Fear and Loathing on the way to
Sundance - Ohio,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota,
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana
-Just started off my trip. Freezing.
Negative 5 below. With wind chill -22. Racing to get down and time. Missing the
BC S national championship game. Hoping to get down in time before my friends
apartment before he goes to sleep. Wind is brutal shaking the car. Cold maybe
Low tire pressure. Gotta keep going on. Always pressure on these trips. Down to
Nashville. Wouldn't have it any other way makes it exciting.
-944pm, Monday night. Auburn is up on Florida state. I just stopped at a rural gas station in
Kentucky. It was quite in disrepair
except for the bathroom. It had new
clean tile, toilet and sink. I've
noticed this about gas stations in Kentucky the past few months travelling.
They seem to be getting gas station bathrooms right. Way to improve Kentucky.
-Just passed the giant adult
bookstore Kentucky. Looks like a strip mall. But it only has one store one
giant adult book store. Should say bookstores adult entertainment? From the
right angle the highway you can see in. And catch flashing lights command of
the inside. What an odd place to put an adult emporium? Or perhaps pure genius.
Either way one of the Great American. Roadside attractions.
-Just passed giant T Rex. Holding a
sign for dinosaur world Kentucky. Another Great American roadside stop. Damn
had something better for that.
-The moon is very big out right now,
as I'm driving. Its visibly very large,
larger than I've ever seen driving this route to Kentucky. It has a light
yellowish golden color to it. You can
only see the bottom 15%. The rest is
obscured by what looks like fog. But it
can't be fog. Must be an atmospheric illusion. It just hangs there big golden
yellow. And now as i look up its gone just like that. Strange momentary
happenings. Ever fascinating.
-Just entered Kentucky driving from
Tennessee to Saint Louis. Just saw an overturned brinks truck in the median.
Back doors unhinged front really crushed. No other cars personal damaged any
distance. Did I just witness the highway robbery or the aftermath at least? Are
there still highway robbery in the us anymore? Exciting times on the road to
Sundance. If brinks trucks are being robbed in plain daylight on American
highways, what hope is there for the rest of us? Tire pressure still low. Pressing on.
-Auto detail the nearest driving on
highway. So many tire parts in hollowed out tires the side of the road
sometimes the middle of the highway in between lanes. You can see the tire
tracks running off the side of the road. Very dark and very visible. It looks
like someone's get off for have a break the middle crash. But there so
frequent. Several of remailer so. It could be that many accidents can there.
Earlier about half an hour ago. Truck in front of me dropped the orange
construction warning cone out the back of his bed and exploded into several
pieces went to the highway. I had to swerve to avoid it. Apparently caution
breaks down the highway. No room for mistakes on the American highway. I ponder
this as I speed 15-20 over the speed limit on this desperate race to Saint
Louis. Perhaps now I'm driving on the edge. All tired from 2 nights lack of
sleep and highly caffeinated. I don't think I’m anywhere close to the edge. The
trouble the edge is the only people who really know where it is, are the ones
who already gone over it. So I keep racing on the way to St Louis see my
friend.
-Paducah Kentucky next 5 exits.
Paducah keeps haunting me it seems like the past 200 miles of seeing signs for
it. Why paducah? I'm not sure. But each time I look up there is there's the
sign. Just saw sign for paducah again
last exit 5 miles. What strange happenings happen in paducah Kentucky? Is
paducah the center of the universe?
-Just passed through paducah. It's
actually really big a lot bigger than I ever thought it would be. Maybe not 5
highway exits big But still picking up at 3. Just passed a sign for another
paducah exit. it seriously a lot bigger
than I thought
-Only 4 miles away from metropolis
Illinois. An entire Superman themed town. Now I know Why metropolises looking
on the highway of death. Troubles need the foiled Superman it needs the evil.
It needs the highway of death. And I will Def needs metropolis. Classic
American good versus evil story. Fear and loathing on the way to Sundance.
-Got stuck in hipster part of st.
Louis. Car stuck in the streets still
covered in snow. How can you call this a
city? You live in a city yet all the
roads are covered in snow, then a block away a single clear street. Arbitrary.
A hipster got out of his car to help us push. We had to work at it for 15 minutes. Great guy.
Possibly changed my view in hipsters.
Then we got stuck two more times.
Each instance people came out to help us. Last time we had five people pushing our
car. St. Louis has stolen the city of
Angeles nickname from Los Angeles. how
impressive, who says the Midwest is bad.
