Friday June 20, 23.7mi/38.1km

Jacob’s Well Station (990.6/5960ft) to Mitchell Creek saddle (1014.3/8570ft) (NV)

I had a nice easy morning of hiking across the valley on the Pony Express route.

Apparently this route is also part of the California Trail, used by emigrants in the 1800s. This sign described the Hastings cut-off, which I believe was a shortcut to California.

As I approached Overland pass, I noticed someone had cut down an entire forest of juniper trees.

It was very sad to see but also very curious, since it looked like it was very haphazardly and hurriedly done. Maybe there was a wildfire and this was just a fire break? And this mysterious roadside device got my attention as well. It must have something to do with water but I have no idea what that could be.

At the end of the roadwalk, it was about lunch time so I stopped to enjoy my few remaining snacks. I don’t usually get too excited over peanut butter and crackers, but these ones are actually pretty good.

For most of the afternoon, I climbed slowly up into the Ruby mountains on a series of old roads.

It was easy and enjoyable hiking through some surprisingly scenic meadows.

As I gained elevation I noticed it was starting to become more windy.

And of course, once I was high enough, the trees disappeared and I was exposed to the full force of the wind. I could see ahead to Mt Sherman, one of the first Ruby mountains I would pass by.

Eventually the old roads faded out, and I followed a very nice sheep trail along the ridgeline.

I was very intrigued by the view to the East, I was seeing all this water. I believe these are the Ruby lakes.

A mile later I came to the creators of the nice trail I was using. Sheep!

They didn’t seem too concerned with my presence, and this one even continued to feed.

I continued on the very nice sheep trails as I meandered around the ridgelines, on my way to dry Burro Lake.

More views of the Ruby lakes, way down below.

Around the corner I came across more sheep and an entire hidden alpine valley.

This little patch of dirt is Burro Lake. Yup, it’s definitely dry.

I had a nice long break on a patch of grass next to the lake, sitting near these red and yellow wildflowers growing next to each other.

I had one more small uphill section for the day, as I climbed up a small gully.

It was pretty easy travel with all the sheep trails everywhere, and it wasn’t even too steep. At the top of the pass it was quite windy, and the trees seem to have grown in a way that reflects this.

My short little XC hiking section for the day was quite simple, walking through little tufts of grass and bushes that were ankle high.

I crossed Headwater Creek, and filled up my bottles since this would be the last water source for about 14 miles. The water was very cold!

I hadn’t seen Mormon crickets all day, but there were definitely plenty of piles of dead ones in the creek.

I continued on a flat spot identified on the map as a campsite. It was definitely flat, but it was also very windy.

I continued on another half mile to a thicker forest, hoping it would block some of the wind. And it did help with the wind, but it was so strong that I still couldn’t setup my tent. Definitely one of the windiest days I’ve ever hiked in. After struggling to cook dinner in the wind, I finished my meal and crawled into my bivy sack to sleep.

Thursday June 19, 18.0mi/29.0km

Peak 9023 (973.4/8950ft) to Jacob’s Well Station (990.6/5960ft) (NV) +0.8mi spring

The wind had stopped overnight, and I woke up to find hundreds of mosquitoes waiting for me to exit my mesh fortress.

It’s strange that there’s so many mosquitoes around, there isn’t even any water here. I packed up camp and headed out at 6 am, I still had 10 more difficult miles in the Diamond Range before I would drop down to the valley below.

It was beautiful walking the ridgeline all morning, and often I was able to find some horse trails to link together and make hiking a little easier.

It was amazing seeing little patches of snow. I filled one of my empty bottles with the snow, and stuck it on the sunny side of my pack so I would have water in a few hours.

Looking ahead, I could see the next pass I would go over had another snow patch, but also some creatures moving around nearby.

As I got closer, I was astonished to see that there was a pack of horses walking on the snow!

They didn’t hear me until I was pretty close and then they all scared off and ran up the hillside.

So far the hiking today had been difficult but I was able to keep a steady pace, with the help of all the horse trails. The last 3 miles were exceptionally slow, due to the craggy terrain. My energy bars always have a timely message for me.

Enjoying the last of the horse trails, while surveying the upcoming terrain.

I spent awhile studying the upcoming ridgeline, and after concluding I couldn’t stay on top, I decided to try to hike along the back side.

