Civilization at last!

I finally entered the more densely populated part of Nevada today. Fallon is quite nice since before you hit downtown there's lots of trees, grass, and farms: things I haven't really seen since Colorado.

It's a little strange because 20 miles before Fallon is the most desert-like environment I've seen: no vegetation, just dirt, sand, and salt (I think the area was called Sand Springs). There was even a giant sand dune called Sand Mountain. The picture shows some of the salt part. I got off my bike, walked to the salt and tasted some: it was salty... and sandy.

I ended up taking a half mile detour to try and get a better picture of Sand Mountain. It was off the highway on a very bumpy dirt road. I decided I had enough and stopped to take a picture. First, though, I had to wait for a couple of cars to pass the other way to get out of my shot. The first car stopped and asked if I was alright. "Yup. I'm fine." Then out of nowhere I got the question: "You crazy?" That was awesome. I've never been asked if I was sane before. I think it was the spine sitting on top of my tent because after I told them that I was indeed all there they asked what type of skeleton it was. I told them I didn't know, I just got it off the side of the road, but given their line of questioning I should have immediately responded with "human" and stared. Ahh well.

I only did 48 miles today because Silver Springs doesn't have lodging. I'm going to try to make it up over the next two cycling days. The second day's gonna be *tough*. Rest day first though :)

I was right about the military base. I rode by a bunch of naval air stations an saw a whole bunch of jets. The main base is right next to Fallon. It's actually bigger than the town if the maps are right.