Attack, Followed by Retreat

 Yesterday dawned bright and sunny and we knew it was going to be a good day for a raid. Our objective for the day was to overthrow the ruling leader of Zaqistan and annex it to our own country of Jeeplandia. We left our home-base mid morning and headed west to our destiny. We would either survive and be heroes or dead and forgotten. The trip to Zaqistan was, as usual, boring. We did notice that surrounding areas near our target were absolute ghost towns. No one roamed the streets of Terrace or Watercress. Our brains took note of this as we moved ahead in our attack. Could someone or something have beaten us to the goal of taking over Zaqistan? We would soon find out. 

 We crested the mountain that separates the free world from Zaqistan and headed down into the valley of the shadow of death. The only living objects seen were 2 Black Tailed Jackrabbits and they took off like the proverbial bats outta hell! Something wasn't right but we had our mission and we forged on ahead. Upon arrival to the border, we found nothing. Not a soul in site. Inspection of the country found all of the border guards lifeless and missing their arms. Strange, strange indeed. 

 Our plan of using their own jails against them went south. With no one to fight, meant no one to capture. With no one to capture, their jail cell, complete with toilet would go unused. How disappointing this all was to our battle hardened warriors. All this way in the hot desert sun for what?  Nothing! So what had happened? Who beat us to this country and took it over? We might never know.  

 Odd things were afoot here and we needed to figure them out. One thing was certain, the place had been silent for a long time. The Zaqistans', evil as they are, are usually a clean and proper people. They would never allow their country to become dirty and downtrodden. They had prided themselves on keeping their country clean and pristine, but it was this way no longer. Even the statue of their Deity was covered in filth from birds...... or was that the sign of who's work this was? What we did know was the place was now ours. Birds or no birds we have it to ourselves! Zaqistan was now an entity of Jeeplandia. As we headed to the country's flag pole to hang our colors and claim it as ours, we realized one of us had made a mistake! Where in the hell was the our flag? It seems everyone forgot to bring a flag so we could claim the place as our own. Now who does that? Apparently, we do. DAMNIT! After a few minutes of each one of us looking at the other we decided it was time to leave and try it again at a later date. And the next time, someone will have to bring the flag. 

 We chose a different route to go back to civilization. Instead of back-tracking to the hiway, we went cross country on the old Central Pacific Rail Bed. It has been made a road since they tore up the tracks so long ago and is quite good road at this end. As I mentioned before, the bed between Kelton and Locomotive Springs was hammered but this end was smooth sailing. They have added a bunch of markers along it now pointing out where places used to be. As I said on the web page, they have to be new cuz there ain't no bullet holes in them yet. If you want to see them, click on my website icon up above and look at the Central Pacific page. 

As you can see, many of the bridges are still standing. In fact, you even drive over one of them. On this trip I did notice something new. A lot of the culverts used to allow water to go under the track were made of stone. I had read about this and placed that idea over in the Sierra Nevada Mountain area, not here in the desert. I was wrong. There were quite a few of them and like the bridges, they still work. If you ever get a chance to go out this way I suggest you do it. Spring or fall work the best because to be honest, it was too damn hot yesterday. The Jeep said the temp was 97 and I'm thinking that was low. This area is as desolate as can be. Tell someone where you are going and always carry a working spare. It seems that some spikes still exist in the road and they love to take out tires. Cell service is ok in Kelton as well as Watercress and Terrace. The 30 miles between them is blacked out so go prepared. The attack failed but the trip back was well worth it. Jeep on my friends!