Day 15,
Nixon
to Gerlach. He made it.
I woke up at around 8
and in 30 minutes was ready and back on the road. In approximately 8 miles,
I entered little town
called Nixon. This is the start of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation
territory.
I stopped at the only
gas station in town and filled up the water bottles.
While I was doing that, something was going
on at the counter and one of the ladies quickly went outside and drove away in
her truck. From another lady up front, Melinda, I’ve heard that some one didn’t
pay $21 for already pumped gas and left, so the lady went to chase the guy. She
said this happened before but not very often. Wow. What is she going to do even
if she catches up with the vehicle on the road… J I’ve no idea.
From Melinda I learned that there is a
museum here in Nixon that is the town’s pride.
The name of the reservation has
connection with the
I rode few blocks to the museum, which was
of interesting, round shape.
Inside, there was a beautiful
collection of Indian historic items including weapons, household items, local
animals, fish and birds. I took few pictures and talked to a friendly Indian
lady. She told me that people in the reservation still gather on certain times
to perform their traditional ceremonies. I was also curious to hear, that among
some older people, white men are still considered evil and are advised to stay
away from.
I thanked the lady for the shared
information and got back on the road, heading north. The destination for today
is a town called Gerlach, which is 60 miles away. What was challenging, is that
there was completely no services or houses in between. None at all!
In few minutes, I started climbing a
little hill and stopped on the shoulder to take a picture of the meter deep hole in the
pavement. Something I really wouldn’t want to ride into in the dark (refer to
pictures).
After that, a nice view of the
The sky was clear and sun was shining in full power. There was no wind and no sounds, really, just quite, desolated world.
Cars were very seldom, passing once in maybe 15 minutes, so I was riding and riding… having all the perfect conditions to just think… concentrate, follow the memories of my life.
The scenery showed a strong tendency to change the mountain range followed by the valley, of approximately 5 miles, repeating time after time. So, all this land is a reservation. Interesting…, it obviously is not used in any way, but regardless who owns it, not much can be done in this kind of terrain.
Few times I stopped to rest and take a picture, then at around 3, I stopped for lunch. It consisted of bread with little can of lunch meat spread, with donut and water. Digesting this for few minutes I just sat on the side of the road silently looking at this strange land. Hey, maybe Mars looks like this if we looked at the desert through red glass.
The bicycle was functioning properly, I had food and was very happy so far - such a peace in the mind. At that time, for some reason, no thoughts whatsoever clouded my mind. J Sweeeet.
At
I got off the bike and walked inside. Ummm, air-conditioning. J Lady at the counter greeted me and I went to look around the store looking for something I might use. I saw a bunch of overripe bananas that were still yellow with dark spots. As a matter of fact, these were the only bananas on the shelf. I asked a young girl how much they were and turned out they were free. Well, I got as much as I could eat and proceeded further in the store. I felt I should have bought something in the store in return, so I got a liter bottle of soda, which will be used for water. In a one portion of the store, there was a big mountain lion on the display. When I asked a lady up front what was up with that lion, she told me the lion was chased with dogs and shot two years ago, in the nearby mountains.
After I finished with the grocery store, I went outside to take a picture of “nowhere” and 92 miles next store sign (refer to pictures) when the lady offered to take a picture of me and Bunnie (a young girl) near the monster that they put near the store few days ago.
I continued further to Gerlach, which was now only 3 miles away. At this time a beautiful flat surface was surrounding the road. This was a bottom of the lake long time ago. I stopped the bike, and walked to the surface to take a picture. The wind was very strong, so when I dropped something light, blew it away so quickly that I had no chances of catching it, especially since I didn’t want to go behind the wire. When I turned around, I saw that wind overturned the bike and now it was lying in the ditch. Nothing for damaged except for a little ripped handle bar tape and cricketed brake levers.
At
The name originated from the
Later, Gerlach served as a stop for
trains going along
There is a bar-saloon in town, where I entered to look around and some people sitting behind the bar loudly pronounced: -“He made it”. When I asked what they meant, they said that they passed me on near Nixon this morning. Okay, cool. J
I started wandering around town looking for my everyday need places. There was a post office but it was already closed. There was also a school, which was also still closed for summer. One of the doors was open and I walked inside. There was a lady in the next room – library, which very kindly ALLOWED me to check e-mail. Wohoo! I answered few messages from important to me people including my father.
When I cycled back to saloon, an older lady started talking to me asking about the trip. Using the opportunity, I asked her if she knew any places around where I could set up the tent for the night. She didn’t know any designated campgrounds or anything like that, but offered to put the tent next to her house, on the grass. I told her that I will look some more, and if will not decide to leave the town tonight, I will come back to her yard. Fortunately, a bit later a found a perfect place in the school yard, which very importantly – was protected by walls from all four ways.
After showering from the near by water hose (it was dark already J), I walked around a bit enjoying quite evening and went to sleep in the tent.
Today – 67 miles.
Return to Day 14 Today's Pictures Continue to Day 16
