Thursday, June 21, 2012
Maura O'Connell "Western Highway" & that Nevada Road
Years ago I spent some time at a cattle ranch in the Surprise Valley, which is a narrow slice of irrigated, alfalfa-growing flatland tucked up there on the northeast edge of California. Most of the ranch's grazing sprawled out into BLM land in the adjacent Nevada desert. Just received these photos from our Nevada correspondent of that wonderful wide open road, Hwy 447 that runs up to the Surprise Valley from I-80 just west of Reno. Remind me and sometime I 'll tell you the story of my only gunfight, which happened in the parking lot of a Denny's in Reno in 1976. I wasn't the gun. Meanwhile, try the Irish singer Maura O'Connell's wonderful "Western Highway"
"This being 447 heading north to Cedarville, which probably hadn't been paved back when you were around here...in this iteration a major inspiration for my '45 Chevy, though lacking storage I still haven't brought it up [the woodrats are a major disincentive]. We do this most every week we're on the desert, going for groceries in Alturas..." --MSM
Looks very drivable... (the louder the music the better) ... no cattle looming around the blind corners though, I hope?
ReplyDeletefunny you should mention it as, though rarely sighted, on that particular trip a group of cows and calves were indeed lurking around a blind corner just prior to the last picture...otherwise, yes, eminently drivable!
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