After five years in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, I returned to the Truckee Meadows late last month under signature blue skies and hot sun. Reno has grown exponentially while I was away — more rambling ranchettes here, more upscale nightlife there — and yet its fundamental character as a shimmering, colorful outpost on the edge of the Great Basin hasn’t changed. I fell in love all over again.

(more…)