Update on FO:E RoS and Life

Hi, it's been a just bit over uh, well it's been almost two months. Things have kind of happened really fast in my life.

First and foremost, the story still goes on! Chapter 4 is in the final rounds of editing right now, sorry about the delay in release during July life kind of happened in an unexpected and very sudden manner just after Father's day in the USA.

So what happened? Uh, I moved out from my parent's home due to issues with my mom. Disagreements about some stuff and her continued toxic behavior was making it more and more exhausting to continue living with her and my dad. Still no job yet, but now that I'm settled in my new home of Arizona (I'm in Phoenix, won't say where exactly because I prefer to not have impromptu meetups) I have been looking for work and getting back in shape. My mental health has been vastly improved thanks to having moved. The rest is after the break as to not subsume people's dashboard's in catching them up on what has happened.

I moved, so what? Well I drove from my old home in Hillsboro, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona in two days in a rental car and oh by the Stars was that a trip. Let me say this, I wish I had a dash cam for it so I could have gotten more photos because stopping to take photos would have cost me time to get back to civilization when I frequently was hours away from it. Honestly, it was the most alone and isolated I have ever felt and it started to make me lose it as out there in the back country away from the interstate highways there was no cell service, there was no radio, there wasn't even emergency service. Truly a feeling of being alone in a vast expanse, frequently there would be no other cars I saw for hours. Honestly? I wish I had someone with me but I had no options for a co-pilot except for holotapes and my plant.

I swear I'm not actually Starlight.

Day one

The first day was the roughest as I hadn't gotten fully packed the night prior and had issues getting the rental car, once I was out the door though I found it rather easy to keep going.

You know shit is about to get real when the sign says last rest stop for one hundred eighty miles.

After a few small towns you hit a period of three hours where there is nothing and an hour where you are driving on a 'highway' that is barely a dirt road when I went through it. What was fun was from six pm onward I was getting into the evening and was getting more and more exhausted from the lack of food and water, knowing not everything really stays open I began wondering if I should just curl up in the car at the next gas station. Then came signs saying no stopping because correctional facilities, so that sorted things out until I got to the city. I tried a few hotels before I found one that was still open, to say $40 for a night was cheaper than I expected would be lying but it felt very... fallouty to me, I felt like I had just landed in Novac, tossed my caps for a room for the night and passed out.

Or so I had hoped to, I didn't get to sleep for a few more hours. Truth be told my only regret was not stopping to get food as I went to bed with only having had breakfast that day, no lunch or dinner, and I went to sleep around 11pm or so that night. The last stretch of day one from Burns to Winnemucca was rough.

Day two

The motel 6 I slept in was good enough and gave me a good view of my car overnight, I took nothing in with me besides keys, wallet, personal documents and some water. It took me hours to wind down but I eventually slept. The next day I was up at 8am, checked out, gassed up at the place next door (this was June 24th from what I recall) and this was the point I actually interacted with people for the first time since March when Oregon went into lock down. To say that mask protocol wasn't being followed by customers would be an understatement. Upside, to those who reside in Oregon and don't know how to pump your own gas, it is brutally simple, oddly I will note to those who do not live in Oregon, gas pumps in Oregon lack the information on the pumps of how to do it yourself, which likely is what leads to said issues for Oregonians not knowing and having a minor to moderate bit of concern about pumping their own gas.

Concern I had the entire time in Winnemucca.

Onward with gas, water, snacks, a cold sandwich for lunch, and several egg muffins for breakfast I left and began driving. I also at this point had gotten the bluetooth working with the car and playing the FO:E Audiobook from my phone to keep me sane. This was paramount for the drive through Nevada as outside of major cities there is nothing in Nevada, and I went through some of the larger settlements. Let me put it this way, either it is a small town of maybe a thousand at most with capacity for more (casino towns), a small town of maybe a few hundred at most, likely twenty to fifty, or it is Reno and Las Vegas (by extension at this point Bolder City as well, yes I did stop there roughly where the Monument in NV is, nothing exists there but I got gas).

From here was the grueling multi-hour drive that I took only one stop during but had some odd experiences during. The first odd experience was for the first time in my life, while not passing, driving over one hundred mph, to be fair, nobody else was on the high way, nor had been for an hour and the only thing around me was salt flat. Should I admit to breaking a law? Probably not, but that was when I realized I needed to rely on cruise control for the rest of the day when not having to manually control speed for traffic. To be honest, driving the cascades and the hinterlands of Oregon the day before with out having figured out cruise control really wore out my ankle.

The next odd experience I am uncertain what it was but for a long stretch of the highway something was moving across it, be it detritus or, more worryingly, some kind of massive insect. Looking online, I probably drove through several patches of Mormon Crickets and let's just say I was better off thinking they were bits of dirt and gravel.

Yeah that's about how I feel now that I know the movement wasn't dirt moving in the wind, it was a swarm of massive insects crawling on the ground.

After this was honestly some of the most beautiful land I had seen and slowly got me into the mindset of the Courier of New Vegas once more. Honestly Obsidian did a great job crafting the feeling of the Nevada landscape, the remoteness, the emptiness of it is something I now can respect a lot more as well as how the hills, mountains, roads, and even dirt felt was pretty dang on point.

The one stop I took during the long drive where I was just resting was in Carvers at the Big Smokey Rest Stop, which is basically a few trees, two bathrooms stapled together that just have holes in the ground. It was not bad, picnic tables, trees, a nice view and it was quiet. While I was there for only a few minutes the brief lunch I had was relaxing and the sun got pretty toasty even with being in the meager shade available.

A nice if all be it rapidly warming break from the mind numbing drive, though Littlepip and friends were keeping me company.

Given the lack of a dash cam I don't have images of driving but going through Goldfield was interesting as the highway I was on took us right through the heart of town. Now while some might laugh at me for this, I do enjoy Ghost Adventures and they have a history with the locale and slowly rolling up on the Goldfield Hotel knowing it's long history and honestly it having some odd stuff about it, you do feel something even if you most of the time are poking fun at the crew of GA. Something about old abandoned places at the heart of a small nearly ghost town that are massive and somehow defy entropy's call demands some kind of respect.

The next few hours were listening to Littlepip as the traffic started to build and build as more highways melded together as I drew towards Vegas, then I got to Vegas and drove past the Strip, waved hello to the Stratosphere and kept going, I had no time to stop or even get off the highway, too many wrecks and it was already rush hour. So off to Boulder City I went for gas then across Hoover Dam.

Speaking of Hoover Dam, as I touched on Boulder City, I would have stopped for some photos but I was getting exhausted and might have confused what was open and closed for visitation and going to the outlook over viewing it and Lake Mead. One day me and my primary editor will go out there and see it, the IRL Helios One, and venture through Las Vegas (including the famous sign).

From here on out I was in Caesar's territory, I was familiar with some of it from having gone to college at E.R.A.U. in Prescott, AZ. The last stretch was upon me and this was where things got bad, as I needed my phone to work it started to not and Waze began to lock up and freeze. This is what I get for having a fucking wastelander copy of a pipbuck. Regardless I stuck to my gut and through use of straightaways on the highway and instinct managed to keep myself from making any mistakes. Honestly, the fact I never got lost during the entire trip was a minor miracle. I arrived in Phoenix and after a quick check of addresses I got to my friend's place and surprised him with arriving a few hours early. Swiftly we got me moved in and got some much deserved food and rest.

To say the least I was exhausted by the whole thing but it was a fun adventure, which my life has had a lot of. Now that it is over hopefully it is a few years until another occurs.