July Road-Trip: Lonely Road

Minchau Sim, SL Route 8

Land for sale…lots of it. Maybe I don’t spend enough time looking at the map with the “for sale” icons on, or maybe Tenchi is right and SL is in some big trouble.

I decided to roll over the map to find a big, straight open road I’d noticed on one of the continents. From there, I picked a random spot, teleported, and flew around until I found a spot to rez the bike.

Then down that lonely pixelated road I went. Maybe it was the lack of avatars, but the physics were great and I left the graphics set to “high” on my client. I never ran out of road.



Finally..I found avatars, but no way to drive to them. As I circled a giant building, I could see parked cars on a lot inside, but they were mere décor. There was no way in. Besides, when I cammed around, I saw only Zyngo games and lucky-chairs. Nothing interesting there.

There were lots of for-sale signs by the roadway. Could these be folks who left the older continents for Zindra, the new adult-playland?


I managed to crash into an area to which I was not permitted. I lost the bike and decided to Teleport to an area where the “for sale” signs where thickest.

I had to see what Robin had on offer in a sim called Iwo Jima. 1024m - 369L a week is a decent deal. Her camping chair, at 1L per 24 hours, was quite the practical joke.



I quickly bored of that joke and the generally depressing bits of "beachfront" for sale. Each of them was a retread of a certain stale, low-rent American dream--a sort Jimmy Buffett and crappy tequila helped make popular. All that was missing were a few strings of Christmas lights on a suburban deck, a wading pool, and some pink flamingos.

Since escape in SL is easy enough, I typed “highway” into the SL search engine under places, then found the Noyo Rezzing Area and a twisting raised road for a ride by the sea. It was just what I need to get my mind off all those “for sale” signs.

It was a shock to see a bicycle built for two cross the highway.



I caught up with Demian Arbizu and Ark Vuckovic. Demian has lived in three places and now is hiking the Mainland, with tent and backpack, his goal “to find the absolute best lot on the mainland” and on his advice I hopped off the bike and teleported to Tethys, a stunning highland of crenelated peaks. Demian said that it’s unique because it is the only sim on its server (most LL servers host multiple simulators). I realized that I’d driven through the region earlier, and it was there I’d found the raised road by the sea—and no lag whatsoever. It reminded me of Svarga in some ways.



The only problem with this wonderland is, for now at least, some peaks feature open-air parcels with lots of kinky BDSM toys lying about.

The SL stereotype rears its horny head again. Folks, put a wall around it and have fun, okay?

To Demian I say thanks, and it was nice to meet another sojourner who just enjoys traveling the land to find what lies around the next bend.



When I got to the end of one Linden Highway, I decided it was time to log out, at least until my next road-trip in August. Happy Motoring!