Day 19 - Luxury Accommodations (June 20th, 2024)

City - City: Dillon - Ennis

Miles: 85

Miles Total: 1,252

Video: https://youtu.be/X_uj6g2TmcE?si=0VNpnq4-GyEOKx9n

A picture with Kevin and Lisa on their deck

    We got on the road fairly quickly, and waved goodbye to Larry, who had come to see us off.  With only about seventy miles to go, we took it easier, and had a tailwind for some of the ride. 

We stopped for lunch near a historical site, and after lunch we saw a guy who had just finished mowing. The guy told us a little bit the cabin.   That cabin was a halfway point to stock up on supplies.  And from closet city, Virginia City, to that cabin, robber's made that highway a target because of the recently stocked-up supplies families would bring on the last stretch of their journey.  But the law was able to capture most of the outlaws, and five were hung in Virginia city.  In one of Virginia City's buildings, workers were reparing the ceiling took down the ceiling plaster.  There they saw five rope marks of the five outlaws who were hanged in that city.

    After the impromtu story, we continued on until we came to Nevada City.  My dad made some calls.  Then a mile later, we came into Virginia City.  My dad needed to make more calls regarding the family business, so Henry and I wandered around the small town, eating apples.  After that, we had one hard climb of thirteen hundred feet.  After that, it was all downhill to Ennis.
    In Ennis, we got groceries, and waited at a dry cleaners store.  To get to our warm showers host, Kevin, we would've had to climb two miles of eight percent grade with second half of the road turning into gravel.  Kevin came and picked us up in his pickup truck.  We pulled up into a driveway that led to a big log house.  Kevin's dogs came to greet us, and jumped all over us in their eagerness.  Kevin showed us around the basement suite.  Kevin's house had the room to host at any moment.  Kevin then asked if we wanted to use all three spare bedrooms.  We accepted gratefully.  Being squashed in a three person tent, makes sure that whoever's in the tent is cozy and has to roll over gingerly so not to roll on top of one another.  Once we were showered and settled, we hung out up on the deck.

During happy hour and dinner, we learned each other's stories.          Kevin is a professional storyteller who knows how to engage his audience.  Kevin told crazy stories from getting frostbite while hiking in Alaska to fussy business owners.  Among his stories were frustrating tales of companies that slowly installed an irrigation system.  All these stories told about Kevin as a hardcore, resilient man, who pushed hard to solve hard problems.  When a company that Kevin had hired to install something, and was wishy-washy and slow to install the product, Kevin is never afraid to call the company and say, "Well, where are you?!  You said you'd be here on this day and time!"

    Kevin's wife, Lisa, is a beautiful woman, who prioritized hanging out with people rather than spending the evening making a meal.  Lisa supports Kevin's love for adventure, and listens to all of Kevin's ideas and has a beautiful discernment to sort out whether the idea is worth its risk.  All in all, Kevin and Lisa enjoy a good laugh with their two sons, and their daughter-in-law whom they enjoy teasing. All during dinner, they picked on Henry and teasingly betting how much lasagna he could eat after an eighty-five miles bike ride with eighty-five pounds on his bike.  And then the teasingly added that I could probably eat as much as Henry.  

    After ice cream with snickers toppings, we headed each to our own bedroom and fell asleep with the queen-sized mattresses all to ourselves.