Down for the night. Gardnerville, NV

Spent a good chunk of Thursday morning hiking above Tonopah. Found a few more open shafts but all vertical, including one that I'm pretty sure went directly to 1500 feet without so much as a "stay back, stay alive" sign to keep people dumber than me out. Good rough terrain hiking up to 7,000 feet sure gets the blood pumping, let me tell ya.

Then it was a long but seriously scenic drive back west to cross over into California to intersect highway 395 and up towards Carson City. I stopped for some more hiking at Parum Crater, an old volcano near Lee Vining, and that pretty much punched my exercise ticket for the day--I'm still old, out of shape, overweight and sick in addition to dealing with the altitude. But I got it done with a minimum of chest pain, so it's all good.

More scenic roads, then a fabulous Basque dinner in Gardnerville, NV, and suddenly the little motel down the block looked good, especially since it was now full dark and a weather event is expected tonight.  I'm staying here, and then one more day spent in Carson City and back up to Reno and a fly out Saturday morning. Thus far not a single thing has gone wrong or been cause for regret this week. I'm loving life.

This means that the dogs probably sold my house while I was gone.