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Friday: Back To Rachel [5 May 2000]Well let's see, if I do a photo story on this, which I probably will, another Journal, I already have images of UFOs, and all sortsa aliens, and cows, and the Little A-Le-Inn, and the radioactive monitoring equipment, and the Camo Dudes and the Keep Out signs - I shoulda come by in the morning, the light'd be better, maybe I'll... no, I don't think I AM going to comne back tomorrow morning, it'd take too much gas. Um. Lotsa nice Joshua Trees here but I don't really need any pictures of'em. The Bomb Shelter! I got a picture of a bomb shelter. And the sensing equipment there at the Border. So, what other.. Oh, I got the UFO beacon... I need UFOs, I don't have any pictures of UFOs, I'll have to throw another rock up in the air, huh? I mean, thet worked purty well LAST time... Oh no, I DON'T have any pictures of cows yet. I gotta fix that... Ah, my chance to get some shots of cows. Call'em: CATTLE - PRE-MUTILATION. ...OK, I got pix of the cows. Well, what do I actually have to *report* around here? ...I went to the promo last night. Um there were some nice costumes (although the little cowgirl alien and the Tool Time alien gal didn't quite seen to get the point...) The guy who won, the costume wasn't anything but he was kinetic, uh. The guy who came in second, guy done up as sort of a variant Ferengi, he was good, he was very VERY good. Very good costume, too bad he only got 2nd - even the guy who won said he thought that the guy who got second shoulda won... Um Ok so there was the costume contest and there was loud canned music and promotion people running around. No stars. No crowds of syncophants bussed in to provide a larger audience. This was a pretty cheap promotion. No helicopters. No UFOs. The UFO beacon last night had a BRIGHT light in it - I think I got pictures of that. The electricians I talked to this morning who were replacing stuff in it said that it was a 40 APM LIGHT! Which would be, what, either 4000 or 8000 watts. Enough so that... what they were doing was, they'd had some Lexan shields around the top of the beacon last night, and they were replacing'em with a dome, which was the permanant fixture. They had to have just the Lexan, the pieces open to the sky because if they'd actually beamed the light up thru the dome it would have melted the plastic. But no, that light's not staying on, that was just for the promotion. What alien would foot the electric bill to run that beacon full-time? Other than that it was a pretty chintzy promotion. The movie was OK but it was hard to see, and windy as hell. They didn't give away the free videos like they said they would. Hmph. So that was pretty much a bust. Talkin' to the people, the guys at the Area51 Research Center, and the reporters, that's been interesting. Coming out here to the Border, that was good... I'm back on the pavement now. Just before I got here I passed another car on the dirt road. Looking out across the valley now, that car is leaving a huge trail of dust. I don't think it's possible for anyone to do anything secret out here in this valley - every place is visible from every other place. Ya hafta get on the other side of the mountains to be secluded. ...For the photo-journal: lotsa good pictures of the graffiti on the Black Mailbox... next to the pictures of the pre-mutilated cows I'll have pictures of pre-dead humans... hmm, gotta have something about mind-control in this too... Oh yeah, I got the pictures of the Tonopah Test Base, er Test Range... let's see, that rusty debris this morning, I can call that: Obsolete Mind-Control Transmitters... |
Friday eveningTempiute: I pulled in by the New Tempiute mine, a few thousand feet further up - looking down on the valley, that *might* be Rachel down there, there's something down there, highway, roads, off-roads... real damn purty up heah... but since I didn't reset the altimeter at Rachel I can't really tell what it is here. It currently says 5700-5800 feet. ...Later in the evening: a orgeous sunset, looking down on this little valley below, or big, HUGE valley... from this vantage point. Big Jake really likes it here. Nice place. Meanwhile I've been reading MIND CONTROL - WORLD CONTROL - A Virtual Encyclopedia of Mind Control! by Jim Keith, a favorite of conspiratorialists, since he died last year in mysterious circumstances at the Burning Man Festival, fell 3 feet, broke his leg, died of infection after being airlifted to a hospital. DID HE KNOW TOO MUCH? Anyway, he spins the usual theories about Illuminati, Bilderbergers, New World Order, Nazis, British Imperialists, Skull'n'Bones Society, all that stuff. But I don't really see a place for dynamic entrepreneurial capitalism in this theory. How does he explain Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and the surge of dotcoms that're worth a shitload of money, and thus exercise a great deal of control? Also