pistol and kind of wish I’d had one
now. The coyote crept away, and I
was grateful they don’t hunt in packs.
But after all, this was the West. And
in the American West there is gold,
ghost towns, glorious tales of infa-
mous gangs, guns … and coyotes. AB
$21 an hour and as a result, he hasn’t
been able to staff overnight or on
weekends. Instead, because he lives
on-site, he, his wife and their sixteen-
year-old daughter take turns working
the desk and being ‘on call’. But he
says Elko is in a boom period and that
he’s lucky he bought when he did.
He gave me a ground-floor room
across from the pool. Although the
furniture is a bit older, it was clean
and cheery. It could very well have
been a branded box motel room, and
Kris is happy with that. Me, I was
disappointed. I was looking for a
more retro experience. So, with little
reason to hang around Elko, I figured
I should find the once-thriving town
of Metropolis, Nevada.
In choosing an aspirational name
like Metropolis, you should have big
plans. And Metropolis really did.
Founded in 1909, the town located 20
kilometres outside of Wells, Nevada
was to be a gold mining hub. It grew
to have a school, post office, hotel
and a population of 700. But all the
gold in the world can’t replace the ba-
sic necessity of water. And Metrop-
olis didn’t have water. The town had
hoped to be able to get water from
a nearby basin but the state denied
that request in 1941. Then a typhoid
epidemic hit and before the long the
town had to be abandoned. As they
say, “it literally died of thirst”.
Today, the town of Metropolis is
a ghost town. There’s a small mon-
ument there and you can see the
foundations of a few structures but
otherwise, not even tumbleweeds
moving. It is a solemn place, with
wind blowing dust over the ruins
and the dry hot sun beating down. I
sought shade and some water from
my saddlebag and thought about the
lives and dreams lost. That was, until
I saw the llamas.
I got back on my bike and begun
riding down the dirt road to the herd
of llamas in the desert. And not 10
metres away was a coyote, sizing up
his chances for a meal. When I saw
the coyote, he’d looked over at me,
like he felt I disturbed his chance
of dinner. I thought of Dan’s 9mm
TRAVERSE 86
Before launching a second career in
journalism with the Sixth Estate, Andrew held
various senior management positions in the
hotel industry working in Ottawa, Toronto,
Winnipeg and Houston, Texas. His hotel
experience spans the gambit of working with
limited service motels to full service luxury
properties and various brands such as
Venture Inns, Super 8, Best Western, Crowne
Plaza Hotels and Resorts and Hilton Interna-
tional. Andrew has an MBA with a special-
isation in hospitality and tourism from the
University of Guelph, lives with his partner,
pillion and pillar Amanda Anne, and two sons
Alex and Nic.
Andrew's love of motel's, especially those
of a quirky nature, has seen him ride the
United States looking for the outrageous.
The result, Sleeping Around In America;
Revisiting The Roadside Motel, which will
be released later this year. Visit Andrew's
website for more details - motelorcycle.com