Sunday, August 22, 2010

Crossing Nevada...


Last night I chased a rainbow across the Nevada desert....
I'm sure most people would think I'm crazy for saying this, but I actually really like driving across Nevada. I find the desert beautiful, and I love the wide open skys and far off mountain vistas that are rarely marred with man made structures.

Driving east across Nevada last night we spied a rainbow, or should I say half a rainbow, the left half, colorful, broad and bright and stretching up to the sky. I would have loved to snap a picture but one thing about driving through Nevada is that that exits and highway pull offs are few and far between. As we drove east the rainbow faded and and brightened several times as we chased it across the state. It made for a most pleasurable drive. It was evening and as the sun began to set the low hanging clouds of the weather system that caused the rainbow also caused the the sun to refract and bask the the landscape in an almost eerie golden glow. With the rainbow still ahead of us I finally spied an exit... one of those random exits that appears to go no where, so we stopped for a photo op. From this vantage we could take in the full arc of the rainbow, now double, in the this crazy golden light. The pictures don't begin to capture the beauty...




But then the thunder clapped and raindrops started falling and we thought better of standing outside in the open, so we hopped back in the car and continued east. In not many miles there was another ranch exit and we braved the weather for a few moments to get a few more pictures of the spectacular sunset storm.


And no, we never did find that pot of gold... but our stop for the night was at Winnemucca, Nevada where we got a cheap room at a casino.... and 2 coupons for free drinks in the bar. That's as close to pot of gold we could get. Since as of Monday Matt is officially an adult we went to the lounge for gin and tonics and to listen to the band. As we sat a guy walked up to us... a guy I'm acquainted with from the singles group in Salt Lake City.... so what's the probability of running into someone you know when your hanging out in one of several town casinos in a town more than 5 hours from home? (You should always know your probabilities when playing at a casino) 100% I guess! Wanna bet?

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