Letter From the Desert: Burning Birds IV

This is Part Four of a special essay series for paying subscribers to Letters from the Desert.

Parts 1 through 3 are linked below:

Letter From the Desert: Burning Birds (Part One)

Letter From the Desert: Burning Birds 2

Letter from the Desert: Burning Birds III

350 dollars a month in 2008, and worth every cent.

When I moved to the desert for good it was to the Ivanpah Valley, to the above-mentioned town of 15 inhabitants. My house there was two and one-quarter miles from a wilderness boundary, two and three-quarters miles to the Nevada State Line, and 400 feet from a major transcontinental rail line. When the train came through, all conversation stopped for as long as it took for the thundering engines and loudly creaking cars to pass out of town and take their noise with them. The only other alternative would have been shouting, but why? We were in no hurry.