[not that much different; the grasses grew greener, the temperatures warmer but not

as hot as over the hill…]  Breakfasts, afternoon trains,

the usual creatures.

Cheat drying on the upper fields,

a raven on the edge of an ephemeral lake,

lizards

and unforeseen afternoon rains.

Friday the 14th in June was time for another trip up to replenish, veering

to Gerlach for mail on the way, then 447 north, 8:34 a.m.

Over the Buffs, across Duck Flat,

Cedar Pass and into Alturas where certain items were sadly lacking [who knew that NATO gas cans are now illegal*, rendering replacement gaskets unavailable?] but I did collect $23.25 for redundant battery cables. Gas in Cedarville at noon, Surprise Valley’s first haying and recrossing

Duck Flat, Nevada,  where “Jesus!” looked like the #1 spot to pull in for lunch.

Which it was, followed by roads to explore leading to some maybe mining sites whose strange yellow tailings perhaps contributed to an extreme allergy attack later that night unless weed

whacking around the repo on Thursday was responsible. Maybe both.

The road taken, not bad, sometimes rutty but not rocky, wandered slightly up and

across the valley to the accompaniment of Tinariwen, reaching 34 maybe an hour after

departing the pavement and so back to Wall Spring right around two,

six hours since leaving and inexplicably exhausted [well there was that allergy thing on the horizon which left me useless most of Saturday before mysteriously dissipating.  Yellow Dirt poisoning, perhaps…].

This being the week [Would it be too conspiratorially theoretical of me to doubt that Iran would shoot itself in the foot by blowing up a couple of oil tankers while simultaneously entertaining emissaries from the affected countries in Tehran?] that Prince Maximum Bullshit had his Pet Bully offer up incontrovertible evidence in the form of some murky videos the U.S. Navy just happened to take of a speedboat removing a limpet mine “that had Iran written all over it” after the fact…I mean, can you say “tainted evidence”, kids? Can Colin Powell? Looks like we’re all still incontrovertibly caught up in a Net of Yahoos, eh?

*the internet claims they’re legal, but the guys at the auto parts store said they weren’t, lamentably. Replacement gaskets will have to be hand-carved]