Out of this world....

I have to travel a bit for work sometimes. I supervise several other managers and have to stop by and see them once a month. Between my own properties and important things like soccer games, it is sometimes hard to find a day or two that I can be gone. Earlier in the month I scheduled a visit to the Tonopah property on Monday the 19th. It wasn't until all the arrangements were made that I realized that Zachary and Coleman were off school that day for MLK day. After school or during the summer the Zach & Cole usually hang out at home while I am at work. But really, my work is 50 yards from home. So I am right there when they need me. Letting them stay home alone while I am out of town is not the same thing. Tonopah is the furthest property away from home, it's almost 5 hours one way. So I have visited it less then the other properties. I really had to make that visit. Solution? Road trip with the boys!

I was worried about it, but they were great. I had so much more fun on the drive there. The whole time I was working they hung out in the clubhouse with their noses in their Nintendo DS's.
I have taken the trip to Tonopah a few times. Usually the only exciting thing on the whole radio and cell phone-less trip was how many times I had to swerve out of the way from a cow. The road to Tonopah was long stretches of highway where there is absolutely zero phone coverage and 'open ranges'. If you have never heard the term open range, it is a very horrible thing. Dave laughs at me because I can get worked up in a fit about them. I will save that rant for another time.

The best part, is that we travel on the 'extra terrestrial highway'. The highway drives right though Rachel, NV (where area 51 is). I told the boys all about area 51 and that people believe that aliens crashed there years ago. Zach, my ever cautious one was afraid to get out of the car when we stopped.

Finally I convinced him into the A-Le-Inn, ( http://aleinn.com/ ) It is a hole in the wall restaurant/inn that has become infamous with an alien conspiracy theory theme. The boys LOVED it.



After the Aleinn our trip got even more adventrous. I was driving the company car and aparently misjudged how far it could go on half a tank. I still think our gas was abducted. In Rachel I checked and had half a tank. 112 miles later, the car coasted to a stop, we were out of gas. We were also in the middle on nowhere. Cars were rare and there was absolutly no cell service. After the shock wore off I got the kids out and decided to hike up the highway and see if we could get service on a mesa. After a few minutes a truck headed down the highway. The angel driving the truck drove us the 10 miles it took to get service and we called the highway patrol. After our angel took us back to the car it took an hour for the highway patrol to get to us.

Zachary, Coleman and I got to ride in the back of the highway patrol car for the 2 hours it took to get us to the nearest gas and back.

The place we were stopped at when the car ran out of gas was so remote, the officers radio didn't work. His XM radio wasn't coming through either. I thought satellite radio was supposed to work everywhere. I guess it works everywhere that isn't surrounded by aliens and secret government testing!!