Great people. Is this the logical
end to the highway of death? The pot of
gold at he end of the rainbow? Anyway,
st. Louis has forever impressed me.
-On the road leaving Saint Louis.
Leaving the city of Angels. And all its good Samaritans behind. Back on the icy
highway of death. I can't see any of the tire tracks anymore. The desperate
skid marks. The snow is cover them up along with the probable bodies. Little
after 6 am this morning. Earliest I've been up in months. Got maybe 2 hours of
sleep maybe 2 and a half if I'm lucky. To some degree in regards to the
melatonin I took last night, I don't think the effects have quite worn off yet.
Combined with my rabid tired state it's gonna be fun. 12 hours to Denver. Maybe
a stop in Kansas City for food of not straight run. My God so early the
sunlight hasn’t even come out yet. Highly caffeinated running on B vitamins the
moment. 2 hours sleep and B vitamins should be good. Got to take notes about
this part of the trip. I highly doubt
I'll remember this part.
-Crossing the narrow Lake heading
West away St Louis. Is nothing there about it home? What's deslatte dark and
depressing? Frozen over. Partially frozen over with blocks of ice covered in
snow bloating little circles in the Lake. Looks like pictures of industrial
siberia. Looks like a depressing collective industrial Soviet city. No ones
there. I guess the fitting start to my Sprint across the frozen tundra of the
American interior. The B vitamins are starting to kick in. Don't know the last
much longer than Kansas City though.
-In retrospect these notes may seem
wild crazy depraved self centered esoteric. Hopelessly esoteric. Undecipherable
except to only the most remote amazonian tribes. In a way a weird kind of high
for me.
-I don't know what it is But I feel
really sharp right now. I mean I'm groggy I've got a headache. But I feel I can
really think sharply come through everything else. I don't know if it's because
I'm so tired all the proof real things the mind usually worries about, your
base survival instincts, are not a concern of mine at the moment. So maybe the
limited energy that I do have is being channeled almost exclusively into
thought. Like my energy is being used more efficiently. I mean isn't base human
survival built into our society. Is it part of the social contract we have
given up individual power? For ease of security and human want. Maybe I should
wake up early with less sleep more often.
-the interior of Missouri in the
winter is quite beautiful. In this light
snow storm reminds me of Ohio. Looks
like it. The way the snow sticks to the
trees and the yellow tall grass sprouts up through the snow banks and snow
covered fields.
-the hallucinations may be starting
-Strange signs passing along road.
Larry's boots. China garden buffet. Why are there Chinese restaurants
everywhere? Even in the middle of nowhere Missouri. The most well traveled
people of all. A sign that says just Google us. Followed by William something
graduate college. It bit to remember. A sign for a pet lodge saying pet
paradise. Apparently a large demand in Missouri. Sign for passions adult book
store. Why are there so many adult bookstores in the middle of nowhere? Just
like Kentucky. And of course a sign for a chili's. George's pizza and subs.
Probably means a lot of people live here. All the signs.
-Passed the other exit sign for
larry's boots. Space about 20 minutes apart from each exit sign. Larry must
really be the boot king out here. Glad to see he's overcome his handicap of
having a very common and unenthusiastic name.
-About 10 miles past Columbia
Missouri heading West North Kansas City. Interesting landscape around here.
Looks almost like frozen Boggs. Could
seem desolate to many people. But have a
beauty all of its own.
-Just passed an adult superstore.
Superstore.
-Just passed a deputy Sheriff car. It
said deputy sheriff on the side. I didn't know deputy sheriffs get their own
special paint job.
-Now we are getting into the farm
fields. The landscaper is all farms and silos.
-Just saw a ratty old slightly
dilapidated wooden sign off of the highway for Swan Lake RV park Country Club.
An RV park Country Club. So stimulated intrigued right now. I think I'm nearing
the end of my heightened and mental state I rambled about earlier in the day.
God help me.
-Gluttony in Kansas City. Just downed a pork plate and a brisket plate
at Oklahoma Joe's. Thoroughly
satisfied. Then got gas from the world's
slowest pump, Oklahoma Joe's is attached/in a gas station.
-decided to take a detour to
Topeka. Smaller than Dayton. But a gigantic state house. Their state house is huge. Great statue on top. (think it is Apollo
shooting an arrow).
-tolls in Kansas? Really?
They are everywhere.
