Extraterrestial Highway

Thursday 30 October
The Extraterrestial Highway actually exists and we took it by mistake - at midnight! We now know that this highway is famous for the proximity to the elusive Area 51, and the most UFO sightings in the country, while surrounding a military base.
After leaving Yosemite at around 5pm we penciled a route to get us on the way to Cedar City to see Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon. Our planned route took us north back through Yosemite then west to Benton Hot Springs, Tonopah and then thought we would stop at Warm Springs. There was nothing, nada, zip, at Warm Springs, and then thought we would just keep going on the 375 and surely we would find something soon. This road was dead! Oh accept for the cattle wandering the highway in the middle of the night, along with sign posts that we were now on the Extraterrestial Highway with Alien Sightings next 51 miles ahead, and to follow a speed of Mac 7. Did we just enter the twilight zone? Eventually we found the town of Rachel, at midnight, nothing open, and the only lights lit up were by the Little A'Le'Inn (i'm sure pronounced Little Alien) Cafe/Restaurant. It was closed, but we thought we might try and sleep in the car a while. We had parked beside a big ute, which ended up having a huge dog in it starring at Pete (obviously the dog is kept in the car to protect it from Aliens), along with the one light in town beaming down into the front of the car. 5 minutes passed, and as we pulled away we wondered what it was actually like during the day time. About another 40 minutes down the road there was finally a flat area on the side of the road to pull over, so thats where we stopped for a couple of hours and had some proper sleep. Only occassionly waking to red lights zooming past the window in the desert, heart skipping a beat, and realising it was the reflection of a truck driving down another road off in the distance. Finally made it into Cedar City unharmed and unabducted at 9am.