01.07.29 Sunday

We're in Egypt. Everything you need is either at your fingertips or hella far away. I decided to go to Reno today. My tent went over the rainbow with Dorothy, and so did my sleeping pad. That means a trip to a sporting goods. Benita and I have been talking about touching up our city-slicker punk-rock hair color so we need a beauty supply for bleach and Manic-Panic. This is our day off, so it's off to the city for us. I also need some health food stuff.

I put out a call for riders, and Matty answered. She's a circus performer from Arizona, who interrupted a visit to California to come out and do the DPW for a while. We left about 1:30 in the afternoon.

The adventure begins when we stop to take this marvy shot the of Pyramid Lake. I pulled over onto the gravel — that disguised the dune beneath! Stuck!

Matty suggested we jam the floor mats under the wheels to get some traction. As we were making some headway, a guy in a 70's Impala stops to "help" us. He gave simple instructions: ease it back, then throw it in first and punch it. Sinking and sliding deeper into the ditch!

That's when the Native American in the dually drives up with another friend in a dually towing yet another truck. Between them, they conjured up a nylon rope and a fire hose strap and pulled the Volvo out of the trench. I was kinda scared at this point because I've heard of people getting up to $300 to pull cars out of the soft perimeter of the playa. Our Samaritan finished with "So, drinks are on you down at the tavern, right? — Just kidding!" Don't try this at home.

We arrived in Reno about 4 PM — which is just in time to watch many stores lock up on a Sunday. But we found our way to the cluster of malls on South Virginia and got much of what we needed at the national chain stores. I got new dome tent for under $60 and some swim goggles for the dust storms. No chance of finding an open beauty supply; the punk color will have to wait.