Day Seventeen - The Desert

I woke up this morning, pleasantly surprised to see that, though it was already 90 degrees on my bike's air temperature gauge, it didn't feel that hot.  How many times in my life have I heard those words, "But it was a dry heat."  At some point, heat is heat but the day didn't begin there.

Here is what I was looking at 10 miles out of town on 95A:

If you don't think that is pretty, then you aren't trying.  Don't those mountains off in the distance sound like they are inviting you to come and discover them?

Yesterday was all about the mountains, today was all about the desert.  Both have their charms.  Yesterday the thought occurred to me that it makes sense that the gay community found a home in San Francisco, there isn't a straight road in Northern California.  Well I rode down some straight roads today!  Check out this picture, make it bigger, yes, that is the same straight road I don't know how many miles ahead.  This shot also highlights the challenge of riding when you feel your tires slip on those hot tar snakes in the way.

From 95A, I picked up US 95 heading south.  Much like yesterday when I came around a corner to see Lake Tahoe off in the distance, today I was shocked to see Walker Lake in the same way, an utter surprise.

 

It just took my breath away.  I thought about those early leaders who realized, if we are going to make a home for all the people who will flock out here, they are going to need water, and later, they are going to need power.  God doesn't just drop such things out of the sky.  God creates possibilities and then people use their God-given ingenuity and sometimes marvelous things happen.

As I came around the bend to the "developed" side of the lake, I could see various homes leaning in to the hill above the lake.  Many were basically shacks.  A couple of nice little cabins.  And many travel trailers that won't see the road again in their lifetime.  And I thought, "I could do this life out here.  I could be a desert hermit.  I have it in me."  So much for that.

Next up came Hawthorne, NV.  The first thing you notice, as you scan for a gas station, is that there is a huge Army depot there.  Building after building.  On the way out of town (far from Walker Lake) there is a sign saying that it is the home of Navy Underwater Weaponry or something like that.  I should have gotten a picture but I had moving on my mind.  I also wanted a picture of the missile that made up the sign at a military shooting range.  Surprises abound.

So I came into Hawthorne and stopped for gas.  I told the lady at the counter that I really thought the lake was beautiful.  "Oh," she said, "You like our lake?  It is really beautiful but it is so sad to see that it is dying."

Just then the other guy behind the counter butted into our conversation.  "Did you know," he says to me, "that there are more spiders in and around that lake than around any other body of water in the world?  Yes sir, I saw it on the Nature channel.  It seems that the type of water in that lake is a great place for a certain kind of bug that spiders just love.  There are so many spiders around that lake that at night, when you drive down the road, you can see all the spiderwebs that you are driving through."

So much for my desert hermit fantasy.  I don't do spiders.

After Hawthorne I continued to learn that central Nevada isn't what I expected.  I expected something flat and featureless, like the deserts of Iraq or Kuwait, but it wasn't like that at all.  There are always mountains off in the distance, interesting rock formations, changes in how the desert looks.  There will always be beauty - even in the desert places in our own lives - if only we have the eyes to see.

I got to Tonopah and I had another decision to make.  I could follow my initial plan which was to jump around cross country on my way to Mesquite.  Or I could stay on US 95 south which would pretty much take me as close as I would get to Death Valley (since I don't know precisely where that is.)  Like last night, tempted to stay on US 50 in the north, I decided to stick with my original plan and I'm happy to say that my GPS agreed with me.  So we took US 6 out of Tonopah to 375 South.

Let me tell you about 375 South.  It was a very nice road and stayed that way for the next 100 miles.  Very soon after I made that turn, we dropped down as the temperature went up.  Yes, to 120 degrees where it stayed for the rest of the day.  At some point, I realized that I hadn't met a single car.  So I decided to keep track.

Over those 100 or so miles, I met precisely 20 vehicles, all traveling in the other lane as I didn't see a single vehicle in front of me or behind me the entire time.  Particularly interesting to me were Vehicles 8 and 9 in that, as I met Vehicle 8, I could see Vehicle 9 far off on the horizon.  Seeing two cars at the same time, even if I couldn't make out the type of the one three miles in front of me, at that point, was exciting.