-a great deal more trees in Kansas
than I thought.
-The Suns coming out now over the
Kansas Prairie it's quite beautiful. Flatter than Ohio. Lots of open ground.
It's very beautiful.
-at the moment there aren't many
clouds. And clouds that are out, are
faint. Almost like white etched in a
light blue sky.
-Now I'm in the prairies. No trees.
Just slightly rolling Hills of fields. As far as you can see. Space is so much
more of a cogent factor out here. It's everywhere you can't hide it. It
influences the way you think. It's incredible. Beautiful. Wide open spaces are
ever present. Wow.
-just passed a giant Eldorado lake,
completely frozen over with trees sticking out of the ice and snow. Its pretty big too. On the road south to Wichita.
-with a bit of light sneaking through
the clouds, with all the wide open space, it looks like a sliver of heaven is
peering down to earth.
-in Wichita. Woke up for an interview. Now walking to the beacon for late breakfast. The air is different out here. Can't quite identity it, but it smells
rustic, i know that doesn't make any sense.
It smells like something still usable but a bit aged, not outdated, just
aged. Its noticeable but slight. Looking at ribbit computers on Douglass
street. Coolest computer store I've seen
yet.
-Wichita is a very hipster city. So many small unique shops that I don't think
could survive in modern America, like ribbit computers for instance. Not best buy or circuit city. Maybe Wichita's relatively isolated location
affords it independence, culturally materialistically at least. Perhaps that's why there is a hipster
alternative vibe, its their independence.
Seems much less commercialized.
Without the kind of sameness offered by endless nation wide chains. Perhaps people are very happy here. It wouldn’t surprise me. And perhaps they are happy on a remote
metaphysical level most of us are not even aware of. Very glad I've been to Wichita. Strange happens. Bright spots on the highway of death.
-somewhere in the Kansas prairie
northwest of Wichita. I've seen lots of
oil wells, like the kind in movies about west Texas. I've seen a lot actually. Very cool.
Don't see that in the mid west.
-Just passed a sign for lindsborg. A little
Swedish village Inn Kansas. Crazy odd unique specific things in the middle of
nowhere. Seems plausible when you consider that there are small communities of
Germans living isolated and interior Brazil and Argentina. The relative remoteness of Kansas might allow
for individual cultures to avoid the mainstream melting pot that is our
American way. The isolated Kansas
Prairie gives them the freedom to exist independently in as they want. Strange side pockets of freedom on the
highway of death. No wonder dorothy's
strange tale in the wizard of Oz happened in Kansas.
-I'm not sure whether it's the
combination of the beautifully desolate Kansas Prairie the copious amounts of
Red Bull or the bits of neosporin I've swallowed in advertently as I medicate my
lips with this amazonian miracle drug but little patches of green spots are
appearing in the night over the Kansas Prairie.
-got off the highway in Kansas and
drove north on a dirt road to get away from the light pollution. Literally on a diet road in Kansas. Right when I got off the highway, it was a
dirt road. The dirt is dryer than dirt
in Ohio. I can see how the dust bowl was
so devastating and why tornados pick up so much steam. The stars are brighter and I can see
more. Not the milky way, but I can see a
few more. This little sojourn has been
very cool.
-Kansas really isn't as sparsely
populated as people think, People East of the Mississippi. Fairly regularly I
pass exits all the time. The are not huge But usually have a gas station or 2
and a few chain restaurants like 2 or 3. It's really not as empty as people
think.
-Just passed the highway sign more of
a billboard on the side of the highway.
It had Jesus in a wheat field. The only part of him that were visible
was his head and one hand holding a sliver of wheat.
-There really are wide open spaces
out here in Kansas. The horizon seems bigger. Seems like you could almost drop
off the face of the earth. Just passed
Goodland Kansas.
-a little way onto Colorado. Stopped off to get gas, the gas station was
called Loaf'n Jug. My imagination was running wild. The service attendant at the counter was very
well spoken and had incredible enunciation.
Then the men's restroom was painfully clean and scented, with a fruit
like scent. Strange happenings off the
highway of death.
-Denver is really cool. Lots of lights at night. Very well lit up city. Seams like lots of granola crunching hippis,
the kind that are in really good shape. Lots of cool unique places, very clean,
maybe the relative isolation has helped their independence. Much bigger than I thought.
-I couldn't see the mountains last
night, but I can this morning they are beautiful.
