On the road to Las Vegas, rural residents think coronavirus fears are overblown
CALIENTE, Nev. - Glenndon Bundy adjusted his cowboy hat and leaned against a wooden post near the shoulder of Highway 93. A dry wind blew past; not much happening. A manager at the Sunset View Inn waved him over.
"People are overreacting to this damn coronavirus thing," he told Bundy, taking a drag from his cigarette. "Every election year there's a new disease! It's being blown out of proportion."
Bundy stood silent and listened. It's best out here in Alamo, an hour and a half outside Las Vegas, to give a man space, let him unwind.
Running north through Las Vegas, out on the eastern end of Nevada's open roads, is lonely Highway 93: a stretch where hundreds of miles of desolate terrain separate rural towns that resemble America's rustic Wild West past. The desert sand stings the eyes with the slightest gust and hopes and dreams lift and die in the great expanse.
Since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, life along Route 93 has changed in ways big and
