Internet in the desert

Driving between Las Vegas and Reno sucks. Plain and simple. The only thing that makes it worse (besides running a 400) is doing it solo. It's 400+ miles of mostly the same desert on a regularly trucked road and over 80% of it is two-lane. Listening to some new CDs helps pass the time, but my new found activity of choice is Facebooking the journey. It at least makes me feel like I'm talking to someone, and even a couple of my updates got replies. It's not perfect, and being on the iPhone while driving is a terrible idea, I know.

The most surprising part of the whole shebang though is the very small amount of dead space along the way, and in particular where the dead spots are. Between Tonopah and Hawthorne is some of the most empty area I can think of, but sections of the road gave me 4-5 bars of reception. On top of that, data was good to go as well, as evidenced by my recent "Facebooked" journey back from Vegas.

Originally the concept was meant to provide a timeline for my Oranim kin to see what places are along the way from Reno to our party in Vegas and give a little perspective to the drive. I quickly realized that since we were all travelling back at around the same time, no one would actually get the updates as I sent them. They're all still there for them to read though, and I know the more perceptive of the group got what I was trying to do.

In any case, I love to drive and it's better to travel with people. What better people to travel with than my entire list of Facebook friends, am I right? I've got a couple more journeys planned to Vegas in the near future, and even more fun "Nevada" factoids to potentially share. Hopefully this little one-time side project might even be educational for me and entertaining for others.