i have driven I-80 from the Bay Area to Winnemucca and then 95 north all the way up to the Snake River in Idaho. Stayed over in a town that had one motel, one restaurant and no gas stations ...years ago but yes, i did have that thought!

What i have NOT done is driven the "loneliest highway," a stretch of US 50 in central NV that has one town (Austin) over a 400 mile stretch ...now THAT is where i would wonder ...

Your background in such a small town raises the question, which is not seriously being asked but which the reader cannot avoid contemplating, how does one discover kink in a place like that ...presumably that came later?

when the Promenade Plantée first opened, which i think was the late 90s or early 2000s, the gates would not be locked at night...i recall going for a very early, pre-dawn run on the wet cobblestone pavement up there and thinking ...this might have been a bad decision OR the opening scene in a Ludlum novel....

My favorite "urban hike" in Paris == taken years ago -- was north along the Canal and all the way up to the big park up in Seine-Saint Denis. Not sure if the path is still there...

Its starting to cool off a bit in the desert so im able to get outside more...