About a mile and a half or two miles into my journey down the dirt rode, I noticed another dust trail far off in the distance. It was moving pretty fast and was running perpendicular to the rode I was on (towards the road).
Soon, I saw another dust trail on the other side of the road, again, running towards the road I was on. Both trails were far off in the distance, probably a good ten miles or so little nervous. I couldn’t tell what was making the trails at this point.
A little farther down the road, I could see flashing lights, every now and then, coming from the dust cloud which was now coming towards me. I slowed down a bit and again, considered ending my journey right then. I figured, you know, I’ve gotten outta the city for the day – it was paid for.
(special thanks to the folks and craps tables at the Treasure Island Casino 😉
My little stop at the Little AleInn was entertaining and in a strange kinda way it was a nice drive. Why not, head back to Vegas, suck down a few beers, and play little craps or blackjack. Thing was, I just couldn’t get myself to turn around. I wanted to see who was driving out to greet me – in the middle of the fucking desert. So, I continued down the dirt road.
Sweating in my 65 degrees, air-conditioned, white rental car. I continued down the road for another, say, 6 or 7 miles until I could finally make out what was in the dust cloud coming at me – FAST! It turned out to be an unmarked, white (good choice in colors 😉 Jeep Cherokee, with lots-O flashing lights on top of it. Now, I was ready to turn around and go home, and thank god that I was not arrested and thrown in jail. But as you could probably figure out I didn’t. I slowed down a bit more and began thinking if I’d remembered to pack phone numbers of people I could call who would lend me enough money for bail (No I didn’t win THAT much in Vegas. ;)
But, wait! Bail? Would they even consider letting me out on bail? Is this whoever in this cleverly disguised Cherokee just gonna shoot me? Hummmm… Imagination overload once again…
I kept driving – finally realizing that I haven’t done anything wrong. I may be a bit outta place – O.K. REALLY outta place but I haven’t broken any laws – at least none that I knew of. So, the Cherokee and the rental car got closer and closer until I could finally make out the person driving it.
It was at this point that the lights on the top of the Jeep were turned off. Panic! I slowly slid by trying to get a glance at who the fuck this guy was. Not one marking on the Jeep. As we passed, the man in the Jeep watched closely as I continued pressing further down the dirt road. Now that that little encounter was over I sped up a little. I glanced in my rear-view mirror, hoping to see the anonymous Jeep speeding away towards the highway. This wasn’t the case. The Jeep was already turned around and following me. He stayed back about 20 yards or so. If I slowed down, he slowed down. If I sped up, he sped up. If I stopped, he stopped – always keeping that 20 or so yards between himself and I. Ulcers, white knuckles and more sweat-cles. After another mile or so I saw another anonymous, white Cherokee Jeep sitting upon a nearby hilltop. The man in it had his door open and a camera of some sort pinned on my little white car.
After another half a mile or so, a great dust cloud appeared down the road in front of me. This didn’t seem out of the ordinary, because there were always dust clouds stirring up and moving across the desert landscape. The dust clouds were kinda like mini-tornados, spinning their way across the valley. This dust cloud down the road, however, quickly took on greater meaning than a mini-tornado as a military Black Hawk helicopter rose outta the dust and suspended itself for a second or two above the road. Once again, I thought this was the end of the line. At this point, I was so incredibly scared that all I could think of was nothing. However, something inside my head, maybe the curiosity, kept me slowly keep creeping along the dirt road towards the Groom Range. To my surprise, the helicopter slowly drifted away from the road and off into the distant mountain range.
What was I to do now? Was that a warning? Was it intimidation? — HELL YES IT WAS!! I’ve never been so intimidated in my life. I’ve never felt so little, so insignificant, as I did in this situation. Sure, I’ve been scared but this was extremely different. Extremely intimidating. Alone, in a rental car, in the middle of the fucking desert, with a group of unmarked military people watching every step I made.!
My little white rental car continued seeping across the public land where I then encountered military signs stating that all photography, sketching, drawing of this area was strictly forbidden. Continued seepage brought me to the end of the line. This was the start of the restricted area of the Nellis Air Force Range. At the end were more signs – stating the fact that the use of deadly force is authorized on those who stray across the borders of the restricted range.
Before I started this little journey, I was committed to hiking up the path to ‘Freedom Ridge‘ to get my very own view of the famous (but secret and unacknowledged) Area 51 military base, home of black project military aircraft and possible UFO space ships. I brought with me, everything I needed for the hike – backpack, water, extra clothes, sunscreen. Funny thing was, that after all this watching and wondering, I didn’t really feel like getting out of the car. I was really scared! Call me wimpy, call me a girlie-man. That’s fine with me. It was scary! All this security… On public land. I didn’t even do or see anything and I was being watched like a hawk.
Every step I made was watched by either the Cherokee guys or by who knows who else. It’s safe to say, my white rental car license plates were probably checked to see who I was. And someone probably has a few awful pictures of me and my sad, white rental car on some videotape or film rolls located somewhere in southwestern Nevada. Nonetheless, this whole trip really got me thinking. It really made me curious to know what were they hiding. I think this was an extremely good FIRST trip to Area 51.