as worried that they would simply move into the road and block me — from going further or going back, I’m not sure which…
“I expected to drive up to some old farmhouse any second, but I just passed more dirt roads and more cows. There were some odd little devices sticking up out of the ground, but I have no clue what they were…the rancher could use them for something totally normal, for all I know.
“Eventually I got to a sign that forbade taking pictures and said ‘use of unauthorized force recommended’ or something like that. That was it. The drive home, in the dark, was even worse.”
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