It's hardly the most spectacular scene, but if you can put yourself here and try to imagine how impossibly still this place is, with only the wavering gusts of hot desert air whining through the telephone poles, and the only visible source of movement the small dust devils rising up from the dry earth, you might understand why I spent a short eternity drifting along the tracks. There was a loose tie spike at one point. It came out easily. I wanted to take it, but figured that would be stupid, even if it was completely loose already.

I waited for a passing train. And waited. And waited. Ultimately, in vain. You haven't completely lived unless you've stood aside a mammoth freight train careening down the tracks through a deserted western town. Happily, Granger, Wyoming provided that the day before. I just wanted a repeat.

Here you can just see our beloved Mini Darth Vader Mobile parked in front of Wells' old frontage. Only two of those shops actually function. The rest await reuse or refurbishment, with the odd repainted facades belying the disrepair behind them.

Another view.

Elsewhere.

Most of the rest of my pictures are still on Robert's laptop, so it'll be a few days till I get them. There are a lot more coming down the 395, but they're all mostly terribly pointless. Lots of shots of the Sierra, Mt. Whitney, gathering storms, etc, but they mostly completely fail to convey any of the grandeur of that miracle of a highway. Little digital cameras are great fun, but if you're not stopping the car and not using a real camera, it's a lost cause. Hence, most of my photos suck. But you'll get to see more anyway!