The Road More Traveled

It was an interesting week that featured one 200-mile stretch of Idaho that I did not intend to drive three times in three days. Sunday, after my mistake of forgetting I was supposed to leave Nampa on Saturday, I hitched up the rig and headed for Twin Falls. About thirty miles east of Boise, I stopped at a rest area and noticed my fan was running at triple speed again. They’d just replaced the thermostat! This should not be happening. Then it stopped and I continued toward Twin Falls. Somewhere near Mountain Home, the battery charge light came on again. They just checked the alternator! This should not be happening.

Then everything was fine. Truck ran fine. Trailer pulled fine. And the gorge at Twin Falls looked spectacular.

Looking down the Snake River from the bridge entering Twin Falls.

On the ridge slightly right of center is the ramp that on Evel Knievel used to attempt his jump across the Snake River Canyon in 1974. His Skycycle X-2 didn't quite make it across.

So after a leisurely start to the day and getting a lot of writing done Monday, I headed to Jackpot, Nevada. It’s only about fifty miles. At forty-eight miles, the truck just stopped running. The battery charge light came on. Then a wrench light came on. Then a warning about the oil. Then I restarted it and it was fine. Except for the check engine light that stayed on. I camped at Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot and had a drink and a smoke. Everything was not fine.

I called the repair shop in Nampa and agreed to try to get the truck to them the next day. Unsure how long I would be gone or if I would be camped beside the highway waiting for a tow truck in the middle of the desert, I booked three more nights at the RV park, packed my SHTF bag (and my phone) and took off the next morning back to Nampa. I left my trailer in Jackpot—which sounds like the start of a bad joke or a country-western song.

Miraculously, they discovered the problem. The electrical fuse that controls the fuel pump had burned out but fused inside the box so it was still making contact and just shook loose a couple of times. This, they said was a known problem (but not a recall) and they had a repair kit that would put in a larger fuse and move the connection to a new location in the box. They also got my windshield washer working again. I got the truck back that afternoon for a mere $300 and drove the 200 miles back to Jackpot.

That was pretty much the extent of that except that I had now paid for three more nights in Jackpot so I didn’t leave until Saturday to head south through the desert to Ely, Nevada. Instead of leaving, I wrote. Do you know what that looks like? At the beginning of the year, I set a goal for myself to write a “NaNo a month” or 50,000 words a month in 2018. Here’s the chart of my actual progress.

29,000 words this week!

At 300 days into the year, I have already far surpassed my goal of 600,000 words. And mostly, they’re pretty good ones. In the past week, I wrote 29,000. I’ll accept that.

So, yesterday, I did make it the 200 miles to Ely and got there early enough to keep writing. This morning after doing a lot of blog and Patreon posts, I continued south across the Great Basin and am camped for the night in Caliente, Nevada, about another 150 miles from Las Vegas—tomorrow’s goal. So far, I have had no additional truck problems. Let’s hope it stays that way.

This is where the Pony Express trail crossed Nevada in 1860-61. And this isn't even the Great Basin. It's only the sort of large basin.

The Great Basin was great, in every way, in every direction. I suppose at one time in our geological history, it was a vast inland ocean. Now it is just vast. It was about 135 miles from Ely to Caliente and the scenery was pretty uniform. And there was only one rest area, which I could have used thirty miles sooner.

Looking toward Mount Wilson across the vast Great Basin.

The Basin is Great in every direction.

So, I’ve already far exceeded my NaNo-a-month goal for the year and here it is just four days from the start of National Novel Writing Month. That means there is just enough time before October 31 to join as a Nathan Everett Patron to follow along as my new novel is written in November. Wild Woods is the sequel to the popular City Limits and I plan to do most of the writing (hopefully all) of the first draft in November. Here’s an opportunity for you to read it before it even gets to my editors!

I’ve become more and more committed to providing my stories at no charge to those on fixed income and/or otherwise unable to buy books. It happens that I currently have over 1000 active readers of the serialization of The Gutenberg Rubric. City Limits is also available free for online reading. It is my patrons who are making that possible.

Now you can join my Fifth Wheel Community at https://www.patreon.com/join/NathanEverett? for $10/month and not only help me provide free reading material for others, but also get a chance to read along as I write Wild Woods next month. When you enroll, be sure to select the Fifth Wheel Tier as your reward level. I sincerely hope you will join me in this exciting project!

If you’d rather not commit to a monthly pledge, you can make a one-time donation of $10 or more at https://www.paypal.com/aroslav. Leave me your email address and I’ll send you the link to the reading site. Content will post nearly every day in November as I follow the story of Gee Evars, the man without a memory.

More next week from Quartzsite, Arizona!