in his, I've gotten up to about the third chapter here, he's talking about... New World Order and British Imperial backing of psychology, eugenics, psychiatry, biology research, technologies for controlling human population and thought, with no consideration with the connection between funding of psychological research and ADVERTISING. My understanding is that it was the growth of corporations in the 20th century, and advertising agencies, that did a lot toward funding psychological studies, to... control? I dunno about *control*, but at least, how to motivate people to buy specific products. And the techniques are far from perfect. That's not really touched on in here - I see that as being a major lapse. In other words, like any well-constructed conspiracy theory, we have a number of sources being cited that seem to support the theory, and nothing that would NOT support the theory. But why quibble? Ah, here's a good line from Keith: "Now we know why shrinks look so weird and often have nervous tics. They have been taught that they do not have a soul." Actually I like the quotes that he put at the beginning of the book. One from Marshall McCluhan: "Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." And one from George Orwell: "If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable -- what then?" But I have have serious quibbles with Orwell. My campsite is just below a mine, I believe the books said the Tempiute Mine was for tungsten. It reportedly closed down some years ago but there are still modern-looking facilities there, and it's all demarcated with PRIVATE PROPERTY - NO TRESSPASSING signs. ...There's a big power grid up here... and a couple lights [shining down on me.] But not necsssarily any indication that it's active... Looking off to the west I have the last sliver of a crescent moon up above the sunset, quite beautiful in that direction, but obviiosuly this isn't going to be a good night for observing any planes - there's too many clouds off over by the horizon. ... And no air ops on weekends, reportedly |
(Saturday, the 6th of May, year 2000, 1 PM)Tempiute: I'm just now driving down out of the Tempiute Mountains, headed back towards Rachel -- it's *gorgeous* up here in the mountains, anybody from Rachel who doesn't spend summers up here is nutz, in my humble opinion. Somewhere down here there's supposed to be ghost towns -- I don't know if they'll be visible from this road. ?Quien sabe? -- Still on the dirt road out of Tempiute going into Rachel, I almost drove right into a dust devil, it went by right in front of me. I think that's the closest I've ever been to one. Sure closer than those Kansas tornadoes I encountered. For my Rules on Mind-Control: Plagiarize freely from the book, 7 STEPS TO POSITIVE MIND CONTROL. Rachel: Stopped into the Area51 Research Center for one last time. Just after I got there, another dozen people arrived, from all over the world. One customer whom I persuaded to buy a copy of the Area51 Viewer's Guide is a radio talk-show host who's doing a show tonight from the A-Le-Inn. He invited me to appear. I declined. Well, looks like that big cluster of RVs I saw yesterday really *was* coming to Rachel, they're all circled around here in front of the Little A-Le-Inn. I wonder why... dare I ask? ...And a huge stretch limo, is that that radio guy. Naw it's someone else. Well, it's time to get the hell out of Rachel now... Gosh darn, I just can't stay away! I got 3 1/2 miles from Rachel and I jest hadda turn 'round n'come back. It's them thar abDUCKchun rays! No, it's the realization that spending $10 or $15 on gas will make it a *whole* lot more likely that I'll make it into Tonopah without running dry. Really. That's not just a rationalization. I ran into a guy at the Area51 Research Center who's doing a radio show at the Little A-Le-Inn tonight. That might have something to do with why there's this caravan of RVs over here. He invited me in to be on his show and I said, "Naw, I'm splitting in a couple hours, I'll hafta miss it, thanks." I'm kinda worried that if I expressed my viewpoints in there that it could get ugly. So, I'd just rather not chance it. Prudence IS the better part of survival, eh? |