-bought weed at a legal pot store in
Denver. Evergreen apothecary. There was a long line out front. I met a women in mine who is from Baltimore,
went to school at the university of dayton, and now lives in Denver. Incredibly nice and open. I suspect many people are like that in Denver. Got asked several questions from my driver's
license by the cop when I entered.
Bought a t-shirt and ounce of weed, two different varieties, the legal
limit. Hid it in my glove box and locked
it. Got a certificate for buying it
legally. Very nice place and
people. Bought pot legally.
-been driving through the mountains
west of Denver, absolutely beautiful.
Almost can't describe it. Really
incredible. You don't get that out east. With the pine trees, incredible.
-I cannot get over how beautiful
driving through these mountains is. Astonishingly beautiful.
-Out here in the mountains. Its beautiful bit abut discombobulating. I've got a bit of a headache. The sense of height is everywhere forced upon
your gaze. Memorizing, humbling. Up then down, up then down. Wobbling.
-Just went through the Eisenhower
tunnel. Maybe longest tunnel of
life. Really long. Each passing moment brings even more
beautiful scenes.
-Definitely have altitude sickness.
-Strange happenings on the road to
Sundance. 20 miles past rocky mountains. All kinds of green shapes and green
sheets are popping up beside the highway. Almost daring each other to cross. Am
I hallucinating. Are these the wishes of a desperate tired subconscious mind? now
Utah.
-Southern Utah is really the area of
the country where there isn't anything at all or appears that way. Kansas and
Colorado had regular pockets of civilization But Utah in the South doesn't seem
to have any of those regular little pockets of civilization. It's the no-man's-land that people back out East
think the entire western part of the US is. I thought this is what Kansas was
going to be like. Its been 20 minutes
and I haven't seen any sign of civilization.
The highway of death has reached its zenith in southern Utah. It has succeeded. Nothing lose and there's no
hope insight.
-that is one thing I've noticed from
my trip visiting my friends. Most aren't
happy. They're not content.
-ate dinner at the red iguana in SLC.
-ate at Bruges waffles in SLC. Had waffles with ice cream chocolate and
raspberries. Also frites with spicy
mayonnaise. Met a guy from Corvallis
Oregon in the waffle place. Really
cool. He gave me a lot of insights into
Sundance. He said everyone is trying to
network, Sundance isn't a relaxed chill environment. Still its a giant party. He was/is really hipster. Very cool guy. Also met the waitress there very cool, also
from Oregon.
-at the state capital building
now. A women is getting her picture
taken in her wedding dress on the steps of the state legislature building. Probably because of the absolutely incredible
views. I mean really incredible views. With the sun reflecting off the mountains and
down onto he city, its incredible. SLC
is really beautiful. Just standing on a
ledge on the capital building looking out on the city, the mountains, the lake,
memorizing.
-went to see the main Mormon
temple/tabernacle. When I walked in I
was given an impromptu tour of the main complex by a very nice and not in the
least pushy man and later a women.
Trying to convert me through kindness.
Leaned all he stones were carved by hands by settlers that had to give
10% of their time to the building of the church. Each settler was assigned one block. It took them 40 years to build. When the union army came they buried what
they had dome so they wouldn't know what they were up to. Cool experience . they guy told me I was a good looking guy
and could be in movies. At least I
appeal to the Mormon audience.
-930pm, at crown burger. Getting the crown burger with pastrami.
-at a bar in park city. Just saw a hipster guy wearing sandals with
rolled up jeans.
-went to indywire party. Huge networking event. Had a run in with a costa Rican girl dressed
as wonder women. She makes a web series
about wonder women saving things throughout different cities, recently LA. She had me ask her to help with pandas on
camera. Crazy.
-met Lance Bass at underground party
in deer valley lodge garage. Really cool
underground party. Workflow. curtains separate the parking garage from
the constructed dance floor. You could
still see the cars. Free open bar. When all the girls were dancing on stage
there was one very large chested red head.
I helped her off the stage and saw her later. Got her number. She said I'm a cuter Spiderman and she's
Mary Jane. Very cute, very large chest.
-drunk conversations about films and
Bradley cooper in cab with random people.
-saw Robert Redford at Eccles
theatre.
-lot of posh girls arriving at
Sundance. A lot of hipster posh
-saw a movie in salt lake city. Different experience. Much less networking. People are a bit more down to earth less in
the industry. Better questions and
comments. Very different than park city.
