The middle of nowhere.

Pioche, on the east border of Nevada, is an old silver mining town which saw a boom and bust in the 1860s when silver was discovered. Once home to more brothels and gunfights than even the most violent of Western movies, it’s now dead as can be, although signs of the old days remain.

When it’s time to get out of town, you can be in Ely, to the north, for breakfast in exactly one hour, as my ride on a BMW K100LT proved back in 1994. The worst praise you could give this machine was ‘competent’, for it had all the charisma of a washing machine. Or Tim Cook. Always started. Never surprised you. But 110 per is no biggie in the middle of nowhere; there’s no place for the cops to hide and the only thing you will encounter is some crows munching on carrion.

W.C. Fields once remarked that Philadelphia was “A good place to be from”. He was mistaken. He meant Nevada.

Lyric theater, Pioche, NV.

Pentax ME Super, 40mm pancake lens. Kodachrome 64 scanned in a Nikon Coolscan 2000 35mm film scanner. (Re)processed in Lightroom 4.