Message posted by Tom on September 03, 2003 at 7:17:56 PST:
I'll relate a story of a few years ago, when I was doing the "grad student" thing. Some of the physics undergrads had heard a few A51 stories, and having the sense of typical physics undergrads, decided on a spur of the moment road trip to A51. Now this idea was hatched in late in the afternoon, in Fullerton, CA. By the time they were done fooling around enroute, they rolled up to the signs at the end of Groom Lake Road around 1 or 2 in the AM. There was enough moonlight for the three of them to see their surroundings, and given the situation (middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, next to the notorious A51), they were reasonably spooked. As they stood talking in the dark, next to the car, a bright light suddenly flashed on from the hill on the other side of the line, fully illuminating them. Now this pretty much freaked them, and but what happened next was even better. As they described it, a "mechanical voice" (probably a Cammo Dude on a PA) came from the source of the light and loudly commanded, "Eric, go home!" None of the guys there was named Eric. But the registered owner of the vehicle, the father of the driver, WAS named Eric. The upshot of this was that within 15 seconds these guys were heading eastbound on Groom Lake Road at high speed, on their way back home to SoCal. This incident, coupled with Karl and Jolene's experience makes it seem fairly obvious Cammo Dudes run license plate checks on vehicles that appear at the border, ID'ing the owners. (It also suggests they have a sense of humor!). Knowing this, the last time I was at the end of the road (the first time in many years), I carefully and proudly parked my vehicle so the plate was in full view of the Dudes, to ensure they knew who exactly was there. I didn't get the mechanical voice though. Darn! A potential new source of entertainment could be had by covering your plates when nearing the border. Just be sure you have them uncovered before crossing paths with any of Lincoln County’s "finest".
In Reply to: Karl & Jolene's strange incident at Back Gate posted by Norio Hayakawa on September 02, 2003 at 23:49:19 PST:
Replies: