Most remote place you've ever stayed

How about worst place to blow a tire? Did that at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon once, after spending the day biking those dirt forest roads. You want to really feel alone? Go up there sometime. Everyone goes to the South Rim. The North Rim is all clean air and true silence. Awesome.

I've also stayed in Tucumcari, N.M. and Van Horn, Texas. Winslow's not that remote. You can get to Flagstaff in an hour and Payson in 90 minutes.

Work division: Union City, Tenn. Covered a hoops game at Tenn.-Martin, and it just felt like that place was way in the middle of nowhere. So does St. Francis (Pa.). Loretto is a freaking ghost town, yet, bam, university right there.

 

You get more than a mile off of Highway 61 on Minnesota's north shore and it's desolate as can be. Ate at some Norwegian joint in the middle of a pine forest up there.

In the BFE town department, I stayed a night in fabulous Flora, Ill. once. What a God forsaken shit pit that town was.

 

Do towns on Interstates (Tucumcari, Van Horn, Lordsburg) really qualify?

Hooker, Okla.? That takes some effort to get to. Sam way with a little place like Follett, Texas, which I have been to but have never had to spend the night in.

 

Birdsville, Qld.

http://tinyurl.com/3x9ocx

 

Damn you beat me to it. I was about to say Balmorhea. I've been there twice and stayed in some adobes there that were built as part of the New Deal. The swimming hole is awesome, especially with the turtles and giant catfish swimming with you.

 

As far as breaking down, I was driving to Bend, Oregon, and was in between Burns and Bend - which is desolate - and the wire that connects the gas pedal to the engine snapped in half. So, I was forced to pull over. Add in the fact that a major snowstorm was just beginning and it was a lot of fun. Some people pulled over and gave me and my wife a lift to Bend, where my father-in-law and I promptly drove back to the car to meet a tow truck. We sat there in blizzard-like conditions for an hour until it showed up and then took 4 hours to drive what should have been 2. It was good times.

There are all kinds of really remote places in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington. Just look up Juntura, Oregon. I believe it actually has a hotel.

 

huh?

 

The nickname of the American Legion team there........The Hooker Hornytoads.

 

I love Balmorhea. Go Bears (the Balmorhea Bears, who used to have a decent six-man football team, but had to slug it out in a tough district with Fort Davis and the semi-legendary Sanderson Eagles). I also stayed in the little WPA huts during the spring/fall and would sleep in the back of my truck during the summer. Idyllic times.

I vote that to be truly remote, you have to be off an interstate. With all due respect to Tucumcari and Van Horn, I think you have to fall into the Hooker, Okla. category of isolation to qualify.

EDIT: Although that stipulation might disqualify Balmorhea, since the interstate is nearby, although it doesn't actually go through town. My least favorite town from that area: Kermit. Not the Frog, the Town. What a shithole.

 

Kermit is not nearly as bad as Grandfalls, Royalty or Rankin. Plus they painted Kermit the Frog's image on the water tower and Kermit has a rift with Wink over what the sinkholes should be called: Wink's Sink or Kermit's Craters.

 

Man, I think I went to that restaurant. It was deep in the souq, hidden behind giant but plain-looking wooden doors. It was made from an old converted palace and was the most lavish place I've ever eaten, ever.

Angola- you're right. I stand corrected. Those places truly blow. I'm no fan of Kermit, at least it's not Grandfalls-fucking-Royalty. Fuck the GF-R Cowboys and the Rankin Red Devils.

I never made it up to Wink.

 

Timberon, New Mexico.

A friend worked at a golf course there and talked me into bringing a group over to play. It was 40 minutes off a relatively main road (which was in the middle of nowhere) and all 40 minutes was spent on a dirt road.

The course only had nine holes with two tee boxes and two flags for each hole. I shot a personal all-time low 40 on the front and 54 on the back (explain that please).