So I crossed over the top where it was a little rocky…

…and started scrambling the back side where it was definitely rocky.

It took me an hour to go a mile, and it was pretty scrambly with a couple of class 3 sections where I was carefully planning my hand and foot placements. Looking back on the really slow rocky section:

It took me 3 hours to go 3 miles, and the scrambling was kind of fun, but I was relieved to be done with that part. I started dropping down the ridgeline to the pass below.

I bombed down the descent, losing 2,000 ft in just a couple of miles. When I got down to a dirt road, I was surprised to see a little historical sign. Apparently this road used to be part of the Pony Express route. Cool!

By now it was 1pm, and I would have stopped for lunch but I wanted to get to the water source in another mile. It had been 33 slow miles since I had seen flowing water. Corta spring was a little tricky to find, and it was small but I was able to get all my water refilled.

When I first got to the spring area, I thought it was dry. I had to follow the drainage almost a quarter mile upstream to find tiny pools of water. They’re actually located exactly where the USGS maps mark them, so any future hikers should have that map set downloaded. After enjoying a blissful hour of drinking lots of water at the spring, I continued on the Pony Express Road.

Looking ahead, I could see the Ruby Mountains, where I would be for the next few days.

I made it halfway across the valley before stopping to camp. There were plenty of signs reminding me I was on the Pony Express route, which was fun to imagine how that system worked.

The Diamond Mountains were beautiful, but quite difficult and I’m glad I have a few easier days coming up.

Wednesday June 18, 20.7mi/33.3km

Diamond Spring (952.7/8330ft) to Peak 9023 (973.4/8950ft) (NV)

I got an early start at 6am since I wanted to get up to higher elevation before the heat of the day came. I started off with a very steep 4wd road for half a mile, which is a great way to wake up.

Looking back to the South at what I just came up:

And looking ahead, north, to Diamond Peak:

The old road disappeared and for the rest of the day I was hiking XC, usually on horse trails but sometimes just walking straight through the sagebrush. And for most of the day the trail was either going steeply uphill or down, almost never flat.

I loved walking the rocky ridgelines, this one was heading to the summit of Diamond Peak.

After a couple hours I made it to the summit of Diamond Peak!

I signed the trail register and spent awhile looking through it, the entries went all the way back to 2004 which was pretty cool. The view ahead, departing the summit:

The ridgeline departing the summit was the most enjoyable all day, it was pretty flat and relatively rock-free making for easy hiking.

Sometimes the ridgeline would become quite rocky and I would be slowed to a crawl pace.

As the morning progressed it started to get quite warm, and I was glad I was up here at 9,000 ft elevation.

Lunch time was my usual affair of cheese and summer sausage on a tortilla.

After lunch I dropped down a bit in elevation, and the ridgeline started to become a little bit rockier.

I’m not sure, but I think this is a horse skeleton since I had seen a herd of horses earlier today.

When there were horse trails, they were pretty nice, and I was very thankful to have them.

At one point, the guidebook instructs hikers to “save energy” and avoid a 700ft climb, and instead travel around one of the ridgelines, side-hilling for 6 miles. Umm, no thanks. I tried that for a mile and it’s exhausting when there is no trail. To anyone reading who is planning on hiking this, just hike up onto the top of the ridgeline, like I eventually did anyway. And when I was on top of the ridgeline, I found lots of nice horse trails, and also a massive square cairn that somebody had built. It was very strange.

I noticed as I hiked further north in the diamond mountains, the bugs increased. I was surprised at how many mosquitoes would swarm me every time I crossed over to the east side of the ridgeline, where there was no wind. I was even more surprised to see these disgusting bugs make a return, I hadn’t seen them since the Toiyabe mountains.

It was an exhausting day of hiking, and after moving for almost 14 hours, I had only covered 21 miles. It was time to look for a campsite and I was too depleted to continue, so I found an awkward little spot between some boulders, which helped block the wind. I made my dinner while watching the sunset, counting down the minutes until I could fall asleep.

This was probably in top 5 hardest days of hiking, and after finishing my dinner I could barely keep my eyes open and passed out.

