The things we have seen (so far)

So the first couple of days have been about slowing down. In my opinion one of the best places to achieve that goal is central Nevada, home of vast open spaces. Really vast. And, it so happens, very COLD spaces, this time anyhow.

Tom and I go places where there's not so many people.


There's a lot of shoes, tho, at least at this apparently famous tree on highway 50 (aka The Loneliest Highway).


There was also this dead, undoubtedly frozen, cow too. It was the cow that made Tom turn the truck around, because by now we've seen the tree a half dozen times. The cow was a new addition.

Did I mention it was cold? It was. Cold. Like, really fking cold. Our first night at Spencer's was 5 degrees, under the cap over the bed of the truck, meaning -5? -10? outside. Meaning really cold.


Here's an early morning wakeup shot. Alls I'm saying is, it takes some extreme weather to make the kind of frost formations you can see on the cap interior above Tom's head. Trust me on this one.

Oh, and the other thing I'm saying is, hot springs definitely make cold weather tolerable. So does beefcake ...


The other, lesser, thing that makes cold weather tolerable is a good pair of puffy pants, seen here:


Seriously, Tom bought these for $8 at the local thrift store, then promptly went and bought another pair for $36 on eBay and now we are both the proud owners of these 1980s era military ?air force? fleecy puffy totally warm yet feels like you're naked and toasty warm no matter what pants. And that's a damn fine thing to have when it's very cold out, and that's the truth.


And this is an awesome place to spend the day.

If you happen to find this:


seeming to be haphazardly forgotten in the bushes in what amounts to be the center of town, I guess you can tell it's not your everyday town. Unless that town happens to be somewhere in the huge, empty expanse of central Nevada, in which case you can drop in here:


and have a shot and a beer with the four people who make up (no lie) a little more than 50% of the town's entire population, and then feel like you've pretty much had the perfect start to your road trip vacation.

Happy Thanksgiving!