may 25, 2003
loneliest road in america


Today I began the long drive back to Norman. Usually I take I-40 on my way back to Oklahoma, but due to the extremely high gas prices in southeastern CA, as well as a desire to see different scenery, I took an alternate route. I left Turlock around 1pm, headed north on Hwy 99 to Sacramento, then took US 50 east to Ely NV - where I spent the night after driving 10 hours and 532 miles. If anyone ever wants to go somewhere they will not be bothered by anyone else, you're unlikely to find a place to meet your needs better than central Nevada. The entire 250 mile stretch of US 50 between Fallon and Ely is a two lane road which alternates between salt flats, rugged mountains, and desert scrubland. The few signs of human civilization to be found between Fallon and Ely are the tiny towns of Austin and Eureka, each almost 100 miles apart from each other. Although few humans will disturb you on this road, travelers do need to keep an eye out on the wildlife. A deer made a sudden decision to run in front of my car about 10 miles west of Austin - which left me little time to react. I just missed it though, for which I am glad - as this was about twice the size of those puny Plains deer. They sure make em BIG out here.....must be all that radiation from the old nuclear test sites.......


Marine air continued to pour into the valley today, producing this unusually clear display of the Diablo Range as seen from Salida CA. Enough upslope flow and cool air aloft allowed some small cumulus clouds to develop over the Diablo Range - which also is not very common in late May.
It's not really that rare to find snow on the ground in the Sierra Nevada in late May though - but this is still quite a bit for the 7100 foot elevation, just 1/2 mile west of Echo Summit.
No new snow had fallen here in three weeks, so the snow on the ground was heavily packed. This made conditions perfect for making snowballs.
Strong winds kick up salt from the salt flats east of Fallon, obscuring the distant hills slightly. Blowing salt...I wonder how you would code that in METAR? If blowing dust is BLDU, would blowing salt be BLNACL???


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