Tuesday June 17, 9.8mi/15.8km

Eureka (942.9/6460ft) to Diamond Spring (952.7/8330ft) (NV)

I had a relaxing morning at the motel, first going down to the lobby to enjoy their free breakfast, which had pancakes and fruit and yogurt and even real juice. Then I went back to my room and had a final shower, and then making second breakfast in the little kitchenette room. Totino’s pizza rolls with applesauce and chocolate milk, those are breakfast foods right? I got my new shoes from the hotel manager, corporate policy didn’t allow me to ship them to the motel, but she nicely offered to ship it to her personal address and brought them into work.

There’s quite a difference in the rubber tread!

The previous pair I got in Ojai, which was over 600 trail miles ago. I checked out of the hotel at 11am, walked back down the Main Street to the Owl Cafe for lunch. Most of what they had was hamburgers, but I managed to find a chicken sandwich on the menu. Afterwards I went to the library to update my journal, and do some research on the upcoming Idaho Centennial Trail (in Idaho, the Hot Springs Trail basically follows the ICT). Once I get to the Idaho border, I might flip up to the northern border and then hike southbound through the state, possibly avoiding some hot weather and/or wildfires. I said goodbye to the librarian, who seemed very nice but not very educated, she hadn’t even heard of the upcoming Juneteenth holiday, which I think we’ve been celebrating for 6 years now. On my final walk through town I passed this fascinating vending machine, which sold USB chargers, snacks, and sodas…but warm sodas.

It was an easy walk out of town on a series of dirt roads, and even a really faint two-track road that I had to squint to see. But it was there!

That I was back on a decent two-track road for the rest of the afternoon, gradually climbing up to 8,500 ft elevation.

Once I got above 7,500 ft the trees disappeared as usual.

I arrived to Diamond Spring and confirmed it had water flowing, and then backtracked a minute to a flat-ish spot to camp. I had a pretty good view from my campsite.

I will fill up my 6 liter capacity at the spring in the morning, and then I have a 33 mile dry stretch of trail. And based on reading the journals of previous hikers like Buck30 and Krista/Eric, I knew this upcoming 33 mile stretch over the Diamond mountains would be tough and slow. So I’ll be fine, just a little thirsty by the end.

Monday June 16, 8.4mi/13.5km

Spring Valley Pass (934.5/7720ft) to Eureka (942.9/ft) (NV)

I slept really well in that camp spot despite having weird dreams about Jacinda Ardern (former Prime Minister) rescuing puppies from the sea. Excited for town, I had an early 6am start and was moving quickly towards food.

It was a pretty easy 8 miles of mostly downhill hiking, though I did hit a little traffic.

Being stuck in a flock of sheep definitely gave me New Zealand vibes. Eventually the shepherd came by and I talked to him and he is Basque! Apparently they have a history of settlement in this region from the 1800s. I visited Basque country a couple summers ago on the HRP (Pyrenees) route. After the congestion cleared I continued towards town, passing an old abandoned mine along the way.

I got into Eureka at 9am, and noticed it’s quite a bit bigger than Austin, and had more restored historic buildings.

The Opera House!

The saloon and general store.

And of course, just like Austin, they advertised their location on “the loneliest road in America”.

Since I was right next to the post office, I went in to get my resupply box of food (thanks Mom!). This was my favorite post office, because Daisy was helping to work the counter.

Next I went to eat breakfast, at the only place open in town, the Eureka Depot coffeehouse.

That cinnamon roll was made from butter with Vermont maple syrup in it. Amazing. It was still early so I hung out for an hour, charging my phone and catching up on the world. Sounds like the “No King’s Day” demonstrations were mostly a success. On my way out I met a Kiwi wearing an “All Blacks” t-shirt, he’s from Wellington. That was my third New Zealand connection today, the universe is weird. After breakfast I went across the street and explored more of the historic and touristy parts of town. Like this five-hole outhouse!

It didn’t explain how it was historically used, but I imagine five people would sit there and hold hands?! By now it was afternoon and I went over to the hotel to try and check in early. The hotel was short-staffed so the rooms weren’t ready yet but she said I could hang out in the breakfast room on one of the sofas. They had insanely cheap soda pop so I grabbed a couple, it’s so easy to get dehydrated out there.

The Best Western sure stay really had everything, a nice laundry room right on site, a fitness room, and even a full kitchen so I could make some meals and not have to spend lots of money eating out at restaurants.

So I made dinner in that little kitchen, though once I heard the Urban Cowboy restaurant had really excellent garlic naan, I had to go down and grab some. While I was waiting, a cold Coors beckoned.

