Epic Recap -- Nevada

When we were preparing to leave Ben and Gina's house (my brother and sister-in-law) in Austin, Texas we were both ready to get home as fast as possible. Once we got on the road however, taking semi-back routes from Austin to I-10, we also decided we really didn't want to go near LA like our original speed-home-quick route was pointed to.

"I want to go through Nevada," Ian said.
"Okay, let me figure it all out," I replied.  It turned out to be a bit of a Northwesterly jog through the mountain valleys with amazing scenery. 

Yellow highlighting is our route through Nevada, "the silver state"

At one point Ian pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He got out for a cigarette and said "Aren't you coming out of the car?"
"Nah," I said.
"C'mon you HAVE to, it's so quiet"

So I climbed out of the car, shut the car door and walked toward Ian. The gentle pings of the car cooling off, and the crunching of sandy pebbles underfoot were the only sounds. I stopped and stood there, and looked around. It is the first time I've been in the midst of complete silence during the day. You know how things quiet down at night and you can feel everything slow and become more still as people generally are at home and sleeping. There is always some noise though, the rustle of the wind through the trees or an occasional car on the road outside. Even when you are out camping, the night animals are singing their songs, or you can hear the brooks or ocean waves.

This, was just completely quiet. My little ears couldn't pick up a sound. There were no other cars, no towns in sight, no animals and no trees for wind to rustle. Just absolute stillness in the desert. A moment I'll remember and hold onto for a long, long time.

I think we stopped somewhere "About here" on route 361N.

"Take a picture of me." "In the car?" "well, where did we spend most of our time?" "good point, okay"

 I think that route through Nevada's back roads is something I can call on when I start getting anxious or worried about the things that get me worked up. It was all just so expansive. 360 degrees of land stretching all around and all quiet. It was one of the times during our trip that I felt really small, in a good way. Because if I'm this small, then those problems I could fret over are minuscule, inconsequential and not worthy of my little frets anyway.

So from the same state that brings us Las Vegas (future post) and Reno (we just drove straight through that one), we can also find contemplative stillness. It was awesome.