Picture, if you will, a recently retired couple. They are in a pickup truck at a T intersection. She is the pilot and he is the copilot.
Before we go further with this story, let us consider the couple had recently left the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada some forty miles outside of Death Valley. In other words, the town sits in the middle of nowhere. The town was born during the gold rush and grew quickly with over 2000 claims in a 30 mile radius. Alas, the town was short lived and now only the foundations of buildings and a few store fronts remain.
Rhyolite's ghostliness has been reinforced by the recent addition of plaster statues created by Albert Szukalski.
With this is mind, let us return to the happily married in the pickup truck whose nerves are perhaps just a little on edge. They are stopped at the end of the road exiting the ghost town, The pilot, my wife, has just confirmed there is no approaching traffic for as far as the eye can see.. At the same time her foot is leaving the brake, the copilot, me. looks up to see a donkey standing atop a rise on the opposite side of the T intersection. The copilot, taken by a fit of artistic creativity, summons his best Shrek voice and yells DONKEY.
It was not the best timing. My wife slammed her foot back on the brake, her head twisting left to right at superhuman speed, What? Where? Innocently, I pointed straight ahead. Donkey. Shrek. Get it?
Since this blog is intended for all audiences, I cannot share what my wife said verbatim. I can say she invoked the holy trinity. Chastised, somewhat unfairly in my opinion, I made a note to keep artistic creativity out of my co-piloting responsibilities.
