It cooled, it warmed, it shrimped…
Monday brought nineties again, but not nearly as bad, and snakes [not shown]
Around Wednesday it finally cooled down…
so we ventured into Gerlach, partly for the mail, partly to see what Willey’s new Bruno’s might offer…
The bar had changed but much remained the same; the addition of an interior roll-up glass door was a little strange but the newly pared-down menu promised consistency…steak and a taco salad at the window while watching the Selenites were fine.
Next day the magpies’ range had expanded from the wellhead to the south ditch, tail feathers elongating all the way…
Meanwhile Mick soldiered on delivering our obsessions and necessities, albeit often days late due to the ever more unreliable vehicles dictated by clueless MBAs in UPS’ upper management…
and critters abide…
Saturday we finally went north;
Smoke Creek Road, left for California at 447;
after Eagleville a left in Cedarville; 299 to 395, Shasta in the distance;
The fruit and drug inspection eschewed our garbage but Alturas’ main street trashcans were more obliging. We returned the favor by buying hardware…
and, across the tracks, groceries, returning over Cedar Pass for lunch and an as always pleasant visit with M. Sykes at Floating Island Books before the unimpeded road home.
That evening was a last sighting of our Magpies, who vanished Sunday morning…
as did, somewhat later, our friend and neighbor Dave, headed down to Reno and one of those annoying United flights to SFO.
Meanwhile the enviable freedoms we so inalienably enjoy were morbidly reaffirmed early Sunday morning when a homophobic wackjob, free to buy whatever armaments he desired despite being twice on [and off] the FBI terrorist watchlist and then [freedom of speech, after all] asserting himself a terrorist after the fact, blew away multiple humans in an Orlando gay nightclub, creating havoc and an absolute field day for NPR’s endlessly looping news cycles…
But not here, fortunately.
Not yet, anyway.
M
Lovely shots – would like to see snakes and new menu offerings as well as interior roll up door.
Nice shots, Mike, I really like your eye – for lack of a better descriptor. But, I agree with Kathy, mor pictures of the new Bruno’s are needed.
I did get a couple of shots of a snake escaping from under the porch at breakfast this morning; just bull [snake]. The interior of Willey’s Bruno’s may have to wait until after Burning Man, however. I’m doubting we’ll be back in there before heading east…
you mean Bruno’s gone?
passed away or retired?
Bruno, much diminished at 93, is definitely retired and the family has turned the whole operation [bar, restaurant, motel etc.] over to grandson Willey Courtney, who was perfectly happy running his trucking company and reluctant to get into the hospitality business…but will probably bring it all back to its former glories. By the way, B., I was at the post office today [sending something to you, in fact] and told Jola, postmaster and, incidentally, Bruno’s niece, the story about you, Bruno, and the “California” olive oil. She loved it, particularly the part about your coming in to his deserted bar and berating him in Italian for demeaning your olive oil as being from California. Legendary!
Well, the desert is a little less surrealistically green, the magpie now looks positively adolescent, the frog has already been auditioning for Disney, and are some of those box cars painted white? I suspect a kind of morse code in the ordering of the train, the rail yard guys sending messages across the country to each other. And you’re not exactly roughing it as far as food is concerned–I want that for dinner, tonight!
“..desticon transporta..” Magritte, eat your heart out.
The roads and the landscape always get to me, so similar to Southern Idaho where I spent my “formative years”, with many drive through Nevada to get to CA.
If I haven’t said thank-you it’s only because it would get repetitive.
F
Good hearing from you, Fred…more to come.
Yes, I suspect the trains embody some kind of code; missed an amazing one just this evening.
M
The calm is really contagious even at this distance; and I love how the heat was magically and miserably evoked……
…and now the heat’s abated. Stay tuned!