I love that this is the default beer in this part of the world. Afterwards I went back to the hotel and flipped through the channels and watched half a season of Orange is the New Black, haha.

Sunday June 15, 26.4mi/42.5km

Faulkner Creek (908.1/7400ft) to Spring Valley Pass (934.5/7720ft) (NV)

I slept great next to the sound of the creek, and it was a nice cool morning. I had another mile of hiking in the forest before it disappeared.

I started noticing these little cacti, even though I’m still up high in the forest. The climate of this part of Nevada is intriguing.

Soon enough I was back down at a lower elevation in the sagebrush, beginning my crossing of Antelope Valley.

Just as the forest was ending, I had stopped at Faulkner Creek to fill up my water for the next 33 mi to town. Which was a good strategy, because although the guidebook lists the Hot Spring Ranch as having water, it was closed.

There didn’t seem to be anyone around, and I had 5 liters, plenty of water to hike the 30 miles to town. But it was odd. They actually had Wi-Fi, and forgot to put a password on it, so I was able to check their website and saw that it was no longer available for overnight stays or day use. It was only available for large groups to rent out the whole facility. Darn. I continued down the dirt road, crossing Antelope Valley. I saw no antelope, though I saw plenty of wild horses.

There was another private ranch, where the trail made a big detour around, adding a couple miles to the crossing of the valley.

By now it was getting a little hot, so I was looking forward to completing the valley crossing and getting back into the shade of the juniper trees. I stopped for lunch underneath the shade of a windmill, and I could hear it actually pumping water.

After eating most of the remaining food in my bag, I crossed the lowest part of the valley which was a playa.

There was even a little bit of easy XC hiking, there was such little vegetation on this playa that it was basically walking in a straight line, aiming for “Wood Cone peak” in the middle of the photo.

The end of the valley was in sight as I could see juniper trees nearby. And for some reason, antique junk cars were also nearby.

I took a nice long break in the shade of a juniper tree, enjoying the view back across the valley. It was fun to look at Summit Mountain, which I had hiked across yesterday afternoon.

Most of the dirt roads I hiked on today seemed very remote, I’m sure they’ve seen more hooves than tires. I had a small climb out of Antelope Valley up through a juniper forest and these cool little rock formations.

The rocks kinda reminded me of the ones in Joshua Tree, and they looked quite climbable! I spent the rest of the day hiking in a sparse juniper forest through Spring Valley, which was slowly leading me north towards town. Unsurprisingly, one of the spots the guidebook marked as a campsite was non-existent, so I continued a mile to the next spot which was a real campsite.

I hadn’t seen a single person all day today (or yesterday), so going into town tomorrow will probably feel a little hectic!

Saturday June 14, 26.7mi/43.0km

Toquima Ridge (881.4/6850ft) to Faulkner Creek (908.1/7400ft) (NV)

It was a great spot in the wash amongst the trees, and I noticed after hiking only a few minutes this morning the trees disappeared as I went downhill.

I finished off the last bit of XC hiking through some sparse sagebrush.

I arrived at Monitor well #3, which the guidebook says is a water source.

However, the windmill was missing most of its parts, and it appeared the well pump had been converted to run on electric. But there was no source of electricity nearby.

It appeared to be wired to run on a generator, which is a very odd setup indeed for a livestock water source. I climbed up on the metal tank and looked inside, only to find it empty of water but did contain two resident birds.

So I continued on across the Monitor valley, the next water source was 8 miles away on easy dirt roads. Thankfully it was a slightly cloudy morning which kept the temperatures nice and cool.

Apparently I had passed by the geographical center of Nevada. I looked for a sign but there was none. Now I kinda want to find the geographical center of all the states (except Hawaii, because it’s probably in the ocean). When I got to Wallace Canyon, I started hearing a lot of hoofbeats, and pretty soon I saw the culprits.

A few minutes later I started seeing riparian vegetation, some willows and cottonwood trees, and found the little side trail through the water source.

The guidebook calls it a springbox, but really it’s just a white PVC pipe. It was only 11am, but I had an early lunch and drank a ton of water since I knew the next water was up and over the Monitor mountain range. So I wouldn’t be seeing water again until tomorrow. The quiet dirt road climbed nice and gradually.

And as I got a little higher, the Aspen trees started to appear again.

