4:30 PM The road ahead demands our attention, but we love to dawdle, to check out one more thing, like the unusual Lincoln Highway marker on the corner by the courthouse. It says this is the General Motors Section of the Lincoln Highway. Hmm. As usual, we spend too much time in Eureka.
5:45 PM We wind our way down through the hills, riding the twisting and turning part of Route 50 through the little town of Austin, NV, which obviously holds many more interesting little businesses, some handsome churches, lots of old stone structures and several unusual motels. One story after another. We would like to have time to check out all these towns along 50, but we really want to be in Reno tonight.
The road straightens out again, and we’re sailing at 75 mph across another stretch of Nevada desert. This one has some rolling hills covered in sagebrush. There’s some sort of flowering plant that seems to be concentrated along the sides of the road that’s blooming bright yellow right now.
The road is long and straight and empty again.
6:50 PM Jarrett says we’re on the longest straightest stretch of highway yet. It’s still Route 50, the loneliest road, and I’ll have to say that we’ve seen few other cars. The sun is getting low in the sky, filling the car with intense bright light. If I knew where my sunglasses were, I’d put them on.
Jarrett has been driving all day. I think that’s a first. Usually we switch off more often, but he says he feels fine and he does seem to enjoy the task. Bob shoots often out the side window at this hour because the setting sun makes shooting forward through the windshield too difficult. The head-on sunlight as we drive westward shows every smear, wipe, fleck of dust, bug-squash and whatever else has collected on the windshield.
I’m typing on my laptop in the back seat, trying to watch the changing landscape too.
7:30 PM We’re coming into the town of Fallon, and Bob is itching to stop for a tripod shot now in the golden light while we’re still on the loneliest road. We haven’t stopped since we left Eureka. But the road doesn’t seem lonely at all here. It’s a thriving town.
When you’re on those empty, stark stretches of solitary highway and desert, you think there’s no civilization anywhere, but then you drive into a town like Fallon with all the fast food chains, muffler joints, big box stores and it’s always a disappointment. You would have to weed through the forest of franchises to get to anything really interesting, local and/or tasty. Give us the sporadic and historic small towns. We go on.