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Heading north out of Tonopah, US95 is co-signed with US6 for about 40 miles. The road is good, traffic is light and the desert is immense. Even at high speeds, the mountains seem unreachable.
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Turing north away from US6, it's still 60 miles of nothing but desert and distant mountains before reaching Hawthorne, NV. I don't think I saw so much as an historical marker on the way.
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Approaching Hawthorne, I saw thousands of low structures in the desert, which a quick search indicated are ammunition storage bunkers for the US Army. There's a huge military installation in Hawthorne – covering some 226 square miles – that you can easily research if you are interested.
Leaving Hawthorne, I got stuck in a very long line of vehicles following a slow moving, immensely oversized vehicle. The 80 miles north to Fallon, NV, were a mind-numbing two hour stint!
Fallon, NV, is rightly called "The oasis of Nevada" due to it being at least partially green with a little bit of agriculture. I have stayed there before and found it hospitable.
It's also the point where US95 crosses my old friend US50. I took a moment to reflect on my first time crossing the Great Basin, grabbed a bite to eat and hit the road again.
Within a mile north of Fallon, you are fully back in the desert, only glad that you are making progress toward the end of it. Today was my third day-long stint, hopefully with only one more to go!
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About 35 miles north of Fallon, US95 joins I-80 for a very high speed 100 miles to Winnemucca, NV, where I have stopped for the night. If all goes well, I will cross the border into Oregon tomorrow and finally make my way out of the Northern Great Basin... Stay tuned!
1 comment:
Tonopah is mentioned in Little Feat's song 'Willin' about a dope smoking western states truck driver.
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