Rhew The Nation -- The Southwest -- Area 51

Y'all, sorry there's been such a gap between postings. It seems like this time of year just gets away from you. Starting in September, it's a mad rush to get to the New Year, and then you're stuck in the frozen, gray, boringness of January and February. ;)

If you need to catch up:

Keto Trip Planning (we *lost* weight on vacation!)
Organizing The Car for a Cross-Country Trip
Days 1 & 2
Days 3, 4, & 5
The Pacific Northwest Part 1
The Pacific Northwest Part 2
The Pacific Northwest Part 3

We said goodbye to our friends and family in the Pacific Northwest and headed back across the country. This time, for the first time, we took the Southwest route. We were excited because we'd never been that way before and because Deek had planned an extra special stop in Arizona just for me!

If you've never been to the Pacific Northwest, do yourself a favor and go.

It's beyond gorgeous!

Riding off into the sunset to Nevada!

Both Deek and I really wanted to travel along the Extraterrestrial Highway and go to Area 51. We did a lot of research beforehand, and there are some specific rules about it. 

First, you definitely want to stop in the town of Tonopah before you turn onto the Extraterrestrial Highway. If you don't, you might just run out of gas in the middle of nowhere between Tonopah and Vegas. 

There is a whole lot of this...

Rachel, Nevada--home of Area 51.

Did I mention it's windy there?

PS. There are no gas stations in this town, hence Tonopah...

There is a small restaurant with a bathroom though!

Deek is thrilled to be headed down the long road to Area 51.

When you get the Rachel, NV, stop and ask the locals about the process for getting to Area 51

 and the procedures once you're there. There are rules, and you'll want to follow them.

It *is* an active military installation after all.

We made it!

Venturing a little closer. 

We've seen these signs in pictures all of our lives (lifetime of sci-fi geekdom), 

so it was a little surreal to see them live!

Next, we headed down to the Alien Research Center in Hiko, NV.

Sometimes it's open, and sometimes it's not.

We got lucky!

We survived!

Don't mind Deek...he's just hanging out with aliens.

Alien photo shoot.

After getting our fill of sci-fi nerdom, we headed on to Las Vegas, NV. And that's a whole other blog post, so stay tuned! ;) 

Thankfully, it was high carb day, 

so we got fancy Starbucks in Vegas. ;)