Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!jade!morris
From: morris@jade.jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: XYZZY
Message-ID: <2632@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 20 Jan 90 09:57:38 GMT
References: <4504@rtech.rtech.com> <51073@bbn.COM> <6194@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <6100@alvin.mcnc.org>
Sender: news@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: morris@jade.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Mike Morris)
Lines: 37

In article <6100@alvin.mcnc.org> spl@mcnc.org.UUCP (Steve Lamont) writes:
>In article <6194@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> jude@sdbio2.ucsd.edu (Jude Poole) writes:
>>On I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas there is a road with the
>>name Xyyzzy or something very similar (I fly nowadays and so haven't
>>seen it in a while) This may be where he got the word but I have no
>>way of verifying it.
>
>Actually it is Zzyzx Road.  Whatever the hell that is.

One day as I was driving home from an Amateur Radio Convention in L.V. (anybody
here remember SAROC?), a friend of mine and I decided we had a few extra
hours to kill, so we did some exploring.  Zzyzx road north of the freeway
goes nowhere - a dead end maybe 1/4 mile from the ramp.  Southbound the 
pavement ends the same 1/4 mile, but a well maintained (in '80 or so) dirt
road goes for about 30 minutes and with just around a blind turn ends
at a barbed-wire-and-2x4s gate.  My '69 Rambler, at that time, had a cracked
exhaust manifold and the noise brought a gentleman out of a run-down house
trailer with a shotgun in his hands (this was about 3pm or so).  Don and I
were smart enough to make no sudden moves and after we explained we were
just curious what Zzyzx was, the gentleman put the gun down and invited us
in for coffee & cokes.  It turns out that Zzyzx was a '30s hot springs
resort that went broke, and the gentleman lived there in a trailer as a
gurad for the buildings, which were in surprisingly good shape (at least
the exteriors - Don and I didn't ask if we could get a tour, and none
was offered).  Supposedly a fleet of busses ran from LA's Union Rail
Station to ZZyzx and back, and the 30s movie stars were the most frequent
guests.  There is no ACpower, no telephone, and communications is limited
to commercial two-way radio (nowadays cellular phones would work there too),
and CB.


All this is 9-10 year old memory, and unverified.

Mike Morris                      Internet:  Morris@Jade.JPL.NASA.gov
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