stories "on the road",part five...

again,i am up after midnight... remembering many nights and cups of coffee,at a diner,trying to stay awake,so i would see the sunrise of many days... too many to count or remember... if i was to try to remember how many days that i saw a sunrise,it would be in the thousands of days... being "on the road" was an adventure that i will remember for the rest of my life,like the time that i did not get service at a Denny's,overnight,so when i left,i gave an one cent tip to the waitress,and bluntly told her that she did not know who she messed with,because,at the time,i actually knew the vice president of Denny's(i really did know him),and one call from me,and she would lose her job,if i was really wanted to make that call... the next time later in that day,i walked into that Denny's,and they all called me,Mr. Shaw,in saying that basically they all kissed my backside,like they knew that they had screwed up... i just smiled as i left... when i hitchhiked out of Reno,i would use an on-ramp,out of Sparks,Nevada,when i just wanted to leave,or to go to Las Vegas,i would travel to Carson City,and just walk out of the city limits(up U.S. 50,east out of downtown),because of the state prison in C.C.... i would start very early in the morning,even though,it would take longer to get out of Carson City... going to Las Vegas by hitchhiking,took a day normally,but sometimes,getting stuck in the Nevada desert was not fun,but a hazard that i dealt with,many times... like the time i was abruptly dropped off in Mina,Nevada,at sunset,and with nothing but a gas station/bar,and a hotel under construction,i was basically screwed,until a guy who saw me drinking a soda,at the bar,and he asked me where was i going to sleep,that night,i said that i would find a place to sleep... well,he gave me a twenty,and said to walk over to the hotel,and they would help me... funny thing is that he owned the hotel,and i never got his name... the next day,i got to Las Vegas,but i never forgot that gentleman's kindness... in fact,i passed that hotel many times,over time,and just smiled every time... i remember the time that i tried to go up U.S 93(the back way to Ely,from Las Vegas),got to a small town named Alamo,had a great breakfast,and then tried to hitchhike up the highway(that did not work too well),so i started to walk up the highway,and actually got stopped by eight separate NHP officers,eight separate times,in a half mile... so i stayed in Alamo overnight in a drafty and very cold trailer that has no doors or glass windows,in that very cold trailer... in fact,i got absolutely no sleep that night... the reason that i got stopped so many times,by NHP officers that day,was actually Area 51... really,believe it,or not... if you think that it gets hot in the desert in the daytime,believe me,when i say that it gets very very cold at night,in that desert... it was the coldest that i have been in my life,and that includes days in Reno,in the winter of 1991,and a night,in September,1998,in Kearney,Nebraska,when i had to run to a 24 hour supermarket,in 25 degree weather,with a 40 mph wind... BRRRRR!!!!!!! what a mind blowing trip....