Day 4, part two. Funny Thunderstorms.

So as I was descending Wildrose, I saw a thunderstorm coming in from the east. It was a little odd looking, but hey, it was a thunderstorm in the Desert.


Or so I thought. Got back into the room about five minutes before the thunder started. I got my shower, got back out... and heard more thunder.

A lot more thunder.

Two minutes straight.

I may be slow-witted, but after a while, this was enough to pique even my interest. I looked outside. Hmmm. Not a thunderstorm.


A sandstorm. The fire alarms started going off. The power went out. So I used my lack-of-decision-making ability to it's fullest. I did what any jamoke would do.

I went for a drive.

A little dusty.


I have to say, the fifteen seconds between my motel door and the car door were pretty wretched. Like, as you might say, being sandblasted might feel. I had my cycling (full wraparound) sunglasses on.

The goggles. They did nothing.

I must say I was quite lucky that I hadn't started on my bike ride an hour later... if I had, I probably would've been huddled over on the side of the road for hours upon hours. There was no way I could've ridden through that mess.

Once I got in the car, everything was OK. I needed to go to the next town over - rumor has it they had a washing machine, and after four days cycling, I was out of clothes. Got there, no problem. Even found the laundry machine. And - my luck was holding out - some friendly visitor had left a half-full box of soap to use. I put in my money and soap...

Nothing. What's going on?

Oh. No power here, either. This is 30 miles from Stovepipe, and 150 miles from real civilization. If I lived there, I'd have a generator. Especially if my industry was tourism.

Their thoughts on the matter? Not so much.

So of course, I drove back to the hotel, in the dark. The storm was getting worse; I had to stop a few times. But hey, it's just like driving in a blinding snowstorm, right?

Even more dusty.