Overwhelmed with "magic"...

Day 234
10-27-2006
Started: Sand Mountain, NV
Finished: Fallon, NV
Today's Miles: 26.4
Total Miles: 3691.4

The makeshift city that takes over the Sand Mountain Recreation Area on the Salt Wells Basin doesn't get much sleep. The headlights on the off road vehicles taking runs up the steep sandy slope of the mountain went late into the night last night and when we unzipped the tent this morning the first runs of the day were already flying through the sand, still using headlights because it was before the sun peaked it's head up over the horizon. We enjoyed the festive scene while we were packing up our tent this morning and as the sun was just starting to hit the snake like spine of the mountain of sand we headed west. The terrain was great, an eight mile flat stretch across the Salt Wells Basin was ideal for getting the day started. The rising sun was spectacular as it reflected of the huge bright white salt flat in the middle of the Basin. We enjoyed reading the rock words of the literally hundreds of people who had taken the time to go out into the salt flat and gather small stones so that they could arrange them in the shape of letters spelling out their names, or their initials depending on how many stones they were willing to gather. Most of our hike today we had the pleasure of being entertained by the awesome pilots from "Top Gun". No, not Maverick and Goose from some Tom Cruise movie, but the actual Navy Pilots who have been selected to be the best pilots in the world who are currently going through training in the "Top Gun" program. The Fallon Naval Air Station here in Nevada is home to the elite flight training facility and we watched all day as one dog fight after another played out in the sky over us. At times the jets seemed so low we felt like we could have practically reached up and touched them. On the edge of the Navy Base we sat and took a lunch break while we laid out some of the gear that was beginning to defrost from last nights freeze over. We sat on the gravel of the Old Lincoln Highway and discussed what the fenced in building we were sitting beside might have been. It was definitely no longer in business, but it looked as though it was an important building at one time because it had lots of communications equipment on the roof and with barbed wire all around the perimeter fence it appeared to be a high security location. We laughed when Mark, our friendly Nevada UPS driver, stopped to say hello to us on his way past and explained that the "important" building was actually a Cat House. That's right, a genuine Nevada brothel. Mark explained that the legal house of prostitution had taken a lot of heat from the many jealous wives in the area and so they had closed down. After our lunch break we passed by the Naval Base Air Field and started to see the beginnings of development as we approached Fallon. The barren desert was now behind us and the number of houses and their proximity to each other changed exponentially the closer we got to the heart of town. On the outskirts of town we had two wonderful moments of "trail magic". One moment was in the form of local "magic", and the other was some long distance "magic". The local "magic" came when a gentleman named Bob who owns a Ranch back near the town of Austin pulled off the side of the road and hopped out of his truck with a couple of water bottles in his hands. He reminded us of our brief meeting back in the Café in Austin and told us he had been keeping an eye out for us as he made the drive from Reno to the Bobcat Ranch. We sat on the tailgate of Bob's truck and had a nice conversation about our Journey while we drank the cool water. Bob informed us that he really wanted his wife to meet us and asked what our route and timeline might be for the next few days. We mentioned taking some time in Fallon to arrange to send our water cart back east in preparation for our climb into the Sierra Nevadas and Bob was kind enough to offer a better alternative. He told us we would enjoy being able to have the cart, and the water it carried, until we reached Six Mile Canyon because we would be on good roads and we didn't really start to climb until the Canyon. We knew that there wouldn't be anywhere between Fallon and the Canyon to ship the cart from, which is why we were thinking we would have to ship it from Fallon, but Bob came to the rescue by offering to come find us at the end of the day tomorrow and pick up the cart so he could ship it back east. Bob, your a true "trail angel"! We received a phone call from Bob in our hotel room in Fallon and he asked what types of food we liked and inquired to see if we enjoyed a glass of wine every now and then. He told us he looked forward to seeing us tomorrow evening and wished us a good nights sleep in our cozy indoor accommodation. It sounds like Bob might be planning another round of local "Magic" for tomorrow, and are we ever excited to see what he has up his sleeve. The Hotel room, well, that's the "magic" that came our way long distance style. Maw and Pop Propster had been waiting for us to go through a Fallon sized city that would have a Holiday Inn so that they could treat us to the comfort of a king size bed, a chance to get a shower, an opportunity to catch up on what's happening in the world and simply enjoy a warm night indoors instead of a ten degree night on the ground in the desert. So tonight we are definitely enjoying our indoor stay and can't thank Maw and Pop enough for everything! We Love You and Miss You! We tried to multi-task this evening so that we could take full advantage of our town stop. We had our full photo cards put to disk so that we can take more pictures, we did a load of laundry, we reorganized our cart and it's repair kit as well as our packs so we will be ready for Bob when we see him tomorrow and we are now being as lazy as a couple of lazy hikers can get, enjoying every second of Maw and Pop's "magical" accommodations. As our lazy eye's get heavier and heavier and this king size bed gets softer and softer we can't help but to lay here and talk about how amazing "trail magic" and the kindness of others makes us feel. Whether it comes from near or far it's effects on us are the same, smiles on our faces and a warmth in our hearts!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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