I also laughed because Vehicle 18 turned out to be the UPS guy in his brown van.  I wondered if there was some lady living in a shack next to a cell phone tower who was addicted to the Home Shopping Network and driving that UPS guy crazy every week with her orders.

375 is known as the "Extraterrestrial Highway" but I didn't see anything suspicious.

I did learn today that, just because the map of Nevada includes a name and a dot signifying a town or village, don't be misled.  Such names mean nothing.  Warm Springs, though an inviting name and though it sits at the intersection of two highways, is nothing but a few abandoned buildings.  Pity the fool - not me today - who plans gas stops around such information.  Today I filled each time I got to a town with a pump.

At one point I smelled smoke.  I thought it was me.  But then I noticed what might have been a grass fire far past me.  And I thought about those smoke jumpers who died the other day.  I was a long way from that fire and I could already smell it.  I can't imagine the hell of fighting an inferno when you are already living in one.  May God be with their families and every other person who risks their lives for ours.

My cross country short cut paid off when I turned south from 375 on US 93.  That allowed me to take 168 and bypass Las Vegas.  The devil turned on the blast furnace when I picked up I-15 north to Mesquite.  Once again it was so hot that the air burned my fingers and I had trouble holding on to the handle bars.  Tomorrow I'm going to wear my dorky looking Coolmax glove liners and be done with it.

I've also traded my black LDComfort long sleeved shirt for a baby blue LDComfort shirt.  The black looks better but sometimes I would rather feel like a cool biker than look like a cool biker.  Which reminds me of the group I met at the gas station in Ash Springs.  THEY were bikers.  Wearing nothing but bandanas and cut-off t-shirts.  Brown as dirt.  I saw one of those old fashioned leather wine squeezee things hanging off a sissy bar, a far cry from my 100 oz. Camelbak with the insulated hose sitting on top of the dorky tank bag I use.

I went over to say hi and I tried out my line about the Home Shopping Network.  They deigned to give me a chuckle, told me they had passed the same truck, and then went back to their greasy paper maps to figure out their next move.  I thought about mentioning that they really out to consider investing in a cool GPS unit like the one I have on my bike but then thought better of it.  (I'm just kidding.  I wouldn't have said such a thing.  But I did think about saying it and how funny that would be.  Did I mention that all of this happened with me standing there in my baby blue long sleeve high tech water wicking long underwear shirt?  So I just rode on.)

My target for today was seeing my Uncle Jerry who lives with his wife, Ginny, in Mesquite, NV.  Jerry has always been someone I have admired.  He is as close to a self-made man as they come.  He parlayed a stint in the Navy and a two year degree in electronics at the junior college in my hometown into a career with Onan, the generator company.  Eventually he was in charge of sales for everything west of Denver, including Alaska and Hawaii.  He retired in Mesquite and has been battling pancreatic cancer since last October.

He took a turn for the worse this week and I found out today that he was taken to the hospital yesterday.  So that is where we visited.  He is living in the desert, in that place of test and trial and suffering.  But he has found God there, a pastor he respects, and a community where he matters.  He's not afraid of being dead, just parts of the process of getting there.  And, of course, the unfinished business that is life still calls his name with concerns for his family and all of that stuff.  My prayers will continue to be with him.  I'm glad I came.  Today's visit was part of the reason I wanted to make this trip.

  

Now tomorrow I head off to San Ysidro.  But first I have to pass by Las Vegas.  Honestly, I might just pass right by.  But there is a part of me that wants to do two things:  1) Get a picture of my bike in front of the original location of "Pawn Stars" if I can find the address tonight; and 2) Stop at one casino, ask the valet guy to watch my bike, walk in, get a free coffee, put a $20 bill in a $1 slot with a $3 max, hit the button six times, then cash out.  I might spend $18 on another lesson on why gambling turns everyone into losers or I might win enough to pay for servicing my bike on Friday for my trip back to Texas. You gotta love Vegas.  But you should also be wise.  

God uses deserts to teach us, ultimately, to rely upon Him with and in everything.  For that is what life is all about.  We should be wary of those who would use the desert for waging war or tempting us with the allure of something for nothing - neither is God's chosen road.

Blessed are the peacemakers and God be with Uncle Jerry and his family.