We’re not paranoid – we’re being followed

By Matt Hufman

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013 | 4:39 p.m.

Day 3, Nevada Heartland trip, midday update

We started this morning in Beatty and headed north to Tonopah; we were stopped in Goldfield as law enforcement officials had been busy clearing the historic Esmeralda County Courthouse because of a reported bomb.

Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. B. Ferguson said it started around 7:30 a.m. and about 100 people were evacuated from the courthouse, an elementary school and the surrounding area. (Goldfield only has 259 people, so that’s most of the town.)

One of the wags in Las Vegas asked if we were involved. All I’ll say is: They’ll never know.

We spent some time talking to folks at the scene, including two women from Spain who live in Tonopah. (More on that later.) And then a helicopter buzzed around town and landed in open desert near the NHP road block. It was KSNV Channel 3. Man, we woke up with the Wagners and now they’re sending a helicopter after us?

We’ll watch. I promise.

Then we went into Tonopah and stopped at a grocery store. We met a man in the store – actually, he met us. He wanted to find who was in the Land Rover because he wanted to talk about the car. (It’s cool, especially covered in in dried mud.) We chatted with him and his wife and parted ways, but not before telling them about the Finding Nevada project. Then we went to get fuel at a gas station on the other side of town.

As I’m getting out at the gas station, a big guy on a scooter pulls up next to me. He wanted to tell us something, and he did. (We may detail some of that in a later story.) But how did he know about us? He’s friends with the couple we met in the grocery store, and they told him what we were doing. So he chased us down.

That scene played out in all of 10 minutes. Welcome to a small town.

Now we’re on our way to a smaller town — Belmont. Let’s see them get a scooter or helicopter there.