Western USA 2003
Park City, Utah to Battle Mountain, Nevada via I-80
--Rest stop on the Salt Flats. He is also headed to Burning Man.
--Bonneville .. go speed racer!
Two years ago I had come along this same route and stopped in the town of Wendover which is the first town in Nevada coming from Utah, a border vice town with lots of gambling and other things Mormons probably sneak across the border for on occasion. Tucked away behind the casinos is a nice little public library that mainly serves the local Indian population and I was able to use the Internet to check my mail so I knew exactly where to go. However this time I had to sign a multi-page document and release and when I sat down to use the computer the librarian literally was watching every keystroke over my shoulder and within 30 seconds I had violated some rule about downloading and was forced to leave. I think they don't like out of state folks using the computers and want to reserve it for the local Indians. Found another public library further down in Elko which is a bigger town and had no problems. Saw a homeless guy out front of the library who looked exactly like me but I deny any other similarities.
Battle Mountain, Nevada is officially known as the "Armpit of America" made famous in 2001 by Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten in an excellent article (highly recommended article). Seeing the large BM on the hillside, and having read the article, and having not had a BM myself in days, and heading to Burning Man it was destiny to stop for the night and rest up one more night in a bed. I had just missed an Old Spice Underarm Deodorant Festival a week earlier where the town folk threw Old Spice at Weingarten, the Motel 6 front desk lady talked a long time about it. Did my laundry and slept a solid 12 hours. But no BM in BM, ugh.
Posted by stbalbach at August 27, 2003 12:54 AM