Lonesome Lynn

I’m still reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Great novel. But I only pick it up when I’m traveling. Maybe it’s the journey aspect and being “out west” and imagining I’m traveling with Gus and Woodrow. I resisted reading it for so long because of that scene in the TV mini-series. With the snakes in the river. You know the one I mean. Scarred me for life. But there is something achingly beautiful about the character’s personal journeys that seem to go hand in hand with vast -and sometimes unforgiving- landscapes.

I recently drove highway 50 that cuts straight through Nevada dubbed “The Loneliest Road in America” - took about six hours and I passed, maybe, 20 other cars. It was epic, vast, and beautiful in that lovely painful kind of way. In the way McMurtry captures awe and melancholy and makes you think … deep. Traveling solo does feel a bit lonely but in a groovy kind of way that floats around in your gut like tremors of giddy adrenaline mixed with fear and diet coke bubbles. I went through a few stages on this lonesome leg of the journey.

1.       This is beyond cool, what an adventure, I hope there’s gas

2.       The emptiness is beyond beautiful, those rocks are SO OLD, what do I really want to be when I grow up?

3.       Where in the hell did these two cows come from and do they belong to anyone?

4.       What if Aliens did land here and thought that all of earth looked like this? They should really look at other places on earth too. And it’s a good thing for us to learn because what if every time we landed on Mars, we really were just landing on their Nevada, and there are whole other areas that are green?

5.       If I was the last human alive, what would I do? I sure wouldn’t live here. Does anyone? Hello? I’m alone. Utterly and completely alone (crying).

6.       Just how many !!#$# mountain ranges do I cross?! Please don’t let me be the only human left alive.

7.       Look at that lake! Oh, wait, it’s just sand.

8.       Look at that lake! Oh, wait, it’s just sand.

9.       Look at that lake! Oh, wait, it’s just sand.

10.  Please dear God, is that a town?

Then just like that you go from NOTHING to RENO, NV. So many cars, so many people. I pulled up in my cutoffs, flip-flops, my blue “doo”-rag, and a while claw. Played a little slots and fit right in. Crazy.