My brother Nathan and I just finished up our video for his Grand Southwestern Suzuki Adventure project campaign that will be launching soon!
It has been a real blast to be able to travel the first leg of his trip to get the footage for the Kickstarter video! We left cedar city early (around 5:30am) and were able to get to Pioche, Nevada to watch a brilliant sunrise. I brought my Gopro and set up a permanent mount on Nathan’s Suzuki Vitara front bumper.
The footage was excellent. We went from Pioche to Caliente where we explored some rural back alleyways where we were greeted by a friendly bunch of ferral cats. They will star in a section of the video.
Then from caliente we drove on to Alamo, Nevada and nearly got stuck behind some huge semis hauling dump buckets for the massive mining vehicles in gold mines probably near Ely. They were so huge that each truck had a police escort that would go before and clear the road of traffic. So yeah, smart thinking for Nathan to race to get on the road before them!
Then it was off to the Extra Terrestrial Highway and some ET Fresh Jerky!
That highway is a wonderful sight. There is just something inspiring to see such a long stretch of highway that seems to go on through eternity – it sure makes one want to drive a bit faster if you know what I mean!
We stopped at several cattle signs and got some wonderful time lapses of the valley.
We drove a dirt road for several miles that suddenly became paved and took pictures of the entrance to Area 51. The posted signs say you can’t take pictures, but we had the GoPro rolling non-stop and when we paused for a bit at the gate it was really just to get a good look at things, wink, wink!
Traveling back to the highway we found an almost perfectly preserved skeleton of a cow in a most desolate spot – photo op time!
When most people come across something dead in the wilderness they try to avoid it, but Nathan and I are not most people. Most people avoid looking like wackos by introducing the idea of a Utah UFO Fest, but Nathan and I are not most people. Most people take a road well traveled – the Cowlishaw bros like to be adventurous and pave their own.
After the stench of the cow got to us we were off to the desert metropolis of Rachel, Nevada. Seriously though, Rachel doesn’t look like much. The size of the valley and the endless road makes it look that much smaller. I can see how those who live there and thrive there could fall in love with the place and never want to leave. It would be hard to get used to such wide open spaces. Even a small city like Cedar City would start to feel claustrophobic compared to that! We got to speak with Connie and Pat who run the Little A’Le’Inn, and they were nice enough to listen to our experiences and be excited about the UFO Fest. We may even get them to bring the World Famous Alien Burger to the fest.
One of the most interesting sights at the Aleinn was the ceiling in the bar, it was covered in cash and currency from many countries.
In a way I am kind of jealous of Nate… He gets to do this huge adventure throughout the desert southwest, and meet so many awesome people. It is really about the people and is always about the people. People are awesome! I’ve found that if you listen to someone long enough, it doesn’t matter who they are, they will surprise you. I think Nathan will really be able to generate some genuine friends on his journey and will have a blast. Someone needs to hold down the fort here though, and I would hate to be away from my wife and four kiddos for more than a few days.
We had a blast on this first leg of Nathan’s adventure and we hope he can continue on through Texas and on to Louisiana and Mississippi and capture some real landscapes that include the element of real people.