What are we going to do tonight? | Reno, Nevada, USA | Dec 2008

Reno, Nevada was intended to just be a stopover, a random one-night stay to pick up a friend at the airport the next day on our way to Lake Tahoe, California. I was planning on disliking Reno; I was expecting to hate Reno.

After two days there, not only did I not hate the town, I started liking it. I drove past the slightly beat-down casinos, the kitschy trying-to-be-gaudy-but-failing motels, the slightly seedy downtown, the run down parts of town, the line of strip malls with the local outpost of every retail outlet known to the United States, but for some reason the effect was different on me than in almost every town in the United States (and I’ve been to a lot of them). Instead of hating it, it began to grow on me.

Perhaps it was the mountains, towering in the distance, full of opportunities, exploration, unencumbered, untainted, standing in stark contrast to the flashing lights of the casino. What is it about the simplicity of drastic changes of elevation that create such awe and wonderment, such excitement?

Perhaps it was because Reno sits in Nevada, with the vestiges of lawlessness, the hope of adventure and exploration that the idea of Nevada evokes in my mind, springing from westerns, tales of the west past and present, the halo of Vegas in the far-off distance.

I don’t know. But whatever it was, I’ll return.

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Ah, I have to thank photographer Emily Setzer for her recommendations over Twitter on things to do in Reno …