Erik: Paul is cool. (John wanted me to make shorter titles so there ya go, hehe)

Monday, September 22, 2003 - 12:00:00 AM

We woke up in a horse pasture in the town of Deeth. There were supposedly horses in this pasture but they remained to be seen, oh well. The night was really cool but the temp was decent in the morning. The temperature seems to follow that logic, if it’s low 70’s and cool, the night will be cold, if it’s 80’s, the nights are warmer, it always seems to be a trade-off. In Iowa and Nebraska it was hot and humid almost every day, and the nights were like 70’s. We packed up and of course we had to climb the fence to get out of the pasture, I love climbing fences!
We headed down the gravel road out of town and, as always, it turned into a crappy road that was over grown and had huge rocks all over which are always fun to walk on. We hopped on an old road next to the tracks and followed it for a bit. I saw another small snake like the ones I had been seeing the past few days, I really should check out what they are just to be on the safe side. A couple trains went by which was fun because there was nowhere for us to duck off the little road and we were right next to the tracks, it actually wasn’t as bad as you would think, the train didn’t suck us under it’s wheels, and the worst thing that happened was that the train kicked up some dust when the engines went by.
We got tired of the road and the next chance we could we made our way across the sage brush and over to fences (yes 2, about 10 feet from one another) back onto I-80. It seems like through Nevada I-80 is the only way to go without walking 100 miles out of our way or walking down a road that will end in a mile. Going through Wyoming there were all these side roads that went on forever that we could follow, and even through Utah it was like that, oh but not here, there’s just nothing out here. We took a break under a bridge at the Halleck Ruby Valley exit and while we were sitting there we saw Frank from the other day and Welcome Station drive by in his semi truck hauling for the mine. He stopped under the bridge and said hi, and we talked for a minute, but he couldn’t talk long because he was parked under the bridge. It’s cool to see people farther on down the road that you’ve talked to in the past in other towns and stuff.
With the temps in the low 90’s it was a little hot but bearable with no humidity. I love hearing people say it’s hot out here when it’s like 80 with no humidity, I say hey! That’s perfect walkin weather hehe. Plus this was the first day in a while that we’ve actually had warm weather to walk in, usually it’s like high 70’s during the day and a little breezy which is awesome for walking. About 3 miles out of town we noticed a huge road construction and after following it for about a mile or so we saw the sign girl. Why are 99% of all road construction sign girls hot blondes? I can never figure this out, is it just easy work that pays well and you get to stand out and get a tan? I really want to know. Anyway, I went over to talk to her for a minute, tell her about what we were doing, gave her a card which she seemed pretty interested, and then walked away without getting her name, sigh. I don’t know why I have such a poor short term memory, I can remember every line from every song and movie I ever see and every one of my million Magic cards I have until the end of time, and I can remember stupid stuff all day long but I can never remember stuff I want to remember like phone numbers, people’s names, directions to get somewhere, etc. I’m tryin but it’s so annoying.
She did say there was a place to get water at the RV park that was across the street and down about a quarter mile so we headed there. Andy headed off toward the RV park because he was already out of water but John sent him ahead because of that so I couldn’t get mad at him for just wandering off like he usually does. We got down there and Andy was annoyed, apparently the sign on the door’s hours says open mon-sun like 9 to 9 or something, but then there’s a sign above that stating “for your convenience, new hours, closed Mondays” and guess what day it was. It was a store that we could have bought food and drinks at too. We ended up getting water from a hose on the side of the building, but I took off the hose from the nozzle so we wouldn’t get that really great garden hose taste. We rested a bit, filled up our Camelbaks, and then headed out again. We knew there was a small town called Osina up ahead but what we weren’t sure of was if it actually had anything in it. When we got down there of course they didn’t. It looked like a town of homes with no stores at all, just one giant subdivision. We sat down on the corner and contemplated our next move.
Since there were conflicting reports of whether there was a gas station in this town or not we decided to head up the side road a ways and check out a building with some lights on it that we couldn’t tell what it was from where we were and if there was nothing there we would set up camp since Elko was like 8 miles away. We got to the top of the hill and the building we had seen turned out to be a big billboard. There was a building at the top of the hill that the front gate was open to so we went on in to check it out. Around the side of the building we found truck loading docks and some really old scales. Amazingly enough, when we checked the power outlets on the side of the building, they were working! We immediately plugged in and while John and Andy went around to check the place out I stayed and typed out a journal. The guys came back and said they had found a pop machine open down one of the truck loading hallways. There was no plug or anything down there so they weren’t sure why it was down there, but it looked really old. They also had about 8 bottles of water in their hands that was in the pop machine. We assumed that someone stole the pop machine from somewhere and took it to this place to pilfer what they wanted from it in privacy. The pop was dated pretty old and they also got 2 Barqs root beers, one of which was dated 9-22-2003, oooo creepy hehe. I saved the little plastic ring from it but when I got home here and looked at it the lettering had come off, which sucks.
While we were sitting there I decided to call into Elko and see if I could get a pizza place to deliver a pizza and some pop to us. I called information and got the number for Pizza Hut and Dominos. Pizza Hut said flat out they wouldn’t, maybe they should employ more open-minded people at their restaurants because the last couple I’ve asked has flat out said no and sent me on my way. I think that if I pay up front they should do it. Dominos on the other hand was really cool. I talked to a manager there named Scott (I believe) and after telling him our story and a little convincing, he agrees to send someone out to us with the pizza, woo hoo! We also had a $10 tip for the delivery guy so I’m sure he’ll be happy.
After about 10 minutes John and Andy left to go meet the pizza dood and I stayed behind and journaled. While I was writing I heard a truck pull up on the other side of the building but it didn’t sound too good. I peeked around the corner and didn’t see anything parked out front so I went back to my typing. About 15 minutes later John and Andy returned with the pizza and asked me for my phone. Apparently there was a truck driver that had broke down right in front of the gate to this building and John was going to let him use my phone to call home. I gave him the phone and went back to my typing because I was almost done and I just wanted to finish one. After a while Andy came back and started work on one of his journals but John didn’t. I got up and went out to the truck to see what he was doing, and I found a guy sitting on the steps to his truck but no John. I started talking to him about his truck, the trip, his business, etc. His name was Paul and he was amazed at what we were doing. He was pretty cool too and after a while John came around to see what I was doing. Apparently I went around 1 side of the building to come out to the truck while he went around the other coming back hehe. We all talked about stuff for a bit, and finally Paul’s wife came to pick him up. John jokingly asked if we could spend the night in the truck since we’d never even been in a truck before, and he said yes! Rock on! We met his wife and kids, said our goodbyes, gathered up our stuff, and piled into the truck. It was actually pretty roomy in there. It had basically bunk beds where the top one folds down and sits above the bottom one. The bottom one is a little bigger but they both could sleep 2, albeit very friendly 2 hehe. I got the top bunk and Andy and John got the bottom, and they slept opposite to each other (their heads were by the other’s feet) and we went to sleep. It was a little cold but it wasn’t bad, and I’m sure it would have been a lot colder if we would have had to sleep outside, which I really didn’t have a problem with but sleeping the sleeper of the truck was way cool to say the least, thanks Paul!
-