The Nevada Drive
As I’m writing this, Melissa and I are on our way to Salt Lake City. We’re driving (well, actually, Melissa is driving, because driving and blogging at the same time is not recommended for your health). Nevada is indeed barren—there isn’t anything here but pavement and a few cars in the foreground, brush in the mid-ground, and mountains in the background.
It’s interesting to see the contrasts of Route 80—the clogged arteries in the New York-New Jersey area that’s infested with commuting automobiles honking their way to work and back. Even in San Francisco the severity of traffic does not equal New York’s—true we did hit traffic, but we did move on. And here in Nevada—the only interstate in the state that does not cross Las Vegas, towns are fifty miles apart and have names like “Battle Mountain” (Castle Grayskull, anyone?) and “Winnemucca.”
And yet, there is a sense of tranquility that comes when surrounded by wide stretches of open land as far as the eye can see. So far, there are only two other stretches of road that equate with this level of lack of civilization—western Texas from San Antonio to El Paso along I-10 and Arizona and New Mexico’s US-180 as we headed to Flagstaff.
We plugged in our Garmin and the distance between Reno and Salt Lake City was 510 miles, a distance record. Looking at the states to come, I’m sure we’ll break that record soon enough.
July 28, 2009 at 9:34 pm
He-Man says he appreciates the shoutout, haha.
…That sense of tranquility you spoke of is undoubtedly the same one we got driving the Old Denali Highway in AK. If you guys can make it up there at some point in your lives, you’ll be doing yourselves a great service!
Don’t we live in a truly awesome country?
July 28, 2009 at 11:20 pm
What’s remarkable is how vast and empty this country is. It’s beautiful and enormous. Definitely fun to drive through!
July 29, 2009 at 12:18 am
I would like it noted that Brian was not driving at the time. I would have classified Nevada as more monotonous than tranquil. There was absolutely nothing to look at.