Saturday, Leaving Rachel NVFinally, getting out of Rachel, 3:07 in the afternoon; mileage, not important, but it happens to be 844+ -- so I've been, yeah, 700 miles on the road from Forestville -- feels it, too. And now, 500-odd miles back, we'll see just *how* odd they get. ...Yust for de heck uf it, I tink maybe I go over to de dry lake und try fooling around... I mean, I have a margin of fuel, I am not in a hurry, the only thing that can dissuade me is TOO MUCH OF THIS WASHBOARDING! [crashing sounds] Dry lake: OK, I'm out on the dry lake, with autopilot set to 25, 26 miles an hour, my hands off the wheel, and just... going around. I got up, went in back, got a cola, came back, sat down, hadn't run into anything, must be doing OK... I AM LOST! ...OK, coming out here on the dry lake was a BAD, BAD idea. Gettin' onto the lake's easy. Getting off the lake, isn't. There's this MAZE of brush all along the edges, it's almost impossible. Talk about a trackless focking wasteland... I, uh, wove around looking for the area, for the point where I'd come onto the lake, the road right on the lake, and [mutter] it's awful, um. I am now heading, hopefully, to the southeast towards Tempiute Mountain, the map shows that there's an access road that continues down [mutter] so... here's hoping... OK, a quarter after 4, time to call for help. ... 5 o'clock, I called for help off and on for most of an hour, and got no response. Drove around some more, and got lucky! Found the road, we're heading away from this dry lake now, and I think I will avoid dry lakes in the future that don't have VERY prominant access points. It's not as though it was a life-or-death situation, I have food and water for days, electricity... only a couple miles from a road and from town ... at the very worst I coulda set off across-country, looked for help. Fortunately, I didn't have to. The CB channel 9 is not useful. I think I will tell Maureen of this and next time we go out it'll be with a cellphone -- although I don't know if a cell would be any good around Rachel, I'll hafta double-check on coverage, but it would've probably been more likely to have been of help than the CB. For the journal, this can be reported as: mindcontrollers forced me to drive along the salt lake, they got me lost, and then blocked my radio transmissions. I been jammed by aliens! Or, if not by aliens, then by security agents from Area51 who do not want me to get away with the images I captured of the Border, the Bus, the Camo Dudes... I'm having some recriminations about chickening-out from going on that radio show, uh that I was invited on. Yeah, it would be at the Little A-Le-Inn, I can make excuses to myself and anyone else -- I can say that I don't like smokey bars, they, it'd make me sick, sitting there doing the show. Or I could say that my thoughts, as expressed, might not be too popular there and might lead to some sort of trouble; and with drunks with guns around, that might not be the wisest choice. Not to mention that I'd never be able to return. Or I could just say that I'm chickening-out on going on before a small but national radio audience, um I could have lent a skeptical voice to the proceedings, and I chose not to. Not much in the way of self-promotion there, eh? So I'm high-tailing it to Tonopah. Not that I have to *get* to Tonopah tonight. If I did I could call Maureen. As it is, enroute is the Tonopah Test Range, and I could head over that way a little bit, see if there's anything to get images of. Although I doubt it, other than getting the missile in better light, missile and sign. So I dunno. Rewrite Kang.Da.Ru to point to SkeptiNews or SkeptiCon - have that as the easy access point. NOTE for display of all game rules: use spiral/notepad background, appropriate image as header. Or have appropriate image on the left, game title in the center, and 'SKEPTICON - Your Skeptical Connection' logo on the right - and add link to Yahoo:Skeptics to SkeptiCon. Create page for push-button access to GuideBooks & GameRules, with each game / guide / journal linking back to that index. Add tables of contents to tops of journal pages. |
[Sunday, 7 May 2000, east side of Tonopah NV]Tonopah: I pulled off the road in a quiet spot last night, transcribed notes, sang, slept, the usual. Now: clean-up, and onwards. Slowly. Pulling out of East Tonopah camp, 10 minutes 'til noon on Sunday. It was cool and windy this morning - hah, it rained last night. But looks like a beautiful day today, puffy clouds all over... passed the Twister In RV Park again, 3 days later than last time - seems like longer. Tonopah, 6030 feet - I just adjusted the altimeter from just over 5900, so that's the adjustment to make to the last elevations reported here - bring them up by 100 feet. Meanwhile, trying to make a phone call in Tonopah is NOT easy - I couldn't do it. The local phone franchise will not bill Visa - they'll bill MasterCard, American Express, anyone else, but not Visa? WHAT?!? Dumb shit... And they want a 25-cent access charge on an 800 call - what's the good of having a toll-free number if you have to pay a toll? WHAT?!? WHAT?!? So I'm splitting Tonopah, heading out for highway 376, and then north up to Austin - a new route. I'll call Maureen when I get out of this county - that 800 number was to use the calling card, which may or may not have worked anyway. (snort) Anyway, leaving Tonopah, just got pictures of the *cyclopean ruins* on the east side of town. And of a sinister radio facility, obviously broadcasting / beaming mindcontrol rays, of course... (sci-fi sound) Manhattan: (Sunday afternoon, the 7th of May, 2:20 - Now around Manhattan, Nevada, in the Great Smokey