Ten Miles from Winnemucca — Thelma Hatch Wyss

"I am Martin J. Miller -- hungry, homeless, and sweating at age sixteen. But I am alive."

And to stay alive, Marty needs a few things from his list:

Food
Flashlight
Laundromat

to make his Jeep a more comfortable home, and to help him keep his:

Excellent planning skills
Native wit
Quirky sense of humor

so he doesn't have to go back to his:

Newly remarried mother
Coffee-table-collecting stepfather
Hostile stepbrother

Because when he thinks about it, life hiding out in a canyon isn't so bad. . . .