-loved a white bird in a
blizzard. And the director.
-in line at Sundance channel HQ for
free coffee. Two women in front of me
are complaining about the free coffee line......
-went and checked out slamdance
today, the 22nd. Very cool, much less
pretentious. More down to earth
accepting and in general friendly people.
Like it a bit better than Sundance, slamdance is the underdog, the
underdog you want to root for.
-just watched 'Listen Up Philip'. The
best I've seen so far.
-just saw kinderwald at Slamdance. People sitting on the edges and the
floor. All the seats are chairs
arranged. Very cool very relaxed. The movie was more artistic and much longer
than Sundance films. The explanations by
the filmmakers and actors are much more detailed and tangible. More practical, the nuts and bolts. No layers of pretentions or self-importance
limiting human interactions. The dialogue
is more true and genuine. More truth
here.
-when you make a film you really make
these films. You write one, you shoot
one, and you edit one.
-been to airbnb, YouTube, and ketel
one parties. Free booze
-I loved Zach braff's new movie. I saw it at the right time in my life. The right time in the festival. his kickstarter reached its goal in 48 hours
-went to Sundance after party
Saturday night after the awards after party, so after after party. Strange happenings at this Sundance after
after party. Was at a great place, three
story townhouse with hot tub. Inhabited
by a bunch of people who met at Sundance from all over the US, Chicago, SF,
LA. All kind of hipster. Met a guy from SF who owns restaurants, one
called skool. Looks just like Brian
Greenberg and sounds like him. Cool
guy. They were pulling girls into the
hot tub, even though many had girlfriends.
Good time. Walked all the way
back in the cold, for like 20 minutes.
Got back at like 445am. Made
s'mores, passed out on floor
-I didn't realize Salt Lake city has
so much smog. It's worse than anything
I've ever seen smog wise. You can barely see any of the buildings downtown for
the capital building.
-Driving to arches National Park
right now. Driving behind a truck or van with a giant trash bag or series of
trash bags pie to the top of it.
Barreling through the Utah, middle of, with the open desert kind of
plains and red barely snow covered mountains in the background, all around.
-Stopped at a gas station. They had discounts for using cash. I guess hard currency is hard to come by
here, in rural Utah. January 28, 2014
-got pulled over by a cop doing 79 in
a 65. He have me a ticket for doing 9
over. Really nice guy. The basic decency of Americans.
-found out in arches national park
that I didn't get the Fulbright.
-standing here underneath the double
arch in arches national park, I forget about all of my fears and troubles. only happy thoughts pervade briefly. What would Thoreau say? I don't have time to think about it. Would love to nature journal here though.
-just passed the pillow talk motel
-am able to pick up one radio
station. And picked up with
difficulty. The radio display kept
recycling around all the stations on the display when I hit seek. Really in the middle of nowhere, with
mountains.
-Went to 'the pie hole' in SLC. Two or the four slices I bought were were
vegan without tomato sauce. They had
lots of vegetables and pineapple to compensate.
-Wednesday the 29th of January
2014. Sitting in the park cafe in SLC
listening to three hipsters discuss when radiohead stopped making art and sold
out. And discussing if they ever did
sell out. Discussion started about a
professor one had in his first ever university class trying to explain a type
of matrix theory that no one understood and deriding them as dumb. Apparently he also has theories on
radiohead. Listening to morons. Also, this chai tea is infuckingcredible.
-January 30, 2014. Random encounters that lead to much bigger
things no matter how esoteric they may seem.
Sitting in Coffee Garden in Salt Lake city to use the internet. I saw a hipsterish girl sitting across from
me wearing a 'I killed Laura Palmer' black t-shirt. I googled the name and found it was from a
David Lynch television series 'Twin Peaks'.
It sounds quite interesting.
Getting into film has been quite fun.
I've followed my curiosity and its taken me to strange places.
-sometime after 6pm mountain
time. Stopped in Evanston, Wyoming, exit
3. I have just experienced the worlds
best gas station hands down. It it the
chevron gas station. Every thing is incredibly
clean and modern. Floors and bathrooms
factiously clean and orderly. HD tv for
customers. Very friendly genial people. Incredible selection of food and
beverages. They carry vanilla coke. Cinnamon bears, wow. Blueberry yogurt fruit snacks. If this is any indication of Wyoming, what an
incredible state.
-Wyoming really isn't as desolate and
unpopulated as people make it out to be.
