2002 Q2 Vacation: 38°46.3195’N, 117°27.39441’W

Day 5: 20 May 2002

00:00 UTC – 03:00 UTC (Dust Storms to Minden)

Minden is just south of Carson City, which is a bit south of Reno. My route took me west toward Reno, but then deviated south to head toward Carson City. But on the way to Carson City the wind and dust started getting really bad.

Visibility was getting worse and worse. When I got to Silver Springs, the police were blocking off the road ahead. It was closed because the conditions were too bad for travel. So I detoured off to the left, toward Yerington (where I had done the detour to get gas a few days back).

But left was no better. Visibility dropped to less than 10 feet at times. The wind was so strong it was hard to keep the car going straight. Unlike the areas south and east of here, in this part of Nevada there was actually traffic. It slowed to a crawl. Several times I had to brake hard to avoid hitting the person in front of me.

Once when there were four of us already stopped, I looked in my mirror and saw a black sports car just barely slam on the brakes in time to avoid rear-ending me.

I later saw on the local news that they were saying this was the worst dust storm in 30 years. There had been several multi-car pileups. No major injuries though.

Eventually the dust cleared up and I could see again. But for the next 50 miles or so, the winds were still incredibly high. I had to keep both hands tightly on the wheel to make sure I kept control of the car. What a ride!

Eventually I got to Minden. The closing of US 50 for the dust storm had resulted in an extra hour or so on the trip, but I was there.

I found the airport where the glider lessons were, and then I found the closest motel to there and checked myself in. It was a Best Western.

03:00 UTC – 05:00 UTC (Search for Unfaithful)

So, after I got settled in the motel, it was time to find something to do. And there was something that I had neglected so far this week. That is, my weekly movie. According to my normal system of picking movies, this week’s movie was “Unfaithful”. Time to find a theater. OK. Time to check the GPS. Oh! There is a movie theater only 500 feet away! Turns out there was one right next to the motel. But… the last showing of Unfaithful for the day was several hours past.

I then went to each of the next few movie theaters on the GPS. A couple weren’t really there. But I finally found a theater in Carson City. But the movie was still more than an hour away. Oh well. I went ahead and bought my tickets. Then I sat in the car listening to the radio for a half hour or so before actually going into the theater.

05:00 UTC – 08:00 UTC (Unfaithful)

When I did go into the theater, I was the only one in the theater. There had been a few others in the lobby. Not too many. But they were all going to the new Star Wars. I was the only person in the theater for Unfaithful. I sat there with my feet up on the seat for the 20 minutes or so before they started the trailers. I was still the only one there. I thought I was going to get a whole movie to myself. But no, right at the end of the opening credits for the movie, a couple came in and sat about 20 feet from me. So there were three of us. Oh well! Someday perhaps I’ll get a movie to myself.

Then I watched the movie. But I won’t say anything about that here. If you are interested you can look at the “Cinema” section of my site.

08:00 UTC – 11:00 UTC (Email and Such)

Despite being very tired, and it already being quite late, when I got back from the motel I wrote in the journal, watched TV and answered email for several hours before finally giving in and turning out the lights.

11:00 UTC – 17:00 UTC (Sleep)

And then I slept.

17:00 UTC – 19:00 UTC (Get Ready)

Once again I took my time getting up and ready in the morning and was running late. I got all my stuff together in a hurry, checked out and headed to the airport.

19:00 UTC – 20:00 UTC (Soaring)

I get to the airport and get to the glider place. Turns out this airport has a big glider presence. The area is just good for that. I pay up and am introduced to the guy who will be my pilot and instructor. He takes me into a back room and starts giving me my ground lesson. The basics about how the various control surfaces of the glider work (the same as a powered plane). He lets me know basically what to expect, what the gauges and dials are, how the controls work… all that sort of thing. I get introduced to the tow plane pilot too. Then it is time to go.

We ride a little golf cart over to the glider.

My instructor pops open the hood of the glider and helps me get in and get all strapped up.

Then he gets the glider hooked up to the tow plane and hops in himself, while another person holds up the wing until the tow plane gets under way and starts pulling us away.

The tow plane takes off, then a second later, we are in the air too.

The tow plane slowly loops in a circular pattern as it pulls us up to 10000 feet. Then my instructor, who is sitting behind me, releases the tow rope.

We are now at 10000 feet with no engine. Kind of freaky. He has me keep my hands on the controls while he actually controls the glider from his duplicate set of controls. He loops the glider around a few times, telling me what he is doing and explaining various things.

Then all of a sudden “your turn!”.

And he starts letting me do the controlling. With his hands ready to adjust whenever I did anything wrong of course. He had me do a few turns. He had me do a few other maneuvers. Whenever I wasn’t doing it quite right he would correct me and tell me what I should be doing instead. Using the rudder foot pedals in sync with the stick was the part I needed the most practice on. But we looped around the valley for about 30 minutes as we slowly lost altitude. Then when we got low enough, the instructor said “OK, we land now”.

He took over and within a minute we were on the ground. But the glider has no engine to taxi. So soon after we touched down on the runway he turned the glider, rolled right off the runway onto the dirt to the side, and the glider slowly stopped… exactly at the spot it had been at when we got in.

He took a picture of me with the glider too.

Then we got out, back into the golf cart and back to the office. I thanked everybody, and that was that. It was great fun. Although, I must say, it was rather stressful! I did not have confidence in my flying ability!

20:00 UTC – 21:00 UTC (Railroads)

After the glider flight, I still had lots of time. So I looked around for things nearby to do. I found the Nevada State Railroad museum. When I went in and paid my two dollars, the man at the counter asked what part of Maryland I was from. I was confused at first, but then looked down and saw I was wearing a Maryland sweatshirt. I mentioned that I lived in new Jersey now, but had gone to High School in Frederick Maryland. His eyes lit up. He’d lived in Frederick for 20 years or so. We chatted briefly about that. Then I went and looked at the trains.

There were all sorts of old steam trains, many of which had been used in many movies after they were retired from service. They were remarkable old engines. Some over 100 years old, and still in working order. And clean and nicely painted. Very cool. I spent a while going around and looking at the various trains and exhibits. And I bought a couple things at the gift shop. But at this point I was getting pretty tired, so I decided to go ahead and find where I would be staying that night.

21:00 UTC – 23:00 UTC (To Reno)

Getting back to Reno was a straight shot up US 395. I didn’t try to do anything else. As I returned to the place I had first flown into, my mind was shifting to “end of vacation” mode. I had now done everything I had wanted to do or planned on doing during my vacation. I’d seen the ghost towns. I’d seen the fossils. I’d gotten to my random spot. I’d done the glider thing after seeing the brochure at the airport. I’d wandered around on back roads. And I’d gotten stuck in the mud to boot. It was a good vacation. But it was winding down. I was heading to a different hotel in Reno than the first night, but it was still closing the circle. I was going back where I’d started, and soon I’d be on the plane home. The wind down started as I drove the last bit toward Reno.

23:00 UTC – 00:00 UTC (Rest)

After I checked in at the sands, I was feeling really tired. So I just lay down for a while. Yawn!