After an hour of that nice road I turned onto a steeper 4wd track, which took me up to the top of the mountain range.

It was pretty amazing hiking through a sea of purple flowers for like a quarter mile.

Every time a breeze came, the whole field would shift and sway in vibrant colors. The 4wd track was decidedly inefficient, whoever built it was probably drunk as it went steeply uphill but then also sometimes back down half the gain. Ugh.

Finally after climbing 2,000 feet to gain only 1,200 feet overall, I cruised along the top of the ridgeline for a couple hours. There were lots of horses up here as well, though not all of them were alive.

Another strange sight was the last little bit of lingering snowpack.

After the nice traverse of the ridgeline on old 4wd drive roads, I had a couple miles of XC hiking. About half of the time I was able to follow horse trails to traverse the mountain.

I was pretty amazed to find three different colors of the paintbrush flowers!

Technically I walked on snow today, for all of 4 feet!

After hiking around Summit Mountain (a ridiculous name), I came to the little pass between it and Antelope Peak, so I knew I was almost done with the XC hiking.

Frustratingly, I couldn’t camp at this pass since it was far too windy and there were no trees, even though there had been trees all day at this elevation. So I descended into Faulkner Creek valley.

The guidebook suggested following patchy game trails, which was certainly a successful strategy, there was a very well-used braided web of game trails to link together and follow. I tried to stay away from the creek and it’s thicker vegetation, and pretty soon I was down at an old grassy two-track road. The guidebook full of lies also said there’s a campsite here but there was none to be found, just slope-y overgrown ground. So I followed the grassy two-track road another mile before I found a flat little spot under some pines right next to the road. It appears no one has driven this road in years so I’m not worried about a vehicle coming by. It was such a beautiful day of hiking but I definitely earned it with calories burned, and a few extra unplanned miles at the end of the day. Gonna sleep good tonight!

Friday June 13, 21.3mi/34.3km

Birch Creek (860.1/6760ft) to Toquima Ridge (881.4/6850ft) (NV)

I slept great in my new tent and even though it was a little damp in the valley, The fabric didn’t stretch and sag. This sil-poly material seems so much better. It was a nice morning of downhill hiking.

I descended through Birch Creek Canyon. I loved seeing the cliffs and rock faces.

After a couple miles, the canyon wall started to disappear and I was entering the main valley, which apparently is called Big Smoky Valley.

That’s the same name of the valley where I was almost a week ago so that’s a little confusing. A little while later I left the National Forest.

Looking back on the Toiyabe Mountains that I spent last week traversing.

The rest of the morning I spent crossing the valley, initially following a fence line.

And then just following a perfectly straight, ancient road for a couple hours.

I started seeing some hoof marks on the ground, and I saw burros in the distance.

I arrived at Spencer Hot Springs a little after noon, so I thought it was a perfect time to have lunch. Another large group had just arrived on their ATVs, and though their dogs had initially tried to scare me off, they were very friendly people. An ice cold Coors light never tasted so good.

We talked for a while, they are camped in the same valley I was in a few days ago, seems like they’re having a great weekend. I passed around my little map of the Hot Springs Trail to explain what I was doing, some people seemed shocked and/or impressed that I would walk that far. Fun times!

Soon they were headed out to their next stop, I said goodbyes and then went to check out the hot spring.

The water seems nice and hot, probably 115°F. It was kinda a hot day and there was no shade, so I didn’t feel like getting all the way in, I just put my legs in. I was there for probably an hour relaxing and eating my lunch and listening to an audiobook. Eventually I packed up and on my way out noticed there were other constructed pools, so I checked out one of the other ones too.

This one was much cooler, maybe only 90°F. It was also surrounded by burros, who seemed both shy and very curious at the same time.

From there I had a pretty chill afternoon of following an ancient dirt road, and then some surprisingly easy XC hiking up and over the Toquima mountains.

Pretty quickly, I was on top of the ridge.

I followed that for a little while through some nice pinion pine forest, and then started to descend the other side.

It was fun to descend while walking in a wash, feels like forever since I’ve hiked in a wash. I’m not sure why this trail doesn’t use them more often. There are two other mountain ranges I will be crossing over briefly during this section. I’m hiking East during this section, which means I’m going against the grain of the mountains. I found a nice little camp spot under some pinyon pines, and of course in a wash. It seems nobody ever comes up here since there are no roads or trails, so it should be a quiet night.

