In Wendover, the hotel's exterior may leave something to be desired, but we definitely found the softest beds of the entire trip there.

There really isn't much to do today. Just driving—a lot and a lot of driving.

Before heading south, we make a second stop at the car wash to remove more salt from the cars’ bodies, while making eyes at the prim cashier who didn’t want to let us go after we’d done miles of burnouts on the salt lake.

We leave Wendover heading toward Ely, and within a few minutes we find ourselves in the middle of nowhere in the Nevada desert. Nothing but rock, sand, and small shrubs surround us, in a landscape that lets the mind wander through thoughts and memories of the past crazy week.

We’re trying to rank the most beautiful places we’ve visited, but it’s really hard. There’s so much our eyes have taken in over the past seven days—places so different from one another, emotions so intense that we’ll surely have a hard time forgetting them… and it’s already hard enough to make a list without leaving anyone out, let alone a ranking.

We were supposed to arrive in Ely by lunchtime, but we actually entered town as early as 10:30. This allowed us to decide to change our plans again and try a detour further south, toward Rachel and Area 51. So we made our usual stop at the supermarket: we picked up cold cuts, cheeses, pre-packaged wraps, and potato chips in some pretty unusual flavors.

After finding some Gigidag rubber ducks to attach to our car mirrors—for the modest sum of $12 each—we set off again, heading nowhere in particular.

Challenger, the first car of the day, finds a super peaceful spot by a small lake with ducks, herons, and dragonflies. Under the blazing Nevada sun, we eat our sandwiches, drink non-alcoholic beer, and enjoy the silence of the lake.

After a quick bite to eat, we set off again toward Rachel along the famous Extraterrestrial Highway. At one point, we turn onto a small dirt road that heads straight for miles toward the mountains—a route that, according to BigTour legends, leads to the famous Area 51. Just as we’re about to reach the famous gate, however, we stop in front of a roadside sign that, in no uncertain terms, tells us to turn back—otherwise, a not-so-rosy future would await us. We don’t need to be told twice, especially after spotting the mercenaries’ pickup trucks on the nearby hills, ready to shoot anyone who crosses the entrance to the area—even by a single step.

On the long, endless road through the middle of nowhere toward Tonopah, we stopped to rest at Rachel’s “Alien Bar,” where we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the BigTour 33 patch—from our first trip after the pandemic—was still hanging from the ceiling. Five years have passed since then, and it was moving to recall the ups and downs of that complicated yet beautiful journey. Just as exciting was pinning the patch from our own trip to that ceiling—a testament to our passage through that endless nothingness that will remain there forever.

We arrive in Tonopah around 8:00 p.m., tired after a long drive but inspired by just how vast our planet can be. We quickly visit the famous Clown Motel and the town’s miners’ cemetery, then head to a bar downtown to finally wrap up the day and go to bed….

If only.

As we were parking the cars from the brewery, we realized that the Challenger wouldn’t shut off in park. It’s definitely the salt’s fault—it’s corroding the engine. We drove the car as is to the car wash a little further down the town, but it finally died right in front of the entrance to the automatic car wash.

We try to move it by hand, but the wheels are stuck. After trying to blow and replace the fuses, we decide—almost without thinking—to use the water from the bottles left in the car to wash the salt off the parts under the hood, being careful never to get any on the battery.

The car miraculouslystarts up , allowing us to move it a few meters into the car wash area with the spray nozzles. So we begin to scrub every centimeter underneath the car with all our might and patience, targeting any spot that looks like it might have salt stuck to it. In the meantime, the other cars join us. And so we embark on a good hour of aggressive car washing—both underneath the cars and inside the hoods—to remove as much salt as possible, getting ourselves dirty and stinging our eyes in the process. But it had to be done; we had to save them.

It works. Challenger is now responding, and all the other cars have been restored to perfect condition.

So let's head to the hotel, the famous Mizpah, known for its ghost stories and a particularly boozy BigTour 25.

We wash the salt off and meet up again outside on the sidewalk to drink Fireball and celebrate solving a major problem that would otherwise have seriously jeopardized the trip.