The Extraterrestrial Highway, Ely and Wendover

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First, the Extraterrestrial Highway. Not one alien the whole drive! So dissapointing! Actually, there weren't even a bunch of hoaky signs posted all along this road, which is famous for being he road on which the most flying saucer a d alien sightings have taken place. It's also supposed to be the highway off of which Area 51 exists. But in areality, the highway borders an air force proving ground, where they fly over and drop bombs and flares all the time. It also has only 1 "town", which consists of a couple of houses, a couple of trailers, and a gas pump that reads "last gas for 110 miles". Area 51 may be out here, but wee're not sticking around long enough to find out. Off to find gas!

From the E.T. highway we ended up having to go west instead of our intended directions of east because...well...we were almost out of gas and the first town was either 46 miles west or 78 miles east. Westward ho! We were so close to running out of gas that when we finally arrived at a gas station, on edge and worried, we filled up only to find out that we had only had about 3/4 of a gallon left. Whew!

Then, back east, taking a longer route but one that we hadn't just driven...and Danielle drove!! For the first time on the whole trip she drove with the trailer!! Paul felt sick so she got to drive...woohoo!! Danielle in charge of the whole destiny of the trip! haha 😊

We ended up accidentally staying in Ely, Nevada that night. It was simply where we were when it started getting dark, so we pulled off and slept. When we woke up we found that there was a railroad museum in town, and decided to go. It was AMAZING! Because of Ely's location, at least 200 miles from any city, none of the locomotives and train cars that were scrapped for metal in World War II came from that small Northern Nevada Railroad town. It was simply too expensive to get the metal to somewhere to have it scrapped. Which means the trains there are old. and one of a kind. and still running.

Check out the pictures...most of the trainyard is run by volunteers. There's a working shop, where they service the coal powered and diesel locomotives. they run a "ghost train" every morning; an old coal locomotive pulling old poassengar cars. they even offer "engineering" lessons, where you can pay to learn how to drive any of the locomotives, and by the end of the day, you'll be driving the train! But that's not the best part. The best part is what they do for Christmas. The Polar Express leaves from Ely in December toting passengars up the mountain while they drink hot chocolate and listen to the story. At the top, Santa hops on the train and gives everyone a bell. HOW COOL IS THAT!? Oh, we're definitely coming back for Christmas one year.

To top off the awesome experience that was Ely, we went to one of the drug store soda fountains for lunch, where we had fresh made sandwiches, ice cream, a smoothie and lime rickies. Very cool.

Off to Wendover next, a border town where gambling runs rampant and where you're welcomed to the town by "Wendover Will"...a giant neon cowboy. Wahoo! This is also where the Salt Flats start, and where the Bonneville Salt Flat Speedway (where all of those world records were set). This just kind of looks like pictures of the beach or something, but it's all salt!

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