I'm in Balding, Utah right now, about to make my way up into Moab, and then over to Grand Junction, Colorado. Over the last few days, I headed southeast from Reno, riding along the Extraterrestrial Highway, famous for being the closest road to Groom Lake Air Force Base, romantically known as Area 51.

I stopped by the famous Black Mailbox (which is painted white), and got over-flown by an F-16 at VERY low altitude carrying a full load of ordanace. Other then that, there wasn't much weirdness . . . except for the school bus, painted pure white with blacked-out windows, wearing US Government plates that came out of the desert on Groom Lake Road (the access road to Area 51). Once it got to the main road, it started screaming along at, I swear to god, 95mph. Seriously. What the fuck sort of school bus can do 95mph? Fucking hell, I was having an absurldy hard time keeping up with him, much less take photos.

If I hadn't been absurdly low on gas, I would have taken the road into the desert to the warning signs and security cameras that are the limit of how far you can go before you get a very unfriendly visit from some very serious people with very big weapons.

I did get pictures of it all, abeit somewhat blurry, which I'll post when I feel like it. Which probably won't be till I'm back in Chicago.

Anyway, I think I'll fart around in the Colorado mountains for the next day before resigning myself to my fate and heading out over the plains, back to Chicago.