XWHEN DAYLIGHT BROKE the scenery had changed.
While we expected to see rolling pastures with oaks and hickories and elms, we saw scrub brush, cacti, and junipers.
"Uncle Jean, where are we?"
I could see his reflection in the mirror above his head, his face smiling. "Nearly there, Chaz. Specifically, close to the border of Nevada and California. Technically, close to the middle of nowhere."
We were rolling down a two-lane highway now, the patched holes and tarred cracks were making the van bump every now and then as we moved along. The sky was clear, no real wind or traffic. Soon we turned off onto an old state blacktop road with barely a stripe on it. That took us a few miles into more desert. We finally saw what looked like a ghost town coming up ahead.
All that stood was a couple o
