June 13, 2022 5:33am

Heading out to the middle of the desert, exactly 111 miles south of the motel in Ely, Nevada. Got another NASA gig working at a robotics test site, wedged somewhere between HWY 6  & HWY 375.

 

Listening to the latest version of a new song I'm working on. I like it. Not sure what to call it yet. Maybe just "Drive", or "Just Drive", haha.

 

7:13am I've been on this bumpy access road for almost a half-hour now since I turned off  HWY 6 and still no sight of the test site. They said follow the signs for Lunar Dry Lake but I have not seen one and my GPS is not updating. I did see the Lunar Crater sign, which was where I turned off the HWY, but that's it. It's already getting hot out here. I'm probably driving too fast on this access road.

 

7:57am Well I did find the dry lake bed, but still no NASA test site. There's not a soul out here anywhere. So I'm just driving around in circles, and now doing donuts on this lake bed... which is freakin' awesome, btw. 

​

8:20am: I had a double blowout. Stuck.

​

10:33am There's nothing more I can do here. I have only one spare tire and it's also flat because I stupidly forgot to get it fixed. I have no cell phone coverage. I'm gonna hike back to the highway and see if I can't flag someone down for a lift to the nearest garage. I think it's about 10 miles or so back to the main highway. I think...

 

I'm not happy about leaving my car, not to mention my keyboard, guitar and the rest of my belongings- all just sitting in the desert, waiting to be stolen. But I don't have much choice at this point. Besides, the chances of someone coming and stealing my stuff are far less than someone driving by and giving me a lift.

​

1:31pm: After nearly three hours of hiking back to the main road, I was finally able to hitch a ride with these two guys. They were the only people to drive by on this access road. The driver hasn't said much beyond, "you look like you need a lift... we're friendly." The other guy hasn't said a word. Their car is kinda weirdly cool with lots of navigation readouts on the dash. It's all very strange. They're both very strange. I have no idea where they're taking me. We're heading SSE according to the navigation display but Ely is in the opposite direction.

 

2:23pm: I see something ahead- some people or buildings or... nope, now they're gone. Must have been a mirage. No, there is something there- it's like a dome structure of some kind... but it's covered with vegetation.

 

We are heading towards it- or into it. There's like a tunnel under it. Why is he accelerating? I'm losing signal again...

​

​

 

​