The day was spent driving along the border of California and almost running out of gas. I really had no idea where I wanted to go, but then decided to head towards Reno, Nevada. I only had about $500 left, and one last chance at redemption.
I did stop for 2 hours near Lake Walker to cook dinner. I parked on an abandoned road leading somewhere where explosives may still be active. The Safeway grocery store in the nearby town did not have any hot food, so I decided to cook some of the freeze-dried stuff. Unfortunately, I decided on the wild west chili and beans, which gave me gas for the rest of the day.
After driving all night, I was finally able to arrive in Reno late at night. It must have been approximately 9:00 pm. I played around for 4 hours losing $400 and decided that was enough and wanted to save the last $100 for personal, practical spending. The blackjack rules in Reno are terrible and I ended up playing with a whole load of horrendous players as I jumped from casino to casino and table to table. The last dealer I played with was the best dealer of the whole trip (in terms of dealing and penetration) but unfortunately, I lost to her also. She even mentioned sometimes the cards will run bad for a player for an entire day, which I agreed, but then added, this has been the 3rd day since it's been bad for me.
Reno is nothing like Las Vegas, and I will probably never play there again. It doesn't even look like a place where you can bring your kids, much less feel safe.
While walking to one of the casinos, 2 guys asked me if I could give them any change, but I didn't have any. They were in the 30's, decently dressed, and looked like they were very capable of having day time jobs, so I didn't like the fact they were asking for change. I was going in their direction, but decided to take a different street after this encounter.
Three days of losing big and only winning small made the gambling excursion end. With only $100 left, I knew better than to keep playing. At this point I decided to head towards Santa Clara, California, an adjacent city to San Jose. I wanted to visit my old high school, Wilcox, and the home I lived in when I was a senior in high school, which was right behind the school.
A few miles outside of Reno, on Interstate 80, I decided to take an exit to take a smaller road to avoid the driving too much on the interstate. It turns out it was a dead end exit; however, there was a man with his truck dead at the end of the small road. Had I known the road would end very abruptedly, I would have never taken the exit. He said he needed a jump and asked me if I was going to work, and I replied no and that I made a wrong turn.
He had very rugged features on his face and was wearing blue jeans and a flannel shirt in the cold weather. He looked to be in his 50's. I was very, very cautious thinking maybe that was a setup for a possible disaster. It was about 3:00 a.m. He started to walk away after I replied, thinking I would turn around, but I assured him I could help since he had jumper cables. The moment he started walking, I instinctively knew this was a man who genuinely needed help and not a killer.
We eventually got his old Ford truck started. In retrospect I think his cable connection on the battery might have been bad and not the battery. I hung around to make sure his truck would not die immediately. During that time, we spoke and I learned he was a Vietnam veteran, and then we spoke about Vietnam and the corruption there. He offered to buy a six-pack of beer, but I don't drink and it was late; I told replied it wouldn't be helping him if I accepted something in return, and he quietly agreed.
He assured me his truck would make it after about 5 minutes, and I headed off to California again. I believe he introduced himself as Barry. I was very happy to have been able to help because it was a long cold night on a short desolate road.
Then I ended up on a road heading south to Tahoe City. I was getting very tired and pulled out along a trail head and went to sleep in the vast darkness in the back of the car. I was much too tired to worry about safety since it can be very dangerous to drive drowsy- almost as reckless as driving drunk.
