After pb and cream cheese on toasted motel bagels in La Quinta’s back lot we turned

immediately onto the interstate where I drove, the dogs having also eaten, directly across

le toute Utah, passing a wide load* with more wheels than could be counted and tractors front

and rear pulling/pushing up the reef onto the San Rafael Swell, which we crossed to find fuel

where 50 separates itself from 70 on the outskirts of Salina, after which, remarking an extreme

paucity of Halloween decorations [pumpkins on porches being about the extent of it**] Linda drove us over the Western Desert to a Lunchtime Opportunity at Sevier [pron. “severe”] Lake 

where it was good to get out and stretch a bit before she took us

on to the Nevada border at which point I drove into Pacific Daylight Time and after spending

forty-five minutes trying to adjust the clock L. inadvertently deleted it.

With the time changed but gone we were way early for Eureka so detoured over 10.5 miles

of mostly decent dirt to a higher [7640′] pass which then descended precipitously

to what- not much – remains of Osceola and, further down, Spring Valley, rejoining 50

on its way to Ely for in our case gas and, with one last stop to let the dogs out on a remnant

of the old Lincoln Highway and see the moon rise, seventy-seven miles later

Eureka, where Halloween, such as it was, was swingin’.  We checked in and went out

for a “ranch” burger and curious Indian dinner at the Urban Cowboy before retiring

to our [unfortunately] second floor but comfortably quiet room where once the TV*** went silent was excellent for sleeping.

*Heavy enough to have been carrying a posthumous Richard Serra cube of solid iron.

**One possible explanation being that maybe the Latter Day Saints find such wanton pagan rituals abhorrent.

***Higher than neighboring Sacramento Pass [7168″] on 50 anyway

****”Ponderosa”, ponderous, mannered, awkward and punctuated by ads for cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, was an object lesson in television primitivism soon abandoned. Not to mention the soundstage sets and the squeaky clean morality and costumery.