August 31, 1997, near Ely, NV: The Great Basin includes many practically abandoned highways, great for high speed cruising. Open rangelands are punctuated by thin, sparsely vegetated mountain ranges. Nevada, by the way, has the funkiest "open range" highway signs (with an outline of a cow that looks like it's gonna dance) I've ever seen.

August 31, 1997, Ruth, NV: One of the world's largest open mines (or "strip mine") has an observation deck above it all. Yep, it's huge, and worth a visit. I think this general area was the inspiration for Stephen King's "Desperation".

August 31, 1997, Austin, NV: I dropped by the Chevron station to buy gas. It was nearly two dollars a gallon--can you say "only gas stop around"? When I asked the cigarette smoking lady at the counter "Do you get many complaints about the price?", she replied "Not since I stopped listening to them." Remote the place is.

August 31, 1997, near Austin, NV: Stayed overnight in the Toyaibe National Forest. The vegetation was stark, the place felt very dry, and I camped next to a tiny stream. I guess you can fish in tiny streams, though, because someone caught a fish just a couple minutes into fishing there the next morning. The campsite was embedded in a thin, long mountain range.

September 1, 1997, west of Fallon, NV: Yes, there really are giant dried lake beds out here. They're really, really flat.

September 1, 1997, Fallon, NV: There are casinos here, and it's like they put the grodiest parts of Vegas and copied them here. I tried to get a World Famous Pastrami Sandwich at the Bird House casino, but it was "closed 'til 3:30." I've never seen a casino in Vegas which isn't open at lunchtime, or even early breakfast. Yeah, I know Vegas; I was part of the unruly mob descending on the place in June, which is another (much more interesting) story.

September 1, 1997, east of Sacramento, CA: An unmistakable return to California finds me grinding at 15 mph on I-80 with too many other weekend travelers.

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