> Well, do people live in this desert? If not, then I wouldn't say that's reasonable.

It stretches from Reno Nevada to Salt Lake City Utah. It also includes Las Vegas, Ogden Utah, and Provo Utah. But there are plenty of small cities in between. If you drove on the I-80 from Reno to SLC you'd pass through Fernley (23k people), Lovelock (2k), Imlay (200), Winnemucca (8.5k), Carlin (2.4k), Elko (21k), Wells (1.3k), Oasis (34), West Wendover (4.5k), and a few dozen more cities comparable to Imlay or Oasis as well as just as many ghost towns. That drive would take over 7hrs and is over 800km long.

This is not an uncommon setting in the US either. I'm sure there's a few unique paths like this in Europe, but honestly, are there that many? I once drove the majority of the US (I started in The South, so think 24 -> 70 -> 29 -> 80 -> 29 -> 90) and despite driving across almost all of America the biggest city I drove through was St Louis, which doesn't even have 300k people. I think if you counted all the people that were <5km distance from me over the subsequent several days and several thousand kilometers I doubt the number would add up to my stop in St Louis and would only have happened because I went through Sioux Falls (~200k at the time).