You probably have seen some photos of those super ugly and unloved motels that you can find across the country. Especially they can be found from the desert and mostly the surroundings might look like a movie set from some old western.

Well, Slugsley Inn isn’t any different. In fact, all of Slugsley stayed in time and everything is in desperate need of repair what makes it a perfect hiding spot for me and everyone else who is just like me. Of course, we could also be hiding in plain sight, but there is always a chance that you are at the wrong place at the wrong time or someone decides to ask the wrong question at the wrong time when hiding in plain sight.

There is a small shop and a bar in Slugsley together with the Inn. The houses along the only road that Slugsley has are mostly if not fully already abandoned and some of them have even started to collapse during these past years that I’ve been more or less frequently visited this rathole.

Slugsley is also a place that most of the people doesn’t even know that exist. If you aren’t on the straightest path on your life then you have a chance of knowing this forgotten little place, but if you try to look it from the newer maps, there isn’t no chance to finding anything else than the greatness of Nevada's desert. And to be completely honest there might not even be a time when this place had a chance of being drawn to the map or then it has been drawn when someone had the idea to build the city.

You probably also wonder who I am. Am I just a voice of someone who has left the earth or is, a real person. The truthful answer to that is somewhere in between those two. At some point I had a name, a job, a house, and even a family but that changed about a decade ago and ever since then I’ve been on the road and almost everyone knows me by the name Sam.

Not too hard to guess that it isn’t my real name? Well lucky you as it’s not my real name. No one except me knows that name and no one probably will know it ever again. But if someone really wants to know who I was it’s not too hard to find it out after tying some loose ends together and doing a bit of googling or other methods of collecting information you probably will end up finding what you want as my past hasn’t been really hidden after I decided to leave that life behind me and just dropped out the grid.

You also might wonder how I’m able to survive on the road? For every two to three years I go up to Alaska and find some small vessel or a new guy on the fleet that needs a deckhand or an engineer and work season or two there, before making my way down south again. And if there is a situation where I need cash and fast I know a place or two where you can make an easy buck. But that route is just for the real emergencies as you can’t make as big of a payday as you do in Alaska, even though working in Alaska is sometimes so bad that you are more than willing to jump over the rail during the hour 30.

But working up north hasn’t really been the easy route as it did take me a few trials and errors to get my name out there and to find caps who are interested to speak after me so that there’s a better chance for me to get the job.

And also it’s bit easier to be nobody there and most guys know me there as Ghost as no one really never know where I come from and I haven’t really told my name to many people as I know that after a season or two we won’t see anymore as some of the guys find it too expensive and nerve-racking to own their own boat or they tend to just mess it up some other way so that they are back at the deck when the next season rolls in or then the guys who are working the decks move up to the bigger leagues or just realize that they have a realistic chance to survive their career working in some office in a city.

I’ve gotten good to live with basically nothing and all my belongings are able to fit in a single backpack that has served me more than well during these past years. Well, to be honest, all of my belongings aren’t travelling with me as I do have a safety deposit box somewhere that has a special meaning in my life and it also contains all the last bits of my real identity that I will need to have if I ever feel like going back to that life.

Even though the box contains some painful memories as well I still find myself visiting it every few months as it’s also a place for me to keep all the journals that has been filling during my years on the road and even though the notebooks aren’t filled with the tiniest details of my trips or how I was feeling they still tell in their own way the overall story of the past decade that my journey has continued and what I’ve spent being nobody. Honestly, I don’t even know why I’ve decided to keep all those journals but maybe when the comes that I will turn to dust I have someone that I trust enough to send them to my kids so that they will finally get to know why I left and what I did after leaving.

But truthfully it can also be that they don’t want to know anything about me and they just burn or throw the notebooks to trash so there have been many moments when I’ve wondered if I made the right call when I started to save my notebooks for them.

But that’s enough from me as there isn’t nothing special or interesting about me anymore as I’m just one of the traveler that are staying on the road and who no one knows or if they do they don’t want to let you know that they know the person.

Slugsley is a great place to see and meet new people who might be interesting or they might be someones that you want to create a bond as they could turn out to be helpful at some point of your journey or you might be able to help them moving along or having a chance to make a buck or two so that they are able to continue on the road or get back to the society and the life that they have left behind.

Ofcourse, some of the travelers as we call ourselves are just assholes. But after spending enough time on the road and when you meet a good amount of people during the years you get a pretty good about knowing who are these assholes without even saying a word to them.

But sometimes even the best judgment fails and you end up realizing that the person you are talking to is an asshole. Then it’s just a matter of how well you are to speak that how long and boring your conversation will be or is your conversation going to stop at the exact moment when you realize that you are speaking with an asshole. Usually, the odds to meet these hidden assholes are slim at least in Slugsley as no one cares who you are if there isn’t no real need to be in contact.

