lost stories from hwy 40-part 3

so my journey home the other day from downtown wasn't a complete loss. as i picked up old hwy 40 moving out on 16th street and then onto 160 briefly before exiting at del paso, i cruised along this great stretch for a while. this part of town is pretty rough and has clearly seen better days. but there's still a lot of magic happening as old ghosts move silently around the fading architecture.
they're still serving the hot coffee at lil joes though on a saturday morning and the place is hopping.

the old bowling alley makes no sounds, but i can still hear them trying for the 7-10 split and crying out across the years.

and in the morning hours a leftover nitehawk still strolls the boulevard. this one told me "i didn't do it..." to which i replied her secret was safe with me. to which she answered "i don't got no secrets baby" and smiled as she hoofed it on down past.
yeah, it's hard to believe now this little thoroughfare used to daily move the cars up and down between reno and oakland. people don't want to slow down their freeway speeds to roll on with city traffic. but we miss so much. how's your sat-nav gps going to tell you about all the characters you miss as you blow by on the high speed motorway in a hurry to get nowhere?