Valley) Turning off of Highway 376 now onto hwy 377, heading for Manhattan, 7 miles. Don't think I'll go to Belmont, it's a dirt road... supposed to be a better ghost town, but what the heck... Well, those last few sets of Game Rules were easy - what shall I do now? Gotta think... Trip notes: Manhattan ghost town, at least I guess this is Manhattan, yeah, this is a pretty ghostly-looking town... Many pictures taken... Well, that wasn't Manhattan, that was just the outskirts, West Manhattan, now I'm coming into downtown Manhattan, and beyond is East Manhattan, and Manhattan itself is still alive, it looks like. With a couple of churches, even... OK, what looks like one church is actually the Manhattan Public Library, but there is a very rustic newish wooden church up the hill here... This is actually a pretty fair-sized town... |
3:10 Monday afternoon, the 8th of MayAustin: I'm just now leaving Austin, Nevada, been here most of a day. Transcribing, webmonkeying... Cute place, Austin, I'll have to come back here and spend a day or two, wander around and look at everything. Same with Tonopah - Tonopah has its problems, but it'd be interesting to get on all the back streets, see what the whole place looks like. Did I mention the castle? Austin Nevada has a castle, an Italianate tower modeled on a landmark in Tuscany, built here by a mining baron (one of the Phelps-Dodge clan) back around WWI and used once, then neglected. Now it's a community landmark, off on a narrow twisty dirt road crawling around a mountain, looking out over the wide valley that was once the lords' domain. Zowie. |
Tuesday morning, 7:30, the 9th of May 2000Fallon: It's 10 days to our 21st anniversary ... I'm near Fallon, Nevada. [jet sounds] a number of jets just took off from Fallon Naval Air Station, headed towards Area51! I don't know what kind they are - little fighters... I think they're F/A-18 Hornets... I should say, they APPEAR to be headed in the direction of Nellis AFB. And here comes another... See the Start Your Own Religion page -- notes were dictated here. via Reno: OK, finishing this up at 10:30 Tuesday morning the 9th of May, year 2000, just leaving Reno, 1170 miles into my trip... And 5 miles further, I am back in California... At 1180 miles into the drive, it is 200 miles to San Francisco, according to the road sign, so I'll give a rough estimate of 1400 miles as the total of the trip - I'll see how close that is when I get to Forestville... Truckee: I got off the interstate at the Boca exit, on the east edge of Truckee, right at Truckee City Limits, taking Hirschdale and Glenshire roads into Truckee. I have a feeling this Glenshire road... might be the old route of... US 40... the pre-interstate route... I'm winding along through residential neighborhoods, lotsa new houses, coming down into what the map shows a Union Valley... all the street names out here pretending to be British: Somerset, Glenshire, Devonshire - no Monkeyshire or Reptilianshire, however... The houses don't look too English, either - all look like upscale mountain cabins, high-pitched roofs... Nice places - wouldn't want to live here though, it gets a bit *nippy* in the winter... Dorcester Way, Berkshire, all these Shires and Chesters and the like... AHA, now I AM on Old Highway 40 - just intersected with it, still a couple miles east of downtown Truckee proper, I estimate... yeah, I see Old 40 on the North Tahoe Recreation Map... an extension of Glenshire Drive... Truckee River is just below, gorgeous... the old highway runs right alongside the railroad tracks, of course... and THERE'S the heart of Truckee! 11:00 o'clock, 1195 miles into the journey... now it's Donner Pass Road... [trivial deleted] ...woops, "Donner Pass Road to Donner Summit ski areas is CLOSED" ...uh, bother... [back to the freeway] It started raining just as I got off the freeway at Boca, coming into Truckee. I'm now at mile 1200 on the trip, on the other [west] side of Truckee, rain's increasing, I'm driving into a cold-looking fog, a cloud-bank, snowy mountains around here. Maureen said it's raining down below, so I'll probably have this wonderful weather to look forward to for the rest of the trip - OH! A little snow here! Drifing down onto my windshield - a flurry, that's what it is, yes, a snow-flurry... Well, I'm getting it ALL on this trip: sun and snow, everything except jumping into the water someplace - but the day is young. Donner: 1205 miles into the trip, crossing Donner Summit again... Oh dang, I missed all my scenic turnoffs up here between Donner and Hwy 20. Well, next time... Nothing special to note on the return trip. Neither Big Jake nor I are sick. The miles just keep rolling by, the peaks and foothills and Valley and coast-belt approach. Nothing to be concerned about. Move right along. Record many ideas about games. Then home again. Back to routine. Routine. Routine. |
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