Yesterday

Up and out. After a quick breakfast, I bought a couple of long sleeve thermal shirts because I'm not in Southern Louisiana anymore and then I headed off to an urgent care to try to knock the last of my persistent cough out. I almost left when they told me that the wait was an hour and a half, but then they told me I could leave my number and go do other things and they'd text me when me time was close. Well that was good, so I went off to meet Mike, a reader of this humble blog who just happened to be in Reno today, up from Texas for a conference. We dropped in on a couple of pawn shops, one of which had quite a few old firearms that I was interested in, but alas, they were all priced too high. By way of example, they had a lightly sporterized Rock Island 1903 Springfield, low-number but with a WW2 parkerizing job and a 1945 barrel. Stock was chopped but otherwise ok. They wanted a grand for it. I offered $500, which was still too high but I do have a stock for it at home and the bore looked good, but they wouldn't come down below $650. Oh well. Mike and I horses around there for a while and kicked a few more tires and then we went to a casino and got coffee and swapped German Shepherd pics. And his wife Stacy is a big Murphy and Belle fan, as most readers here seem to be for some reason. Finally I had to head off to my appointment but Mike says he's going to come to the NRA convention in Dallas to peruse the wares and meet all of the other bloggers on the sidebar that he's not met yet.

Doc had me rolling in half an hour with some new meds and a scenic but crazy two-lane highway took me over a mountain range and deposited me in Virginia City, where I found countless tourist trap stores, most of which are closed for the winter. I also found several mine shafts, all bat-gated, which isn't a surprise this close to town, and a couple small herds of wild horses, which seem to roam wherever they please without much bother or fuss.  I knocked around for the rest of the day, then found a nice room at a crazy low winter rate price that was nicer than anyplace I'd been staying at thus far so I dug in for the night and walked back down the road for a passable pizza. Then I found a small bar with three customers--two local women and a lab named Benny--and I sat down for one drink, which turned out to be a few when I found out that the bartender is a retired Nevada Trooper, and small world of small worlds, we've got some common ties. We swapped tales for a while and at the end of the night he wouldn't touch my money just to long as I promised to come back again today, which I probably will.

The night sky back outside town was incredible, with no light pollution to mess it up. The walk in the dark, back up the hill I'd come down in daylight, seemed a fair bit longer somehow. But there was no one out there far as I could tell besides me, the horses and b'rers Smith and Wesson. 

Now I'm off for a bit more exploring. No rush, no stress and no plans that have to be adhered to. I may stay here and I may move on. I haven't decided, and I don't have to do a damned thing between now and my Saturday morning flight back out. This is how every day shoul be.