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View Full Version : Crossing Over - Part 1.



Formula Jr
11-19-2002, 12:04 PM
Here is told the story of a boy who bought and retrieved a rare Donzi, bought over the internet in New Hampshire, and then towed well over 3000 miles to the Pacific Northwest. This was not exactly a brainy thing to do. But I guess I just got alittle pissed at the lack of selection here in the land of few Donzis, and on a night when there was more Donziitis than sense swimming in my brain, I made the leap into true Donzi ownership with out any reservation as to the conscequenses of that decision. Though nothing went according to plan, I would not trade the experience for anything. Everyone should make leaps of faith once and awhile. It keeps you young and in some small way, opens a window to immortality. These three weeks on the road, seem to have lasted forever. And in the doing, somehow, the clock of normal life was made to run slower with more to fill the senses.

Before I left, I saw something extraordinary. Low in the sky at early evening, was a huge comet/meteor coming in from due South. It was bright with a beautiful halo comet tail surrounding it like a ring. But you could tell it was traveling in a great arc. So I'm standing there looking at it for about fifteen seconds when the hair on the back of my head starts to stand on edge. Its heading right for me and its not burning up. Just as I thought to get a camera, it blew up like a snowball hitting thick plate glass. The pieces looked just like snow flakes swirling into nothingness; filling up about 1/8 of the sky. I waited for the sound of the blast but nothing ever came. Its one of those things you only see once in a life time.

I should have learned by now that I never use all the stuff I bring on a cross country trip. The whole van was stuffed with clothing, food, tools, camping supplies and boating gear. There was barely enough room for Henry. But everything made sense to pack, so thats how it goes. I was also anticipating some time on the Bay with my new GT21 baby. So a large part of the pack was boat stuff. But as you will read, that didn't happen with this GT.

The night before leaving, I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn't find a new way to travel across. I have done all the major routes and most of the up down corridors. So I was listening to Art Bell on Coast to Coast and decided, what the heck, Area 51 and the Extraterrestral Hiway is as good an in-route destination as any and I've always wanted to see Hoover Dam. Any route north of 40 is going to be too damn cold.

First stop was to drive back into town for gas. Open stations at night are few and far where I"m going. So I'm gabbing with the gas attendent, you can't pump your own in "Or-he-Gun", and he asks where I'm heading. "Oh, I'm heading out 58, cross the pass then 97, then South to K-Falls where I'll pick up 140 East to Lake View, then 95 South to Winnemucca, then...." "Where you going?" He asks. "Maryland." I say. "The State?" He replies with wide eyes."
"Yup. The State."
"Man, thats like 30 hours of driving."
"A little more than that. But whos counting."

Its actually about 62 hours of drive time at 60 MPH. Only four days if you can fight off the shadows and ghosts of sleep deprivation that happen on 800 mile legs. But I can't drive like that anymore and Henry Dog is of no help at relieving me since he keeps failing the written portion of the driver's test.

News Radio yammers on about how D.C. can now rest in peace. Police have taken into custody a White Male, Ex-marine with a white van. "I think we have our man....... We're pretty sure...", etc. This goes on for three hours till another shot rings out at a Home Depot Parking Garage.

I have to admit that the area I live in is breath-takingly beautiful. Hiway 58 East along Lookout Point Reservoir and while climbing the Willamette Pass is aflame with the colors of autum at sunset. Just over the Pass, are all the familar crystal clear lakes: Odell, Crescent, Clear and Waldo. Magic places with remote camp sites and snow covered peaks in the distance. Hiway 58 takes me to Hiway 97. This is the great mid-state causeway and its freaken cold, flat and so straight I was thinking of letting Henry drive. If they had turn tables at both ends of 97, you could sell cars without steering systems, they are completely un-necessary. Mt. Scott - now there's a proper name for a Mountain - and Mt. Mcloughlan are lit up by the moon and the beams are brightly reflecting all along Klamath Lake. At K-Falls, I top off the gas tank, as there isn't an open station, for another 100 miles.

