Preface To Logs: It Wasn't All A Dream

It's true, the show this week is about logs, & I'll talk about that tomorrow, instead I want to report that I had my doubts about something which, over twenty-five years later, I have discovered that my memory wasn't in fact faulty.  & yes, it's about that picture above.

In 1995 I visited a friend in San Francisco.  I drove, & dropped off in Utah my friend Lauren, who had been my girlfriend, although I'm not sure if we were dating at the time.  Another friend of mine, Abbie, worked as a park ranger at Arches National Park, & Lauren was going to stay there with her & camp & do her own thing.  I drove the (let me check) nearly 1000 miles in a single day.  Well, sort of.  I got tired & slept at a rest stop in Reno.  That's a mere 700 miles.

The route I took was through the middle of Nevada, & I decided the night before the trip that course by looking at maps.  These were the days before GPS.  I didn't want to have to go up to a major highway (which would be I-80), & anyway it seemed a more direct route.  I could gas up in Ely, & then refill the tank again in Reno, & not be gouged by inflated prices in tiny towns along the way (one of which was amusingly called Austin).

When I got to Ely, I had been on the road already quite a while, & was a bit loopy.  400 miles, traversing the entire state of Utah.  The beauty was sometimes overwhelming.  & after I got gas in Ely, & headed for Reno, I saw this sign.  The sign in the picture.  It says:

Nevada Hwy 50 The Loneliest Road In America

& you know what?  I actually stopped the car to take a picture.  & I was right next to a state trooper, who got out & told me to get back in the car.  He asked me what I was doing.  I said I was taking a picture of the sign.  He asked me why.  I said because I was charmed by it.  He repeated you are charmed by it.  He asked me if I might be drunk or high.  I said no sir.  He said where are you heading.  I said Reno sir.  He said best be on your way then.

There is, I believe, a half-assed picture of the sign somewhere, taken by a cheap camera from too far away, badly backlit because it was nearing sundown.  I had gotten out to get a better picture.  But the state trooper freaked me out.  I just got in the car & went.

Today I was talking to someone & we were talking about traveling across the country & he mentioned driving from Oregon to Nevada & I thought about that road & I wondered if I could find the sign on Googli Maps.  & I did!  & I saved the picture.

For a long time I wondered if I had dreamed that sign.  It did not repeat as you drove along.  & the road was lonely.  For miles I felt I was the only human alive in all the world.  But I did misremember the sign, almost immediately - I told people it said "The Loneliest Highway In America."

But I'm glad to report it was much more ambitious.  & I think it still might be a contender for the title, if in fact it hasn't already won it.