Message posted by Tom on August 24, 2001 at 20:41:39 PST:
So why is the place called "Brainwash Butte"? Was it tagged that way by some In the early Spring of 1995, I was still learning about the mysteries of the In July of 1995, there was a rather unusual gathering of various Interceptor The Minister, scammer extraordinare that he is, managed to bag a full-on humvee, I had some concerns around how we were going to deal with the logistics of On my first visit to Silverbow, I noted a number of potential campsites in the Did I mention it was exposed? Oh yeah, I did. Did I mention it was July? Why Later in the afternoon, the heat eased a bit, we crawled out of our shadowy lair As the sun set further, things faded to black, and we began to be buzzed by The next groggy morning, we decided such a fine place needed an appropriate Leaving Brainwash Butte, we returned to Rachel to hook up with more cohorts, and So now you know. And aren't you the better person for it? Tom
deranged prospector or rancher? Maybe some sinister facet of TTR? Or just
something stupid? As is often true in life, stupid usually wins.
Nellis Range, and was interested in what other viewing spots might exist.
Tikaboo had already turned out to be a great find, but I was sure there had to
be others like it. Study of the maps suggested Silverbow, and my wife and I
headed out for a look. At that time of year, we found the road pretty wet and
slimy, and we weren't able to drive all the way to the end. We stopped well
short of beautiful downtown Silverbow, and hiked about a half mile north to gain
a view of the TTR/S4 area. We were quite impressed and pleased with the
panorama. Very beautiful place, unlike the barrenness of Tikaboo Valley. After
being buzzed by low flying B-1s, we left the location, carefully noting all the
mileages and mapping out a route allowing access without being seen from the TTR
facility. It's not necessarily the quickest way in, but it IS sneaky. And
sneaky is what it's all about.
loser-types, initially focussed on the wackiness of the 50th anniversary of the
Trinity blast. Seemed like a good excuse to poke around our favorite secret
facility, a mere state away.
an assortment of night vision devices and a thermal imager. All this under the
guise of "product testing", which was perfectly true. Thus equipped, we decided
to camp out a night at Silverbow and see what we could see. The Minister and
Agent X piloted the humvee, and I had my 4wd camper. (As an aside, we had OUR
Texas Instruments non-cryogenic thermal imager out there a full year before the
cammodudes had theirs, so nyaa, nyaa, nyaa...)
getting to the top of the hill above Silverbow. The humvee had a chance of
making the off-road climb and maybe getting most of the way there, but my
vehicle certainly couldn't. The other options were carrying the gear, but we
are all pretty much lazy asses, and the Minister is one of those NY city types
that like elevators. There was always the option of just camping at the bottom
and telling everyone we had been at the top, a time-tested Interceptor favorite!
Fortunately, fate intervened.
scenic adjacent valley, and also spotted an interesting set of double tracks
going up the south ridge of the valley. On our way in this time, we stopped and
walked up the tracks and found we didn't need to go any further.....It was a
great view! The humvee made it right up the steep slope, and it took me only a
couple of runs. We found ourselves sitting on a nice, bare, exposed hill top,
with a commanding view of the TTR valley. Due to the exposure, I decided to
hide my camper back down near the bottom in the Junipers while the humvee
remained on top. It was a nice olive drab, and looked very military issue. No
one would question a humvee on the hill. Having all our gear on top, we then
settled in for the day.
yes I did. Would any normal sort of folks figure it just might be HOT??! We
spent most of the day cowering under one of the few bushes on top, trying to
stay out of the sun, like cammo-clad lizards. Towards the latter part of the
day, I went down to the camper and returned with chilled refreshments I had
acquired in a shop in Las Vegas. Knowing the rather strange tastes of the
Interceptors, I had picked up several bottles of "Fukola Cola" (and no, I'm not
making up the name), and something called "Brainwash Cola". Nasty, vile colored
stuff. Brainwash was the clear favorite.
to set up the ritual lawnchairs. We were able to at last spend a bit of time
viewing the surroundings with the scopes. The air was a little hazy, but as
those of you who have been there know, it is a pretty amazing sight. Then, just
after sunset, things became phenomenal. For a period of about 15 minutes, just
before twilight set in, the visibility became crystal clear. Everything we
could see, all the way to Area 19 in the NTS just jumped out at us.
Nighthawks. No, not the planes.....the birds. These little monsters would skim
just above the ground in search of flying insects, and whip by just over our
heads. A bit disconcerting at first, but we grew used to it. The only activity
of note that evening was a large aircraft taking off late from TTR, making a
couple of circles over the base, then quickly landed and hustled back to its
hangar.
name. It being early, Brainwash Butte was about as stupid a name as we could
muster, so that was it. Just another example of product placement. We received
$1.35 million each from the makers of Brainwash to name the location. We left
an empty bottle of Brainwash on the top to sanctify the spot and I added the
place to my road directions to Silverbow.
headed to our ultimate destination of Tikaboo, to set up a New World Order
United Nations camp. But that's another story......
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