Crazy Road Trip

I've been trying to upload the pictures from my quick road trip with my brother Jordan and his wife Melissa, but it's just not wanting to work.

We left on Thursday afternoon and our first stop was at the rest stop on I-80 on the salt flats. It had been more than 20 years since I'd stopped there. On our previous trips through there, it was always at night and we never stopped. I got a picture of Melissa out on the salt that seems to go on forever, and one of the foot wash you have to use before entering the restrooms. All 3 of  us wore out sunglasses because when we tried to look at the flats without them, we nearly went blind.

On our way through Nevada, we spotted this crazy looking structure that could have only been built by a crazy person. So we decided to check it out on our way home. The rest of the trip to California was uneventful and we made really good time because we didn't have any cranky kids with us.

For the return trip, we left Saturday afternoon and hit up 7-11 before leaving town. The plan was to keep going straight through to Reno, but that big gulp I downed had other plans. Pit stop at a gas station, plus 7-11 was out of red vines so we had to get some of those. What's a road trip without red vines? Back on the road, for a short time at least, until we reached the vista point at Donner Summit. Photo Op! And Jordan and I had to smell the Ponderosa Pines. They should make car air freshener trees that smell like that. It's a butterscotch-vanilla-y kind of scent. So good.

Back on the road and in a few hours we were approaching Imlay, Nevada, site of that crazy structure. We pulled off the highway and ended up on a dirt road headed toward a rather strange looking piece of property with a creepy air about it. There was a sign on the fence declaring it a state historical site, although, upon inspection, I wondered what the historical value was. We went to the information "booth" if that's what you want to call it. It was nothing more than a roof over a picnic table with boards along one side with photos and the story of this place tacked to it. There was also a visitors log on the table that we signed and a donation box that we each put a dollar in. While it's a state historical site, the state has nothing to do with maintenance and upkeep and private donations are needed.

If you're wondering, this place is called Thunder Mountain and it's supposed to be a monument to the plight of the American Indians at the hands of the white "invaders"(their words). After doing some research into this place, I really think it's nothing more than a crazy man's hallucinations in the desert.

So the 3 of us are walking around this seemingly abandoned place out in the middle of nowhere. There are no other structures around for at least a mile. There are a couple of trailers that I think are only used occasionally, but not another person around except in the passing vehicles on the highway. I was almost expecting some old coot to burst out of one of the trailers with a shotgun telling us to leave. Either that, or  Freddy Krueger. It was rather creepy out there.

I had a picture of the makeshift outhouse that made Melissa decide she could hold it for a while longer. That was the ladies room. The men's room was a board that said "MEN" leaning on a tree. The "big house" as it was referred to, was a monstrosity of concrete, dolls heads, and crude statues with bottles and car windshields for windows. It was fenced off because of it's instability. There was what I think was meant to be a small barn or shed. It also had bottles for windows.

After our creepy, self guided tour, we went on down the highway to the truck stop. While in the restroom washing our dusty feet, this woman came in and we got into a conversation about the monument. She started in with "that old guy was crazy as s***." And apparently she married into the family. She also told us some other crazy things about the builder and the property, but the only thing I could remember was that she said he was paranoid and had a trap door in the big house with a tunnel that led to nowhere.

We left the truck stop feeling like we were in the twilight zone. It was creepy and surreal. Didn't help that the woman looked like she came out of a trailer park in Tennessee. Definitely a memorable experience, even if I'm still not sure I was dreaming or not.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and I arrived home about 1:30 am.

For more information and pictures of Thunder Mountain, here are a couple of websites I found:
http://atlasobscura.com/place/thunder-mountain-monument
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/7813

The pictures on these sites are at least a few years old. The "chief's" son started a restoration project here in 2002, but it looks like he may have abandoned it. Everything is faded and in disrepair.