The Extraterrestrial Hwy

The Extraterrestrial Hwy

Hwy 375

We turned off of Hwy 6 onto Nevada 375 at an intersection called Warm Springs that consists of a closed Bar & Grill, a mine entrance, 2 abandoned miners cabins, a stone corral and a guy dressed in bicycle riding colors having a cigarette in the shadows of the Bar & Grill waiting for, who knows.

Warm Springs

Took some photos and began our drive eastbound on the Extraterrestrial Highway. As with most secondary highways in the Nevada wilderness, Hwy 375 is a black ribbon that curves through passes and runs straight and true when able to do so. Nevada has more mountains than any other state so hills pop up every so often making the road builders cease making straight lines.

 About 60 miles from the crossroad, we came up on Rachel. This is where the Alien Café sits all by itself. Rachel boasts 48 people of whom Sharon L. is one. She runs the café as bartender, cook, waitress and dishwasher. She isn’t much of a cook but describes herself as a “foul loud mouth” which she swore she always was.

Rachel

Sharon L. is worth the drive to get there. The Alien café is about 4 hours from Lee Vining, on the eastern side of the Sierras.  Across US 395 is Mono Lake with the “Tufas” sticking up out of the water. The US Navy set up a secret weapons research facility during the Cold War. Makes one wonder who the guy was that came up with that idea. Apparently the Defense Dept bought it because they were there from 1950 until 1962.

Anyway, back to the Alien Café. Do Not, under any circumstances, allow Sharon to make you an Alien Burger. Sharon is not a cook and she is the first to admit it. She would rather be a waitress and just schmooze with the customers. The grill is in a back room that serves as the kitchen. I caught a glimpse of her preparing the buns. Maybe she was reading a recipe or she was referring to her unending supply of tales about her life.

The very well done hamburger paddy soon arrived with Sharon’s 10-second guarantee. If you returned it within that amount of time, she’d take it back; otherwise “You are on your own.” She said she figured that Ptomaine Poisoning takes anywhere from a half hour to forty-five minutes to kick in. By that time, the traveler would be down the road to Elko or Alamo so who would know where it came from. Going the other way, west, you would run off the road and they would never find you until next years Desert Cleanup.

Snide comments aside, try the Alien Burger (if Sharon’s not cooking) and enjoy the “Floor Show” that is advertised by posters on the walls. Oh yes, each and every customer that buys an Alien Burger gets a 2 and ½ second floor show presented by herself, the “Foul Loud Mouth” as she ungulates behind the counter. There are people that live their entire lives without seeing such an act. Wish I were one.

I must add that Sharon was born 6 years after I was. Life has not been kind to Sharon L. The more she got wound up telling her stories the more she emphasized with expletives, which I will delete here. Her family owned a ranch in Fremont. Her dad worked at Bethlehem Steel, they raised horses, rented land to sharecroppers. Daddy died, Mom relocated herself and kids to Nebraska. Tornados. Hurricanes down in Florida. Riding out the Big One in San Francisco in 1989. Nowhere was safe except Nevada. Marries a local ranchers son, has kids, sends them to school in Alamo. Gives hugs and kisses when I walked back in the store to ask her name for this remembrance.

We sat in the parking lot for an hour as I jotted down what just happened and enjoyed the quiet of the desert. Actually I wanted to be near a phone in case I needed to call for help. (pre-cell phone time)

Rachel and Little Aleinn Cafe

Continuing eastbound, we saw nothing of aliens, UFO’s or much of anything but sagebrush, sand rocky hills and pretty much not much of anything. Okay, so maybe the dead cows, unidentified pieces of shinny objects reflecting light. Far in the distance were live cows or horses. An old 1930’s automobile passed us going the other way, and those ominous “Beware of Low Flying Aircraft” signs, showing up from time to time.

Going past the “Cedar Trees Rd.” turnoff struck a bell. This is the road to Area 51. But Cedar trees in the desert? Cedar trees thrive on water. Hmmm, sounds like military intelligence had a hand in the name. Why name a road to a clandestine installation that doesn’t exist, and for trees that don’t do all that well in an area where sagebrush struggles to survive?

Funny how none of my photos were on my camera when I downloaded them later. I've pulled the attached photos from the internet.
And here is a photo of the Tufa's at Lake Mono.