N-95: View 1
We stopped at an alternating, one-way construction zone, dead stopped on a road with hard winds and dust devils rocking the car back and forth. Opening the windows to get fresh air… closing them after getting hit in the face with dirt. Snow in the distance, rocks and mud close by. It summed up Nevada in early spring.
We waited. I got out of the car and retrieved the food I made but I had fucked up that up too. I hadn’t drained the melted ice when I added more and the water level of the cooler had risen above the level of the Tupperware as the ice melted, soaking our lunch. I pulled the Tupperware out of the cooler seeing if I could save the food. No, but I poured out about a pint of cold water trying.
We waited for a full 20 minutes, other folks got out of their cars and walked around, no cars were moving at all, even towards us.
When we finally got on the road we weren’t exhausted per se, just feeling ready to move. Ready to get where we were going. Ready to get somewhere.
Five miles down the road the sign told us we were on the way to Tonopah, not Las Vegas. We missed the exit and it was my all my fault. All my fault. There was no choice but to wait for the next exit, turn around, and get into the line of stopped traffic going the other direction, waiting in the same wind, the same dirt and the same drowned, inedible food.
We waited. I got out of the car and retrieved the food I made but I had fucked up that up too. I hadn’t drained the melted ice when I added more and the water level of the cooler had risen above the level of the Tupperware as the ice melted, soaking our lunch. I pulled the Tupperware out of the cooler seeing if I could save the food. No, but I poured out about a pint of cold water trying.
We waited for a full 20 minutes, other folks got out of their cars and walked around, no cars were moving at all, even towards us.
When we finally got on the road we weren’t exhausted per se, just feeling ready to move. Ready to get where we were going. Ready to get somewhere.
Five miles down the road the sign told us we were on the way to Tonopah, not Las Vegas. We missed the exit and it was my all my fault. All my fault. There was no choice but to wait for the next exit, turn around, and get into the line of stopped traffic going the other direction, waiting in the same wind, the same dirt and the same drowned, inedible food.