I passed lots of rest stops in highway exits with shops and generic
restaurants along the way. Between Salt Lake city and Rawlings. Between Rawlings and Casper there isn't much
though. I bet it looks really cool the
landscape. But at night I can't see very much.
-I hit a very large rabbit. That ran
across the road. Upsetting. It was very large.
-February 1st, 2014. Waiting for a table at Eggington's Restaurant
in Casper Wyoming. A very very
attractive blonde girl is with some guy sitting right across the waiting area
from me. She is Victoria secret model
hot. Wow. Maybe Casper isn't all that bad as people
east of the Mississippi make it out to be.
-seen lots of hipster girls in
Egginton's. Lots of Buddy Holiday
glasses that look like mine.
-You can get cappuccino and café au
lait at Eggington's. I've ordered the
breakfast quiche and breakfast tomalis.
Casper also has multiple Asian restaurants. Much much more cosmopolitan than I've been
lead to believe. Elitism is ripe in the
US. As I've gone across the country I've
found people's lives to be mostly the same everywhere, just maybe with a few
more options in other parts. I've also
come to appreciate the decency of traditional post discovery Americans, the
Americans in the giant red middle. A
classic affirmation of all that is decent and good with the American
spirit. Quite a nice place. Nothing to be scared of or look down
upon. People living decent honest
hardworking lives. Hipsters dislike
anyone who lives in a flyover state or has a real job. They the one's missing out. The cappuccino is pretty good. Had to come all the way to Wyoming to
reaffirm that simple truth. The orange
juice is incredible too.
-gluttony in Casper, Wyoming
-The sky is so blue in Wyoming. I've
never seen something so expensive and blue before. Such a sense of space.
-Driving through edgerton Wyoming.
The sign said population 195. Very cool little town. Nestled among what seems
to be North East Wyoming landscape. A combination of prairies, slight rolling
Hills, and rock formations. Like smaller duller rock formations like I saw on
arches National Park.
-There are lots of Little Rock
protrusions or outcroppings that just up out of the Hill. That look like and
Abby. Or monastery that you find in France or Italy. Wyoming is beautiful.
-just passed a heard of bison on a
farm
-Just passed a giant coal pit. like the ones you hear about on the
news. It was closed to the public. It was really deep.
-Cool signs you see along the road in
Gillette, WY. Old Chicago beer and tap
room. All throughout WY lots of
prefabricated houses
-I've passed so many train cars
filled with coal. Seems like to go on
for miles. So much cool being transported out of Wyoming.
-Pretty crazy right now. Barreling
through northwest Wyoming towards Devils tower. With a seemingly endless train
caring seemingly endless cars of coal running beside the highway in me. As they
raced through the golden Wyoming prairies.
-Watched the sun set over the valley
below devils tower. Absolutely beautiful
Wyoming.
-Last person at devils tower.
-The road I'm taking now away from
Devils tower does it have any lights or signs on it, yet it's supposed to be a
highway. Crazy.
-just stopped at another leaf n jug,
this time in south Dakota. I've become
quite the American gas station conninsieur.
-strange happenings at the grand
gateway hotel in rapid city south Dakota.
There is a combination pool/karaoke/swimming pool area right after one
checks in at the front desk. Walking
past the fun pool concourse area, a piano can be heard. There appear to be quite a lot of people
staying here. The pool/karaoke/swimming
pool area is packed. Walking out to my
car, I found three people talking outside without jackets. What has happened to these people? Is there heart pumping molten lava? Have they adapted to this climate along with
the pretty much Canadian accent? Are
they promiscuous? Seem to not need
others for warmth. Would two bodies that
close together be like having sex on the surface of the sun for them? Where will it end? Those poor creatures.
-Reflecting on my time on the road so
far, I've reaffirmed that you cannot racialize poverty. Travel around to different parts of the
country, and poverty and the working class are the same, the color of skin
changes, but the stories are the same.
The details are different but the core story is the same, black white or
Hispanic, its the same. Driving through
and stopping in Wyoming and south Dakota proves this. Poor whites doing the same jobs blacks do in
the south. If only the working class
could work together unite around a common cause, then they'd have real power to
affect change for themselves on a national stage.
-currently at independent ale house
in rapid city SD. Pretty cool, pretty
hipster. Fun place. Ordered a pizza and south Dakota beer. Got the three little pigs pizza. Tomato sauce, spinach, garlic, pepperoni,
sausage, and bacon.
