Are We Alone?

At dinner we had a meeting and decided we have had enough of the desert.  Dave figured out the shortest way through the desert and we would be traveling on some roads that were new to us.  This is difficult since I think we've been on most of them.  This day was going to be really hot so we made sure to leave early.  The towns are few and far between so we would stop for breakfast in Caliente, NV at the Branding Iron.

The way we (actually it's mostly Dave) do this is by using Google Maps and mapping a route.  I honestly think Dave has all the roads memorized by now and just checks in with Google Maps. Then we Google the various towns to see if they have services (gas, restaurants).  We use TripAdvisor and Yelp to make our selection.  Sometimes this is really easy.......Caliente has two places to eat.

Our first new road of the day is Highway 375, aka the Extraterrestrial Highway  We didn't see any low flying aircraft, even though there were plenty of signs with that warning.

 The one and only stop is in Rachel, NV......the Little A'Le'Inn in Area 51 is VERY interesting.

I wish I had taken photos of the owner, Pat, and her two friends....and some of the stuff they were selling.

And yet another rest stop.....with a gravel lot.....and fresh toilets, even though they're not "flush".  Don't laugh, these are very welcome sites on a long, lonesome highway.  A comfort stop.....stretch our legs.....remove extra layers of clothing....drink some cold water (which we are grateful that Donna and Bret didn't leave their ice chest in the hotel room on the very first night like we did...our most favorite ice chest that we've had for years).

Refreshed, we can soldier on to Tonopah, NV!

Note*** Did you notice that this post is out of order?  I was just testing you.  It really should have been BEFORE the Tonopah post.  Let's pretend it was......