Route 140, between Klamath Falls and Lake View, is a part of America that time forgot. In these small towns of Oline, Dairy, Beatty and Bly, you can still find barber shops with red and white striped poles, gas attendents named Goober that will check your oil and a former Al Qaeda terrorist camp - something Andy Taylor and Aunt Bee would never have imagined.

The talking heads on the radio are breaking in every 1/2 hour with more little tid bits of wisdom regarding the sniper. "Most likely a White Male, 19 to 35 in age, driving a van.... bla bla bla...." meanwhile, Mohamad and Malvo are waved thru their first road block. The first of three they will be waved thru till they are caught by a guy driving a White Van.

From Lake View heading East, you enter one of the most remote and least populated regions of the lower U.S.: From 2am to 6 in the morning, I didn't pass a single car. At Winnemucca, I top off the gas again and head South to Hiway 80. Hiway 80 presents a stark contrast to the world I was driving in. Interstate 80 is a modern Hiway, designed to get you someplace else with as little interaction as possible. I follow it till Battle Mountain, where a less traveled road to Austin sings its siren song.

Battle Mountain is a town crushed under the sheer weight of its own uglyness. But they do have a nice golf coarse amidst the crippled mining equipment. The `305 to Austin is also isolated in an extreme way. The whole region seems to be owned by the Echo Bay Copper Mining Co. and cattle ranchers. This is the climb to the high desert with rolling tumbleweeds and cows that leave dust trails you can see three miles distant.

At the end of 305 is Austin and the remnants of a Cavalry Fort and relay station of the Pony Express. But the most interesting part of Austin is the Cemetery. Even in Death mankind holds dearly to his ideas of segregation. There's a Catholic section, A Protestant section and a Masonic Section. Gates within gates and fences within fences, all to mark off with clarity individual plots of ownership for all time. Under a massive block of carved marble lay Col. Alexander MacTanny. Native of Scottland. Born 1833. Receivift by The Lord 1875. And over there is Billy Hinds with his still present wooden head plank. Born Canada. 1862. Died here of "inebriation." Aged 15 years. And then it just struck me, how odd it must have been to come all the way to this place, to not only live, work and die, but to choose Austin Cemetery to wait for the Resurrection. These were truely people, that had no past or roots to go back to.

At Austin, I take Route 50 East to 376 South through the Toiybe National Forest: An amusing name since there are no trees. Gas is up to $1.71 a gallon for regular at Smokey Joe's Gas Station. In this case, "Joe" is an attractive 30 some odd year old women, and she does'nt smoke.

Near Tonopah, I turn East on Hiway 6 to Warmsprings. About five miles in, there is the entrance to the Tonopah Test Range. This is the first of many military entrance roads that are not on any maps. And these roads are busy with heavy truck traffic going in and out. Someone should tell Sadam we're not playing poker.

I turn due South onto route 375 - The Extraterrestrial Highway. Which I shall continue in Part 2.
:D

ToonaFish
11-19-2002, 12:38 PM
Excellent tale... hurry up with the XFile leg!

Bunches,

Celene "betting Henry caught the snipers"

boxy
11-19-2002, 01:29 PM
Owen when you finally get around to chronicling all of your adventures, make sure I'm first on the list to buy the book.
Awaiting the next installment...

Ranman
11-19-2002, 03:06 PM
Owen, Fine work my boy! The satire, humor, irony... I really wish I paid more attention in English class. Awaiting the next installment.

EricG
11-21-2002, 09:57 AM
Thank you Owen! Although I hate it when I burst out laughing here at work...it makes the people that work for me wonder what's going on :rolleyes:

I anxiously await the next installment.

EG

Terry0341
11-22-2002, 12:35 AM
Owen, I have not read something that interesting in a long time! keep it comming! You really should write a book :)

Sagbay32
11-22-2002, 06:25 AM
Owen, Excellant command of the pen ( er.. keys).

Put me on your book list as well.

Mike in White Lake