Sometimes when I’ve sat down on the firepit playing some country song or just playing what comes to my mind with a guitar that is looking like it can’t in any way be played anymore. There have been some new youngsters coming in and out after they have decided to try their wings on the road. Usually, the ones that think they are able to survive on the road all alone from the start and that they know all after a few hours or days are the ones who will turn out to be assholes.

But I can’t say that I wasn’t that person when I hit the road even though I was a quite bit older than most of the youngsters who finds their way here. With most of them, I haven’t spoken since the initial meeting but there have been few people that have shown their potential and if I’ve seen them here or on the road I’ve tried to change a word or two just to see how they are. A couple of them are people that I’m willing to help financially or in another way that I can but if I do help them, it will usually be in a place where we are for sure alone as I don’t need any more attention.

But even though Slugsley works as a safe haven for us travelers you still can get banned to enter here. Usually, the ban lasts a few days or weeks but in the more serious events, it can be weeks or months.

I managed once to get a ban here but it worked out well as I was already going to hit the road again to travel up north to work for few months so by the time I was finished there I was able to get back here and the life continued on its normal track. The ones that are usually getting banned from Slugsley are the young guys who are full of themselves and are usually trying to pick up a fight with everyone that they meet and usually it ends up them having a short ban from Slugsley and sometimes they just go to next place and sometimes they are also getting banned from there if they aren’t stupid enough to get themselves killed before or after that.

Some of the deaths are a bit more tragic than others, but some are just waiting to happen as usually the person who is getting killed has acted in the way that it’s almost a miracle that he or she is alive after a couple of months. Of course, all the deaths that occur and happen in these safe havens aren’t just pure killings, but some of them are just natural passings and many of the people that I’ve gotten to know during these years on the road have taken their last breath here.

With the old guys, it’s not so sad and sometimes their passing is a relief for people who know them as their life isn’t usually anymore worth living and watching their struggles isn’t something that you would really want to witness. But when the sudden death hits to the young guys and especially when they are the ones that are good lads and you hope that they will have a long life and that they are able to survive on the road and just do good.

You might wonder what happens when someone has passed to the afterlife. We do have a small graveyard behind the Inn and usually we just get some youngsters to dig a hole and then we have the shortest burial ceremony as no one usually has anything to say about the deceased as there aren’t so many groups around the premier or if there is usually no one feels the urge to speak when there is some kind of group gathered around. And to be quite honest no one really wants to admit that they are pals with another as usually most of us here in Slugsley are lone dogs and we don’t tend to trust each other or if there is some kind of bond made you can bet that it has taken years and hours to build and it has been putted through all kind of tests that are capable to perform in these unloving circumstances.

One of the tests that happens every now and again is what we call “hide me and lie for me” test. This one usually happens when for some reason the LVPD or even rarer the SWAT arrives here and are starting to tear the place even more down than it already is whilst searching for someone who might not even be anymore in the area.

Usually also the guys who are using this test are the ones that don’t have clean id’s either on their real names or on their fake names and don’t want to man up an see what the charges will be and serve their time even if it would mean that the life would be maybe a bit more comfortable inside the jail than what is it in this god forgotten Inn and the small town that its barely hanging on and probably will be gone in a year or two if someone doesn’t get the crazy idea to start to fix up some places better than they are already fixed.

Biggest problem of fixing places is that no one feels like they want to take the full responsibility of the Inn or some other property in the town even tough then they would have a place to stay and their life would be a bit more secure.

During my years in town the Inn has changed owner maybe three times. Usually the new owner is some old dog who just isn’t keen on hitting the road anymore and just wants to stay on one spot until he or she will be gone and that’s usually the time when the Inn moves on to some new owner.

Once some uprising producer found his way here and wanted to buy the Inn and some other buildings on town so that he could film his next big “hit” here. For sure he did had to do a lot of convincing and negotiations with the current owner if the Inn at the time as well as the ones that owned or at least claimed to own the buildings he was interested in. But as you might have guessed by now the agreement never happened and it was a waste of time for him, but a great joy for us as it was exciting to witness his eagerness to save this forgotten town and transfer it to a movie set.

No one never heard of him anymore even though the latest news are travelling some how to our ears and a couple of year later we found out that he had lost his life whilst trying to stop a burglary in a home near his apartment but he was trying to be a hero so much that he didn’t realised to think about his own safety.

This was on it’s own way a sad news to hear as we got to like the guy during the times that we were keeping his hopes up for getting his deals and he seemed like a guy who would get far on his life someday if he didn’t ended up dying before that. And hearing that he had passed made us all feel a bit uncomfortable with the fact that we had honestly just teased the guy the whole time he had been here.

