September 11, flags at half-mast all up the Western Slope, last day at Libre, first day of Trip, perfectly bright cool and sunny to be up before seven to last tasks, afterwards a short walk whereupon Aggie leapt into the truck, Sumi assumed her accustomed wet noodle asana underneath to be dragged out and poured in, Cosmos grabbed by collar and lifted…away by 9:45 as far as the provisional Gardner P. O. [not shown; it’s currently operating out of a USPS box truck] then Westcliffe to successfully acquire a dog bowl in the vast Ace Hardware and be rewarded with a gorgeous view of the Sangres across the parking lot [not shown]. Up the Arkansas, through Salida and over Monarch to lunch at Blue Mesa Reservoir [not shown] where Cosmos made a tentative first attempt at climbing into the truck and Sumi was at least lured out from under it.  After Montrose L. drove us to Rabbit Valley for a walk [not shown] and Cosmos made another attempt to climb up as I dashed around to keep the door from blowing shut on him. Sumi, ever recalcitrant, had to be dragged out from the goats’ heads underneath and wrestled in but Aggie seemed happy to be showing them the Things of the Road…happy she was happy we crossed into Utah at four but soon a severe Absence of Camera was discovered, most likely left on the roof while dealing with the Noodle Asana. As a result I forced L. to execute a life-threatening and illegal U-turn to return to Rabbit Valley on the off-chance.  After walking from the road we’d walked to the on-ramp, no off-chance, no luck, and as a result we left Colorful Colorado for a second time, camera-less at 4:40 and not Happily.

On the Eastern Desert I tried the Iphone for pics, we compensated for the extra miles taken

with a gas stop in Green River and, after the dogs were briefly released into roaring winds just before Salina, another in Scipio then drove into the sunset and across the Western Desert

to stop at the state line at 9:00.  We fed the pups, checked into the Border Inn [where, now in Nevada, it suddenly became 8:00] and sat down to some surprisingly good steaks, potatoes

and a not great but welcome merlot.  The TV news was showing an early snowfall at Snowbird, the pups survived their first motel night with only one leak on the rug and

the next morning at seven [couldn’t tell which seven] we were out at dawn exploring

the border’s wasted lands, then got everything and -body, wet noodle includle, into the truck to

head west at…seven.  Bright and cool, Ely by eight for gas but ever since the Denny’s took over  the Nevada Hotel‘s restaurant no promising eateries so we

continued another hour

to the Pony Express Deli on the outskirts of Eureka [not shown] generic but perfect in every way.  After a turn we’ve used west of town to let the animals out L. took everyone

all the way through Austin

to

to

Fallon around noon and subsequently

Fernley; gas, groceries and onward through dusty windy Nevada trying reaching the [Truckee] River for lunch on the res, got close, ate…after which Aggie leapt, Cosmos needed a push, Sumi

again Became the Noodle and we straggled back onto pavement.  From Nixon we kept pace all the way to the Gerlach Post Office with a white Ford which turned out to be driven by an affable guy who sez “I’m your 25-mile neighbor” [from down the desert]…all we found there was Dave’s truck registration renewal and an inundation of Tom Steyer [boy do I prefer him to Biden] propaganda.  We made the gate at three, spent an hour unloading, everything looking good

thanks to Tara…inspected the upper pond, started  the BBQ and enjoyed chicken with Fernley corn on the porch, Cali smokes just starting though the mosquitoes seemed worrisome.

Friday the Thirteenth, Wall Spring, Nevada; not too hot, dogs exuberantly attacking until we roused ourselves to walk the ponds [a jungle out there, some of it comprised of Plants Heretofore Unseen], returning with with allergies ascendant to loosen lugs on the Chev

before breakfast on the porch.  Out after to shuffle trucks [Tacoma into repo, Tundra to the plaza so I can access jack, jack up Chev, pull RF wheel [also found another forgotten flat behind the shed], removed summer’s paintings from the Tacoma, wrapped Linda’s felt topographic sculpture of the basin here for transport to, ultimately, the Rumsey Map Center, but discovered it could only sit between the Taco’s wheel wells so bring out Taco, transfer its load to Tundra, return Taco to repo, load topo, bring Taco back out…] and then, Tundra to repo, leave off to snuffily rest and do day’s hazy watercolors.

Eventual lunch at lunch pond but with dogs in water no koi sighted…early afternoon went to loading Tundra until Tara showed up for long friendly review of work, needs and the collection of the two tires to take into town tho not sure what will happen.

We took the dogs to the chairs where they inhaled their water…dustily back, warm and dry.

Cooking tamales made a warm house steamy but the porch was coolly pleasant until smoke and ultimately the little flies and mosquitoes sent us in before [full] moonise.

Nonetheless come morning the fires‘ evidence was gone again.

I eradicated a small invasion of Russian Olives, was rewarded with radical allergies but nevertheless managed the daily watercolor triptych, ate a latish lunch at the luncheon pond,

finished up in the repo, brought out the truck, visited and locked up the out

buildings as smokes wafted in, worse than ever…

We made a last walk to the chairs in it, tried for a last dinner out but it was

too buggy, too smoky, too hot; all pretty much gone by morning which allowed for an early walkabout and last breakfast before packing up the ice chests

and heading on down…

down the desert the Doyle road had devolved into the worst washboard ever experienced

on that [“Welcome to California”] miserable stretch

and then some sun-fried Sierraville provincial driving a Jeep that looked like something Barbie had designed for Ken insisted on keeping it five miles below the speed limit the entire length of town until, oozing off the road with a second un-signalled turn he flipped me off…WTF?

Ah, Kalifornia, tierra de pendejos…as if the Sunday Driving Experience on 80 over the hill and across the Valley wasn’t destined to be “welcoming” enough.

Well, we’ve come to…that.