The
next morning broke clear and bright and full of promise. That changed
quickly when I turned on the morning news and saw the images of twisted
black space shuttle debris, surrounded by yellow police tape in some places
and for sale on eBay in others. I decided that Mica needed a walk in the
desert.
Without Judy or her SUV I drove my small sedan onto a dirt road through
the Palomino valley west of Pyramid Lake. Winnemucca Ranch Road runs
for 40 miles through rangeland and BLM forests. Perhaps it should have
unnerved me that mine was the only vehicle here with road clearance measured
in inches rather than feet. After all, I was driving my own car, not
a rental. But the road was flat and dry. In the few places where I had
to navigate pools of mud, I reminded myself that my brother works for
Mitsubishi so there would be nothing to worry about.
There were dozens of people dressed in spandex and wearing helmets and goggles driving outrageously loud machines up and down the rock formations as fast as they could. Little boys with early-onset testosterone poisoning were piloting miniature roaring ATV’s, following their smoke-spewing dads down the very trails through the sagebrush where I was planning to have a quiet contemplative walk with my dog.
