Nevada

Last time we were wandering in Nevada, we were waiting for some aliens to visit us in a windy desert at Area 51 a couple of years ago. This time we crisscrossed Nevada looking for other treasures it may hide.

At the beginning of our journey seven months ago, we were afraid of vast unpopulated areas with no cell service, afraid of small towns in the middle of nowhere without a police department or a hospital. All our lives we have lived either in large cities or next to them.

I expected to feel the familiar discomfort when we left for Nevada from the San Francisco Bay Area again. The road we took, some call it the Loneliest Road in America, had only a couple of towns along the 320 mile stretch. However, this time I stopped worrying so much about how lonely we are here in Nevada.

The travel experience made us realize that it is very unlikely that:

• we would get robbed since there is actually no one out here and we have nothing that valuable,
• die of hunger or thirst (we have plenty of cereal) or
• run out of gas.

On the contrary, the people we interact with day-to-day outside of the large cities are almost universally nice and helpful.

We have become so comfortable with traveling that we even stopped reserving places to stay in advance sometimes. Maybe it's because it is the winter season, but we have never had a problem finding an RV park at the last minute, even on this lonely road with 70+ miles between towns of only a coupe of hundred residents. Fingers crossed that we do not get stuck in the future.

After driving for 320 miles east on one road and another 250 miles south, we arrived at Las Vegas. There were two really amazing parks near the city: Valley of Fire and Red Rock. I have been to Vegas before, but never heard of these parks until now. The money you can make from tourists at state parks is negligible compared to casinos so information about the treasures of nature are limited.

To sum up, Nevada is a lonely state, but driving on the Loneliest Road in America was romantic and it did not feel lonely at all with the three of us.