-not a single non-white person here
at independent ale house.
-saw a poster as I was leaving the
grand gateway hotel, for a cowboy church.
-At mount Rushmore right now. All the trails are closed. The sky is incredibly beautiful, so
blue. Not single cloud in the sky. Ran into a lady who said that there is a back
trail where you can still see some of the original equipment that was used to construct
mount Rushmore. There is also a giant
pit where they planned to bury the declaration of independence and other
important documents. But never did. Very cool.
Not a cloud in the sky. So blue.
-Bought a bison burger at the mount
Rushmore cafe. The same one from 'North
by Northwest' with carry grant.
-The black hills and forest are
beautiful. No clouds whatsoever. Incredible blue. Beautiful
-Just found out Philip Seymour
Hoffman died today. Crazy, less than two
weeks ago I saw him at Sundance in person.
At one if his last movies.
Crazy.
-Just saw a sign that said be
prepared to stop for big horn sheep. South Dakota.
-Cool signs I've seen driving along
the road in South Dakota towards the badlands National Park. I seen 3 or 4
different signs the same wall drug store. They offer free coffee and Donuts to
veterans and those currently serving in the military.
-South Dakota looks a little bit like
Kansas once you get away from the Black Hills. Lots and lots of open farmland.
But not as flat as Kansas. Slight rolling Hills. Very cool very peaceful. Also
not as sparsely populated as I've been led to believe. Their farms and sign the
development pretty much that our way. Right now I can see a red tractor off to
my left found the field for spring planting. But it's a sense of space. Nothing
blocking your view. Absolutely no clouds. Absolutely no even slight signs of
clouds. It makes the horizon just look even bigger. I mean you have all the
space. I just can't get over it. It's divinely beautiful.
-Just thinking staiing at the
horizon. With nothing intruding your view. It seems to go on endlessly. Likes
tearing up the ocean. Seems like it never ends. Truly remarkable. The great
Midwestern ocean.
-5 cent hot coffee at wall
drugs. Seen at least 7 different signs
for that place.
-Standing on a lookout point above a
canyon in badlands national park.
Watching the sun set. The rock
has red stripes breaking up the beige.
If I turn away from the canyon, the greenish yellow grass gibes way to
purple then red, then blue, it beautiful.
The contrast and smooth flow is incredible.
-Racing through badlands National
Park very low on gas almost out. Hope I make it. This National Park is huge.
Pretty cool at night. Now I gotta find a gas station. Somewhere. If you like
the fear of failing through National Park at night without any direction a clue
where you're going.
-The views of the sky are crystal
clear. Like a dark black crystal. All of the constellations are vivid. As I
race across the South Dakota planes on the great white Swedish beast.
-The highway 90 East is so straight
at times I can take my hands off the wheel for almost a minute at a time. As
I'm doing right now. And then again when you touch the wheel it's only
minimally for a slight correction. Crazy. If you turn on cruise control you can
go completely hands and feet free. I think it's just the intrinsic beauty of
the great white Swedish beast. She really is incredible creature. She was born
for the open South Dakota roads. South Dakota really is an amazing place. A
place we can go hands and feet free add a 75 mile per hour speed limit. Of
course you can go 1 to 9 over with little fear of any kind of effective or
substantial ramifications. South Dakota is quite an easy state. It's almost
unfair to the great white Swedish beast. Very little challenge.
-took a pilgrimage to Warren
Buffett's house. It was very unassuming.
You can walk right up to it. Maybe even
into his driveway. Pretty crazy.
-went to blue line coffee shop in
Omaha. Another trying to be trendy and
because they are trying to be trendy actually are not coffee shops. They are pretty universal across the
country. Now off on a dead sprint to des
moins.
-Saw a series of signs in a farm
field 30 miles West of des moines. It
was 3 signs abdicating for building closest cities in less in the country.
Trying to save farms. The 1st sign said urban sprawl not too pretty. The next
sign said build closer to the city. The last sign said save our farms.
-stopped to get gas in west des
moines at a place called 'Kum &Go'
-went an Iowa unique restaurant chain
called 'bang bang Mongolian grill'
-Just passed the worlds largest truck
stop. 14 miles West of Davenport Iowa. It had several fast food restaurant
chains. And at least 50 tractor trailer trucks parked in it. At least.
-got home last night and woke up in
my own bed. I woke up wondering which
hotel I was in. After a month it seemed
weird.
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