Also during that time, I had to pretend to be the owner of the Inn as the real owner isn’t too keen on strangers and the experience was weirdly comforting and made me wonder that how it would feel like to run the Inn someday. Financially it might not be a super decision, but it would be profitable in its way as you wouldn’t have to give a great portion of all the incomes to the government or other hyenas that are just trying to steal your money.

But in some way I’m just not really ready settle anywhere and I’m too invested in my trips to Bering sea when I need more cash, but maybe when there will be a time that no one wants to hire me to their decs or engine rooms I will take up the offer to run the inn.

The living in Slugshley Inn is free as many of the travelers are constantly on the move. But every now and again there is a tip jar on the front desk for funding some repairs at the Inn and usually, when I get back from up north the Innkeeper gets a couple of grand from me and the Inn is saved for a while. Back in my old life this would have been something that I wouldn’t have done but as being here on the road and not really needing anything it’s okay to do and I consider these donations as my rent although in the real world the amounts that I pay to the innkeeper might just be enough to pay for a months rent or maximum of two depending what part of the country you are living and are you renting some penthouse or just a basic flat.

But everyone who keeps bunking at Slugsley doesn't spend their nights at the Inn even though they are spending their time at the Inn. Some of the youngsters who have a bit more spirit for adventures are crashing in the abandoned buildings what look like they might fall down in the same second anyone would even touch them with one finger.

The youngsters have burned down a couple of houses so their actions haven't always been wanted. But as they usually keep out of sight everyone has left them alone so that there wouldn't have been any problems between the old and the young. But of course, there are occasions where the tempers flare up and there is some kind of altercation happening

Sometimes the altercations are happening just between the youngsters as they are starting to fight over a girl or a guy usually when they are drunk or high as hell and they feel like they own the world and no one could hurt them or do anything about them they tend just to be full idiots at that point and usually they just do what they feel the best move to be on that moment and usually they just end up in more trouble or get their asses beaten.

It's not common but still, it happens even though everyone knows that these relationships won't last but still when you're spent a lot of time alone and you are starting to feel like little love would be in place you might start to seek someone to spent some quality time alone.

Although most of us old-timers are either divorced or just forever singles there have been some cases where a traveler has fallen into love. Usually it’s the young ones as they either arrive with their loved one or just find someone to love during their time on the road. Sometimes they seem so in love when they meet each other or when they arrive at this rathole.

No one really believes in any of these hookups and if you ask from anyone that what they think of the relationship between the persons A and B they are going to tell you that they are wasting their time trying to keep the flame up and make the relationship work as everyone will sooner or later learn either on the easier route or then the harder route that not even the strongest relationship won’t last on the road and on these ratholes.

Usually, the relationships are going sideways because life on the roads isn't easy and dancing on roses but sometimes the reasons to end the relationship is that the other party develops a drug problem as it's more than easy to get all kind of shit on these ratholes or then the relationships just end because another part of the party ends up dead.

I feel like everyone knows that these relationships don’t have any chance to last so no one wants to make it official by getting engaged or married. Some couple does take the step of becoming fiancé and fioncé and after that a husband and a wife but usually these steps aren’t legal and very few pairs see the trouble to go to Vegas or somewhere else to get married legally.

Going to Vegas isn’t so hard but if they want to separate it goes a bit harder so usually everyone just gets married unofficially and just says that they are married so they are more able to split if necessary. Some of the pairs that will get “married” does it here in the Inn and I’ve had to administrate a couple of these events.

I’m not too keen on doing it but as it happens so rarely for some reason I tend to agree to do it and usually, the whole thing is over before I get a chance to change my mind so that might be the reason why I do those. Sometimes it’s easy to predict when some couple is going to tie the knot in our way and when there is a chance that I have the honor to guide the ceremony it makes it easy to leave either on somewhere else or then just go up north and go fishing for few months.

When I had my last wedding to administrate the Innkeeper was there to witness the event. After the pair had said their ’I do:s’ the Innkeeper pulled me a said and told that he would have around six months to live.

I was wondering why he told me this as we weren’t pals or anything like that but he told me that he wanted me to know it as he was hoping that I would finally take the Inn to run.

I told him that I needed a chance to go to Alaska once more so that I could say my goodbye to the Bering Sea as She has been the only lover on her own twisted way for the past decade or so.

He told me that he understood my feelings and that it would be okay for me to go as we were entering October by this point. I told the man that I would do just one trip of Opies and then come back and take the Inn in my care. Hearing this made the man pleased and he hoped me a safe trip before we separated.

Few days after that I went back to Alaska for the last time and for sure the sea gave me an icy goodbye with a shitty season but with good money so that when I went back and took the Inn to run it I had enough money to keep it going for five years before I had to figure out where to make money again.