Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 00:10:11 -0500 (EST)
From: danceswithcarp <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us>
Subject: Road Trip...



We put 9100 miles on a 1999 rented Buick Nice Car.  We got it for $666 (no
lie, th4e Satanic Touring Car) for 30 days with unlimited mileage.   When
I took it back the womyn behind the desk sort of said, "You don't happen
to know what the mileage reads, do you?"   

"Um, yeah," I said.  "It's thirty thousand nine hundred and something."

The womyn looked up at me:  "What?  That would be over *9000* miles."

"What can I say?  It was unlimited mileage."

Man, she took it personal and went outside and checked the mileag twice. I
think we got blacklisted at National Car Rental.

While we were roadtripping we saw the following dead creatures:  Deer,
Rabbit, Squirrel, Elk, Armadillo, Porcupines, Wyoming Highway Goat
(Antelope), Gray Whale (Way-kool; as big as a beer truck and it only stunk
on one side, but that was A Big Smell), Coyote, Skunk, Snake(s), Pheasant,
Prairie Chicken and Seal, plus a lot of various bugs of various ecological
systems on our windshield.

We saw a live Black Bear run across the road in front of us in Wyoming on
the prairie and then it stood alongside the road like it was hitch-hiking,
or trying to bum a cigarette.  Also we saw coyotes, Ring Necked Pheasants,
Prairie Chikcens, Crabs, Hawks, Sea Gulls, Deer, Bison, Raccoon, Opposum,
and Snake.

In Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas (Darla Kay was a most gracious
host) we saw rainstorms totally unlike any we have up here in
Indy-by-gawd-anna, instead of the rain failing it was more like it just
swirled around int he air in big globs like in a plexiglass washing
machine.  Truly awesome.  I don't think the stuff was hitting the ground.

Mississippi was so hot and humid I had to quit being a tourist at
Vicksburg.  Vicksburg citizens were so pissed off about having to
surrender to the north in 1863 that they did not celebrate the 4th of Julu
for 80+ years.  Now they have HUGE riverboats (gambling is more moral if
done on water) that operate 24 hours a day to take northerners money.  We
didn't go, but I think it's safe to say they're over it now.

Santa Fe has it's own architecture.

We went through the Rockies on a narrow two-lane road going south out of
Grand Junction.  When we got up above the abandoned mining towns at 10,000
feet we saw a sign that said very simply "Bad Road."  No lie.   Our lane
had completely slid down the nountainside and all the highway dept. had up
was a couple of sawhorses with lights on them.  Truly cool.

Seattle is still a hellhole of a city.  Traffic jams start at 4AM and only
let up for an hour or so around noon.  The freeways there move at maybe
10-20 mile an hour on _Sundays_.

Redmond, Washington is miles of concrete and green and silver glass
software company buildings.  There are more software people in King
County, Washinton than there are people employed in the logging industry
in the entire nothwest: Wahington, Oregon, Idaho, and northern California.

In 2001 it is projected that 1 out of 2 vehicles bought in King County
(seattle, Redmond, Renton, Kent) will be SUV.

Starbucks is a symbol of consumption.  Magic Johnson opened one while we
were there in the inner-city ghetto.  Death to Starbucks and those who
drink "Frappacino."

The Pacific Ocean beaches in Washington are unmatched for size and
solitude.  The ocean was WAY too cold to wade in.

I ate at least 3/4 pound of raw oysters a day.  Big Suckers; as big as
your fist.

The real state of the U$ was no where more evident than in Tucumcari,
New Mexico.  On Freeway 40 there were signs advertising "1500 Rooms in
Tucumcari" for 250 miles before we got there; it's the old Route 66.  We
got off the freeway on 66 just to look.  Maybe there were 1500 motel
rooms; many with collapsed roofs, broken windows, or just piles of rubble.
The in-town motels that were left advertised "Rooms: $19.95, Tops."  There
were weeds blowing in the streets, and old-time gas station architechured
buildings eveywhere, all just sort of waiting for the freeway to collapse
and the traffic to come back.  

Then we got to the ramp back to the the freeway, maybe 1 block from the
trip back in time.  There was a new Holiday Inn, a Best Western, Motel 6,
and other chains advertising $49.95 and up, and convenience gas stations
galore where the only difference is the corporate sponsor's sign out
front. The motels had "No Vacancy" signs out and the convenience stores
were as busy as downtown Bloomington.

Something has happened here in the U$.  

But the dead whale was cool.  We didn't go looking for it, we just sort of
drove up on it on a beach.  You don't get to see many dead whales in
Indyanna.  There were 40+ that had washed ashore this spring; all starved
to death because of the la nina.

That may be a sign that something is happening in the ocean too.



carp