DC OR BUST Part 3
Exhaustion is kicking in as I write this. Few hours of sleep a night, long hours of running around in the snow carrying a heavy camera, and just always being alert can make a mind shut down. But I shall make my best attempt to write part 3.
We left Denver with our heads high accomplishing pretty much everything we set out to do. Though our schedule is so jam packed, we luckily are making perfect time to each destination. Chicago is our next stop and with the blizzard warnings, we’ve asked our trusty road manager, Steve Masi, to make the blizzard go away. Steve is a cool cat whose been our the block when it comes to tour managing. He’s done greats like Ziggy Marley and currently The Offspring. So stories comes a plenty when it comes to him. And stories is what we need on long bus rides.
Another interesting way we’ve been passing the time is that Rick has started podcasting from the bus. The podcast actually hasn’t come out yet due to lack of strong internet signals but they have been fun and amusing because Rick interviews the crew (us) and it feels like talk show radio. Of course I share some Navy stories and whatever else sounds interesting but hearing the other crew’s point of view on topics such as politics, music, and women makes the trip go by a bit faster.
We detoured through Kansas I heard to get to Chicago to avoid any huge snow storms and we stopped at another Flying J. Our first Flying J experience was very pleasant where the workers greeted us very humbly and we learned that many musicians and athletes stop here like Linkin Park and Karl Malone. But this Flying J was quite the opposite. Perhaps it was the location, maybe the state, or even the time of day. They were very against our presence there with cameras and quickly shut us down. But no one said we could film outside the Flying J.
As we were about to leave, two buses full of kids pulled in coming back from a concert they had just performed. Rick thought to just play it cool and see if anyone would recognize him. After a handful just walked by, finally a true Laker fan took notice. After that, it was mob city. But Rick being the great samaritan signed shirts and took pictures with them making their bus ride home an unforgetable experience. I especially thought that was pretty awesome because I can always remember way back when I was a young lad myself and saw someone famous but decided to ignore their fans. It does make an impact to a kid when they are young whether you judge celebrities as humble people or just rich, stuck up jerks.
Lastly, on a not so brighter but eye opening note, I mentioned before that the NUMBER ONE RULE ON THE BUS IS NO NUMBER TWO. Well, Flying J in BFE Kansas or wherever, you’ve been visited by a Chinese American fece. But that’s not my point. My point is as I was admiring the tiles and my shoes, I noticed the back of the door. It read, OBAMA #1. But someone put a zero next to it making it #10. Then another part said just Obama, and someone else had written with it NEEDS TO BE SHOT! I quickly realized which red state I was in and my experiences in the past driving cross country and just being in the military for that matter with people who don’t see the same views as us west coast liberals do. I’m not sure why someone would do that, but at the same time I wasn’t surprised either.
Next stop Chicago. Rumor has it, its ten below with the wind shield factor there right now. Not fun!!! AND MY BELT BROKE!
(I AM IN DC BUT I FIGURE I KEEP THE BLOG GOING WITH THE TRIP. PLUS I KNOW AFTER THE 20TH, I’LL BE ABLE TO CATCH UP)
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Tags: Broken Belt, Chicago, Truck Stop
