California to Utah on the "Loneliest Road in America"

As his brother couldn't make the trip, I volunteered to accompany Benjamin on his 1,500 mile trip from Silicon Valley (where he has been storing his truck at our house) to Dallas. We're taking 5.5 days to do it. We started late Tuesday night with a short three hour trip to Colfax, CA, population approximately 2,000. Colfax is named after a 19th century Vice President of the U.S. that you have never heard of. The downtown of Colfax is supposed to be quaint, but we skipped that to get on the road. We ambitiously planned to travel 600 miles to Utah via the great state of Nevada. Colfax is at the base of the Sierra mountain range, near Nevada, so we started our trip going up in elevation, via Donner Pass and the Tahoe forest (where we had just been, see previous post!). Still lots of snow, but not on the freeway. Then we came down into scrub and desert, and even sand dunes. (We did not have time to visit the Sand Dunes Recreation area, though I wonder how you do recreation at a sand dune - I'll have to study that further.) Then we hit "the loneliest road in America", Highway 50. I wouldn't say it was completely empty, but it's no rush hour. It's a straight two lane road with a big truck here and there. We stopped in Austin, Nevada for fuel and a t-shirt for Benjamin that advertises the loneliest road in America. Across the street were eggs for sale, with roosters roaming freely about.

We continued in a straight line to a famous Nevada eatery and bar, Middlegate Station. The closest town is Fallon, 47 miles away. It's called Middlegate because it was a midway station for the Pony Express. Now it houses a restaurant, a motel (composed of rooms in shipping containers), a miniature gas station, and the small group of people (pop. 17) that runs the whole thing. The bar and restaurant is in the old way house, decorated with framed newspapers found in the insulation of the house, and other odds and ends. Fascinating and fun. The ladies that run the Middlegate Station are super friendly and the menu is extensive and very tasty. Sit outside on the veranda with its long shade and look out the vast emptiness of the land while you enjoy your burger. Bars on our smart phones were scant or nonexistent so we also set up our Starlink, which provides connectivity most anywhere. But that's another post. That allowed some tunes from our phones and hunting for lodging on the Internet. (We ended up at Abby Inn in Cedar City, UT, which I recommend). Mostly it was us and coyotoes, deer, and rabbits on the road. When we crossed the Utah line, we entered Mountain Time. We finally made it to Cedar City at 11:30 pm, and were surprised to discover street lights again. Today, after sleeping in, we head to Mt. Zion National Park.