Thursday June 12, 10.1mi/16.3km

Austin (859.0/6555ft) to Birch Creek (860.1/6760ft) (NV) + 9.0mi Austin spur

Not a whole lot of interesting things happened today, I finished my usual cleaning chores and then left the hotel at 11am, heading to the little veterans park to sit on a shaded bench while updating my journal. Having finished that I walked a block and returned to the International Cafe, today just ordering french fries. I met a fascinating older couple from Colorado who were wrapping up a huge loop roadtrip to the Olympic peninsula in Washington. After my meal I walked up to the library, and on the way I noticed this old bar. I’m not sure if they ever understood the coincidence of naming their bar Golden Club, while advertising Coors.

The town library had recently moved into an old renovated general store. It was a really neat building.

The inside was small but very nice, and they even had one of those cool rolling ladders to get to the books on the top shelves.

After updating my maps and doing a few other computer chores, I ended up chatting with the librarian about my hiking route. I also learned about Mormon crickets and their part in the history of Mormons and Salt Lake city. The Hot Springs Trail is a lonely trail, and I miss having conversations with other people, especially intelligent conversations with interesting people like her. But alas, it was 4pm and time to leave, so I hiked out and reversed my route from yesterday.

Back up the hill, and then right back down to Birch Creek again.

After 3 hours, I was back on the official Hot Springs Trail, and decided to hike a little further and cover some new terrain. After a mile I found a cozy little spot next to the creek, and set up camp in my new tent.

Wednesday June 11, 7.6mi/12.2km

N Fork Birch Creek (859.0/7300ft) to Austin (859.0/6555ft) (NV) +7.6mi Austin spur

Usually on town days, I’m up earlier and excited to get to a restaurant and eat my face off. But the tiny Town of Austin doesn’t have anything open before 11am, so I lazily left my campsite just before 8am. I had another hour of gradual uphill hiking and then 4 miles of downhill into the town.

After I got over the highest point I could see down into the little town. The view reminded me strongly of descending into some of the little towns on the HRP/Pyrenees hike.

I got into town a little after 10am, and since no food establishments were open, I went to the post office and took care of that task.

I picked up my box of food, and my new tent (my old one finally died after 6,000 miles). As I walked through the town, I noticed most of the storefronts were closed. This little cafe still had their temporary closure sign from Covid-19.

And this convenience store appeared long out of business.

It was a cute little Main Street though, with the classic Western storefronts and the feel of an old mining town.

And they heavily advertised Highway 50, “the loneliest Road in America”.

Finally, it was 11am, and I walked into the International Cafe, which seemed to be neither of those words. They didn’t serve any International food or traditional cafe/breakfast food, only burgers and chicken wings.

The food was actually pretty decent and the server was friendly, and I especially appreciated the cheap cold drinks!

I spent an hour there eating and relaxing and then headed over to the hotel to try to check in early. It worked!

The room was a strange configuration with a secondary little bedroom off the main room. But it was very modern and seemed to be recently renovated. Lots of USB plugs, a waterfall shower, and a heat pump. I exploded the contents of my backpack all over the room and washed some clothes in the sink, and then unpacked my boxes from the post office. Delicious homemade peanut butter cookies in the food box!

I spent a couple hours planning the next parts of this trail, eating some snacks I got from the convenience store nearby, and watching old 2000s movies. High School Musical was on two different channels, fascinating. By 5pm I was pretty hungry so I went over to the other restaurant in town, Grandma’s.

I have been craving a salad all week so that was the first thing I ordered.

They had a pretty limited menu, and on some advice from the two hikers ahead of me (Eric and Krista) I ordered a pizza and it was legit really good.

It was called the ridiculous pizza and it had basically every topping on it. Except pineapple, because I’m not a heathen. As I was leaving dinner I ran into two other outdoorsy looking guys, so I chatted with them and learned that they are biking across the US on Highway 50. Pablo is from Madrid, and Gary is from DC, and they just met each other yesterday after a month on their journey.

It was really cool to meet other adventurers, we swapped a few stories and then went down the street to the convenience store where we each got some snacks or drinks. And of course I got ice cream! They finish about a week, at the Golden Gate bridge. Pretty cool! I went back to my motel room and started packing up stuff for tomorrow, while watching some more old movies.