June 16th, 2017 - The Start to a Great Adventure

G&C Summer 2017

Blogpost: 001
June 16

On the sixteenth of Friday in the month of June 2017 my fiancé, Charlotte E. Herbert (Chot for short) and I, George B. Alberts (or George Bruno Alberts for long) embarked on our summer expedition; a quest for specific insects, inspiration, and the American dream. As of writing this we’ve successfully acquired none of each, but cut a couple some slack for it’s only been twelve hours of a six-week pilgrimage through the American west.

            Charlotte is a second year PHD student at the University of California, Davis. She studies robber flies, or asilids as I am consistently reminded; a special kind of fly known for its predatory prowess and overall commonality across the country, hence our six-thousand mile road trip through multiple stateliness and national parks. Specifically Chot’s interest is in regards to the venom glands and prey selection of these little winged death machines, which she intends to harvest on the road in between daily nature-walks/bug-hunts, and entomology collections visits. I’m sure many a-fly will be caught and many a-venom glands will be extracted though I, personally will be offering little assistance in either department.

            Unlike my entomologically-driven fiancé I, myself have been drawn to literature and entertainment. Please excuse the brevity of my personal introduction for I’m not a fan of boasting and consider it unbecoming of oneself to describe oneself for that would be bias representation. But to summarize; I write horror fiction, currently work in theatre, and produce-write-direct-shoot-&-edit freelance commercials for the internet.

            On this summer adventure I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to accompany my love on her expedition due to a seasonal break from the theatre company of my employment. With this freedom I’ve taken the roll of journalist I suppose. I’ll be writing these little journal entries on our trip as well as capturing footage for a possible short documentary. I guess we’ll see how both these projects end up.

            I’ll keep this first entry brief. For one thing, because not much has really happened with regards to either of our “missions,” but mostly because I’m utterly bushwhacked and eager to hop into bed where my fiancé has been sleeping since I started writing this.

            To summarized: After a final packing assessment in Davis and a six hour drive through mountains, desert, and the final resting place of more than half of the Donner party (where cowboy-chili means something different) we finally landed in a little town called Elko, Nevada.

            After our drive we walked around, had dinner in one of the restaurant-casino joints lining the main road, and witnessed an almost intimidating display of generosity when a old, hefty cowboy sporting the best mustache I’ve ever seen; it had the shape and length of a horseshoe but had the lower-girth and poofiness of an imperial upper lip hair-caterpillar. As Chot and I paid for our meal at the cashier’s table between the dinning section and the slot machines the cowboy stuffed a fifty dollar bill into my fiancé’s hands and without saying a word, strutted out the facility leaving Charlotte, the cashier, and I in utter bewilderment. We still can’t comprehend the motive but if this should be an omen for the journey ahead, then perhaps it’s a fortunate one.

Start: Davis, CA

End: Elko, NV

Traveled: 430 miles