Against our better judgment we had breakfast at Cafe Sierra. It wasn’t awful but it wasn’t very good, and it was expensive. No-one to blame but ourselves, though.
Wayne got his mega-thermos filled with coffee at Starbucks and we hit the road. Well, almost… first we had to stop at Walmart (various forgotten sundries), Trader Joe’s (a second set of shampoo, etc) and Best Buy (a laptop “desk”). After all that, we got underway.
The day went by pretty quickly – Wayne driving and me writing and reading. Because of the new camera (a Nikon D3100), I was reading David Pogue’s “Digital Photography – the Missing Manual”. I also read the quick start manual for the camera, something I rarely bother to do, but I really want to learn to use this one properly and not just leave it in Auto mode all the time.
We stopped at Walker Lake, near Hawthorne, to have lunch and let the dogs run around. Even though the camera was still on Auto I got some pretty good pictures:
(pictures to follow)
We had dinner in Beatty, at a tiny place called KC’s Outpost and Saloon. The food was surprisingly good, and the service was exemplary. The guy at the front counter gave the impression of something being slightly off – some kind of brain injury, or maybe just a little slow. But he was friendly, helpful and good at what he does. It was a pleasure to see someone who would get left behind in our world, not only surviving but thriving in his.
About 10:00 pm we finally arrived in Indian Springs; the entire family had gone into Las Vegas to see a Cirque du Soleil show, so we had the place to ourselves. We pulled into the driveway and hooked up the van. No campground for a couple of nights!
We walked over to The Oasis, the only watering hole in town, and had a beer (I had a Budweiser Wheat – first Bud I’ve had in many years). Every head in the place turned when we opened the door, but as soon as they realized we weren’t anyone they knew they lost interest in us. Kind of funny, since in most places they’re interested in new people.
By the time we got back to the house (trailer, really) they were there but everyone was tired and getting ready for bed, so we just said hello and headed to bed ourselves.