Touring Area 51

I’m out on my road trip, and I get this call:

“This is the office of Robert Gates – the Secretary of Defense. We’ve been reading your blog, and are aware that you’ve been getting denied for tours at several Air Force Bases. We’d like to offer you an exclusive tour of R-4808N, I’m sure you’re aware of what that refers to.”

Needless to say I was a little shocked. How do you respond to an offer to tour an Air Force Base that doesn’t exist? What’s the catch?

*Gulp* “Yes, I’d love to a tour!”

Exclusive photos and a description of my tour after the jump!

I’ve spent the last two days at the base – and have gotten a full tour. I showed up and boarded the white bus at the intersection of Hwy. 318 and 375 – the Extraterrestrial Highway. They checked my id and radioed the gate for confirmation before they would let me on the bus. I think this irritated the other commuters – I’m not quite sure. None of them would look or talk to me on our trip there. Did I smell bad? Once we were at the main gate, the security personel did a standard sweep of the bus, checked everyone’s security badges and one got on to escort me during my visit – we’ll call him ‘Tom’. He didn’t talk much either – maybe I should have taken a shower since it had been a couple of days since I had.

Once at the base, the bus stopped in front of a huge satellite dish. I was let off with ‘Tom’ at there. I didn’t get to see where the bus went from there as we went inside a building with no windows.

‘Tom’ led me on a tour of the base – I got to see some of the black projects they are working on, play a little softball, and got to see inside one of the EG&G “Janet Airlines” jets – pretty standard issue.

The first catch was: they got to review any photos I took and declassify as they saw fit. Any photo I took would be immediately classified and put under review. Well here is the only declassified photo from my tour:

Irrefutable evidence Groom Lake is an active Military Installation: tracks in gravel.

The second catch was: I didn’t get to go outside at night, which is supposedly when the good stuff happens. I’d been at Edwards Air Force Base while they were doing flight tests, they fly at 6000+ feet and you can’t hardly tell what’s going on up there. Well I’ve heard that at Groom Lake they fly low to the ground, just like during Red Flag and in the MOA’s of the Nevada Test Site, but the aircraft are usually “eyes-only” – which means civilians don’t even get to know about them.

I spent the last two nights camped in a place called “Horny’s Rest Stop”. It’s called “Hopkin’s Rest Area ” on the gps, but you can’t argue with this official looking sign. I guess the state of Nevada is going ‘green’ with their road signs these days.

Nevada State's new 'green' signage.

I was able to get this photo from the ‘Powerlines Overlook’ – it was right at sunset and it dropped straight down behind Bald Mountain – not a typical flight pattern if you ask me. I was able to snap off two photos of the star – oops did i say star? *cough* – saucer as it moved down towards the base.

The tour of the base and seeing the black projects were very exciting.
Thanks to the Office of the Secretary of Defense! Keep reading my blog!
The only thing that would have made it better would have been a ride in a jet or saucer faster than the speed of sound. Maybe Sir Richard Branson is reading my blog too?!?

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