#us-95

Day 75 - September 5, 2017 - Hawthorne, Nevada to Reno, Nevada

Day 76 - September 6, 2017 - Reno, Nevada

Day 77 - September 7, 2017 - Reno, Nevada to Oakland, California

On the way from Hawthorne to Reno, I knew I had to stop in Fernley to get the last stamp on my Highway 50 passport (when you mail in the last page, they send you something. I hope it’s good.) Fernley isn’t actually on Highway 50, but you would pass through it if you were starting the route from the west along I-80. Because I was sticking to US-50 all the way from Sacramento, I didn’t pass through it while going east.

Passing through Fernley meant I also passed through Fallon, so I had to stop at the Churchill County Museum, which was one of my first stops at the beginning of the trip. I enjoyed signing the guest register a second time (and of course I found where I’d signed it a little over two months earlier.) 

I got into Reno so late that night (reasons) that I passed up on the chance to stay with two different friends, because I didn’t want to bother them so late. Instead, I decided to see what it was like to stay in a nice hotel in Reno (when I lived there, I never did, since why would I have?) and stayed at the Atlantis, the only major non-smoking casino/hotel in Vegas. They have an arcade! I hadn’t known the entire time I lived in Reno.

The next day, I also ended up staying in Reno until very late, despite intending to go home that day. Shades of the days in Vegas. I didn’t actually end up sleeping that night, and drove from Reno to Truckee in the early hours of the morning.

Finally, I drove home from Truckee (with a long stop at the DMV there -- again, for reasons) and somehow, I made it home alive.

Day 74 - September 4, 2017 - Beatty, Nevada to Hawthorne, Nevada

The remnants of my wild time in the Motel 6 in Beatty: empty La Croix cans and an empty bag of pumpkin pie M&Ms.

Having woken up relatively refreshed, I headed north on 95 and stopped in Goldfield, which is kind of a ghost town but kind of not. It has a few things: a house that had a lot of pigeons sitting on it when I passed by, for one thing. Also, a store that was for sale, and another store that was open and located next to what appeared to be a pile of abandoned Burning Man art cars. The Yucca Mountain Repository Oversight Program office, which appears to actually have been turned into a school. The combination county courthouse/county jail. The Goldfield Hotel, where the “Radio KOW” studio in the movie Vanishing Point was located. And, apparently, hell, if you angle your camera so the letter ‘S’ in the old Shell sign is behind a street sign. Why wouldn’t you?

Day 72 - September 2, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada to Beatty, Nevada

Day 73 - September 3, 2017 - Beatty, Nevada

The day began with me helping two guys start their car in the parking lot across from the motel, and ended (sort of) with giving a guy with a little kid a ride from Walmart to their apartment building. In between, I don’t have anything to show you except my breakfast, which was delicious (so much for buying a house!)

I spent most of the day online, and it was entirely necessary coping. Ended up in the Walmart parking lot -- not intending to sleep there this time -- after buying some food at a Sprouts, and got wrapped up chatting online with a friend. Then the guy asked me for a ride. I figured since he had a little kid with him, he probably wouldn’t murder me, and he didn’t. Especially as someone who’s gone through foster parent training, I felt nervous about having a kid in my car with no seatbelt (much less a car seat) -- with the bed in the back of the van, I only have one passenger seat -- but I figured it was better than leaving them stranded in the Walmart parking lot at 2 AM. And that’s making a very long story short.

Day 71 - September 1, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada

I had been planning to leave Vegas, I really was. But I got some bad news about a friend. After spending a good bit of the morning processing in the motel room, I went to eat a waffle (which was delicious) and then, somehow, spent most of the day wandering around a Target and doing more processing. As a result of me tweeting “fuck cancer”, I got told I was virtue signaling, to make a very long story short. At that point I just gave up on motor skills and sat down in the floor in the ladies’ swimsuit section. (See above selfie for documentation.)

Day 70 - August 31, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada

I had been meaning to leave Vegas on this day, but I got derailed and honestly, I don’t remember all that much about it. I know I ended up at a 24-hour laundromat between about 10pm-12am, finishing up a writing project that really needed to be finished up. Also doing laundry. Ended up checking in very late to the Ellis Island Hotel (fka Super 8).  (Did you know it’s illegal to sleep in a van within Vegas city limits? I do, now.)

Day 69 - August 30, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada

(nice)

I ended up deciding to stay a second night in the same hotel in Vegas, which ended up being the second of four nights in Vegas, though I didn’t realize it yet.

Some people go to Vegas to gamble, but I find gambling to be boring (those arcade machines where you play games for tickets and trade them in for prizes that are worth much less than what you paid, though, bring ‘em on.) I went to the Pinball Hall of Fame. This is the happiest place on earth, without a doubt. Just a warehouse-y building full of pinball machines from the 1940s to the present, no fuss, no cover charge, no one to bother you. I cannot possibly convey its vastness in a few pictures. It was away from the strip, in a gamer strip mall of sorts that also had a comic book shop, some sort of video game store I didn’t care about, and, of course, a massage parlor.