Spinning My Wheels In Nevada
Nevada has sucked me in and I can’t seem to escape or make progress. No, it’s not the appeal of the “Hedonism and Bad Math” state that’s enthralled me. Seriously, I don’t understand how they fit other services into these towns given the number of slot machines occupying space out here in the barren desert. Gas stations, hotels, bars, restaurants, even a building shared with a post office in the middle of nowhere had to allocate significant square footage to these machines that funnel wealth from the addicted to the rich. Supposedly nothing grows in the desert, but greed sure has found fertile ground here.
No, instead I’ve been hit with mechanical and weather concerns. First, one of my pedals snapped off my bike.
Yup. Snapped. In retrospect this could have been a lot worse: I could have been standing when it happened and fallen off the bike, possibly into highway traffic. I could have been a lot further away from a town, or a bike shop, or a host of other nightmares. Thankfully, I only had to walk 4.5 miles back to town and then hitched a 20-mile ride east to the nearest bike shop. Of course, this happened on a Sunday so I had to wait a day for things to open up. All told, by the time I was making progress again this had cost me a few days.
Second, the weather has been working against me. I had a day of nothing because of forecasted thunderstorms that never materialized. And recently, strong winds. Directly in my face and topping out at 23mph, I’ve lazily phoned in some days and stayed put to avoid it. With 50-70 miles between stops out here, wind that strong could mean an 18 hour day on the bike, and I’m not feeling that right now. Thankfully, the wind is supposed to turn around tonight and maybe give me a push for a couple of days, so I’ll be back on the road soon.
Between feeling stuck, not seeing trees for weeks, and desperately missing home cooked meals, I’m ready to get to the West Coast. Thankfully, I’ve been able to be productive, doing some writing and video editing - I recently put up a video about why you should join a game design group, featuring members of the Boston Game Makers Guild. But, at this point, I’d much rather be productive near the ocean!
