Here's a good true story....
The year 1999, somewhere between San Diego and Las Vegas...I was driving the long black highway, going toward Las Vegas for a few days of get away...Each sage brush looked like the last one I had passed a few yards back...The road was monotonous.
To break the boredom I would observe the desolate houses I would see off to the side the main road...They seemed to dot the landscape, like so many pieces of pepper on sunny side up eggs. They were numerous, to be so alone.
At these remote houses, I never saw any sign of life..In fact, many of the homes did not even have cars in front of them...They just seemed to set motionless in the hot sun, oblivious to the passage of time.
Well, I was born with a curious mind, so I had to find out who lived in one of these houses situated away from everything....Why were they there? What was their story?
I pulled my car over near a dirt driveway, and acted like I had car trouble...I got out and raised the hood, as if looking for the trouble that did not exist...I made as much noise as I could, like slamming a car door or two, and even honked the horn a time or two.
I had been there for close to 30 minutes when I heard a voice from in front of the house say, "Having some car trouble?"
I looked up, and sure enough, there were two guys walking down the driveway towards me...And one was carrying what looked like a shotgun...The other guy was armed only with a very friendly smile.
Since I had a combat background, and a debt collection background for a bookie, I was no stranger to what the sound of an iron click can do to the calm of the moment... I quickly looked around my vicinity for any type of safe cover, should the guy with the shotgun get frisky. There wasn't any.
I won't say if I was armed or not, but I was definitely out gunned, and out numbered...The double barrel shotgun was worth two men by itself. I had walked/driven right into trouble...I didn't like my chances.
As the two guys got closer, I continued to work on the problem that did not exist...I kept my head under the hood, but still watching their approach. When they were within a few feet of me, the guy with the shotgun said I was the first person that had ever stopped at their driveway...
The older man told him to shut up and get going...It turned out shotgun boy was his son, he was about 22, or so...He was going rabbit hunting when he saw my car at the end of their driveway...
The older man had a law enforcement background, and did some security work for a dude ranch down the way...It was fairly easy work, he said...There's rarely any trouble when you have no clothes on....No where to hide a weapon, that is no comfortable place to hide a weapon...And then he laughed, and said it was a nudist dude ranch.
I ended up having a beer with the guy, although I'm not a beer drinker, it was the right thing to do...He told me some great story's about his nudist dude ranch work...
He said that as long as he was not in the clothing prohibited part of the camp, he could keep his clothes on, but if he had to go into no clothes section, off they go...
He said he had to go into the no clothes section a few times, but he still wore his holster, for he is the law there...He turns his holster around till it is in the front, and he puts his badge on his holster....When he told me that I just lost it, could not stop laughing...
I finally left and went on my way....It goes to show you, you can meet the greatest people along the side of a desert highway.
