| Beatty, Nevada |
[Aug. 20th, 2006|04:43 pm] |
Wake up thinking it is way late. Gabrielle dreams that she lives in a mall and Will Smith is her boyfriend (also, Nikki McCarvill drives a taxi cab over water) Have to shake off the pleasant dream world and face our sad reality. Its only 8:30. Throw on our grubbiest clothes and head to the side of the road in an attempt to flag a cell-phone laden vehicle. Goal: reach our mechanic in Pahrump: What the fuck?!?!?!?! First car stops, kind old couple, no reception. Second, Dr. Richard Sullivan, our sun baked savior. No reception though he offers a ride back to Beatty, we’re on it. The man tells us how he owns a drugstore in Hollywood - Star Drugs, of course. The man had a son our age die a few months before, and could explain his generosity to help us. We drive the drive of shame, back tracking into a town we wished not to return to. Determined to find us a mechanic or tow truck, Richard flags down the first local we see, Tom (who later turns out to be the town drunk) who happens to be on his way into Lou’s Hardware and suggests we ask there. Lou is a kindhearted and sympathetic old gentleman, who gives us coffee and a saccharine donut thing. Mechanic situation is slim. Mechanic in Pahrump will not answer so I leave a , What the Fuck?!?!?! Sounding message on his machine. We are encouraged to get a tow back to town, so Richard is on the horn trying to get us a deal. Tow will be $150 for 15 minutes away. Dr. Dick leaves us (to go catch his flight from Las Vegas) with his card and $300, he just fished out of his pockets! Michael, with a long handle bar moustache, is our tower. Gabrielle entertains him with our sob story. Michael sits us and our van down in the shady park. Out of the 2 restaurants in town, we pick the Mexican one. Then back on over to the Amargosa toad general store. We meet the well known around town owners of this store. The wife is a witch!! The husband hunts down another local who knows mechanics. Pretty gruff looking guy, who seemed a tad mentally challenged. So kind all these town folk of Beatty. He can’t see any problems with the radiator or the coolant, though we can’t even get the fucking thing to start. Uh, Duh, maybe because we are out of propane, which makes no sense because we had just filled the reserve tank, though that was what made it die. After siphoning some propane into it and then going to fill it up, we knew that still wasn’t the only problem. Still the coolant wasn’t holding and things were hissing. We drive back to the toad store, chat it up with Jolene (the witch), we talk taxidermy. As gifts she gives us good taxidermy tips and a couple souvenirs of 2 dried toads and 1 dried lizard. A quick alien talk happened too. While we enjoy cold water and fruit popsicles outside, another rummy game is played, Gabrielle wins!!! Celia is almost done plucking one leg! Outside this toad store we meet our new best friend for a day, or new aunt or something. Shelagh, an exuberant, sun baked, bleached blond women who sits herself down by us and proceeds to talk non stop for the next 8 hours or so. She delves right into her life path/ past and sex life in the first hour. She is born in B.C. but is from Quebec, then Alaska, now Beatty, next Portland. She has just come back from Mexico and is delivering Jolene some “health food”. She loves rap, and calls her husband “dad” (he is an ex hells angel who used to hang out with Charles Manson, freak out!). “Wanna cruz?” she asks, and we head up to her old vaudeville cabin which is atop all the town on some interesting rocks. On the way up we stop in a trashy trailer park to deliver some old woman’s teeth from Mexico. Such cute aesthetics. Old stuff and fuzzy Alaskan things. Trailer as an extended bedroom. Beers on the porch, stories of mental/physical problems and the minds of cats are discussed. And were off to go see Rhyolite, a ghost town, sister town to Beatty. An old gold mining town, had 10, 000 people though it only lasted 5-7 years. There is an open air museum there and tons of decapitated buildings. Shelagh owns the building that was a general store, it is being transported to the Beatty museum. We saw some stray cats and wondered around the ghost town, old jail and brothel were the highlights. We hit the downtown bar. We hook Shelagh on dark Guinness beer, gamble with dice and make that jukebox sing. We head back to the Vaudeville cabin and try Curtis again (our mechanic). He reassures us he checked the things we were doubtful about, again he seemed genuinely concerned. Shelagh makes us a very needed dinner, delicious. Almost a full plate of meat (Gabrielle’s first steak ever!), topped with fresh Mexican goats cheese. A very American dinner. Chicken, steak, salad of iceberg lettuce with veggies and cheese, options of 6 different kraft dressings, rice, and steamed beans. We say our goodbyes. Shelagh gives me a present of old bottles and a book of traditional medicinal plants of the area, mostly Yucca mountain.
Poppet still faces every mile with a shutter, and as do we. Every noise and smell worries us. We pull over after 10 minutes of driving, hissing, we let it cool, replenish its fluids and try to start out again. Nothing! Nausea sets in, are we defeated again???? No, it was a silly mistake, with a slight adjustment of the gear we are on our way. Another almost ghost town is visited by us as we let things cool again. Plan of action: sleep in Tonopah and go to another mechanic in the morning. We get into Tonopah by 2:30, park by a gas station, sleep off the day.
- Celia and Gabrielle |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
a_poppet_diary's journal
