met up with chris at his house. his pals, kevin and michael (from drastic plastic) were already there. and i think craig was there too. can't remember now. we hung out on the porch for a little bit and chatted. chris and craig worked at panera bread together. and kevin is a social worker; deals with troubled youths from the dumps of omaha. after chatting, they took me out to the 49'r. seems like a bar that doesn't get many new faces. heard a couple times, "who is this guy?" directed at me. then they took me off to another bar - brothers. passed by saddle creek road on the way there. didn't realize saddle creek records was named after a road; or maybe it's the other way around. at brothers, i met a few people and spotted the singer of the taint, err.. the faint there. he looks like he's had one too many long drunken nights. worn out and gettin a beer gut; but still wearing his tight duran duran-like outfits.
can't help but feeling somewhat like a ghost passing in and out of these towns. at the fashion/art show caught a reflection of this guy in a mirror. reminded me of that feeling. of course, this ghost has a beer in his hand.
wound up at a fashion/art show at the omaha magic theatre. was interesting. an awesome venue -- art gallery/theatre space. unfortunately, the artwork was kind of "shite" and the fashion show was pretty disorganized; but the clothes were cool. a bunch of people came out and it gave me a chance to see some of the omaha kids. talked with the people who run the place too about possibly doing a future art show out there.
finally arrived in omaha, ne around 5pm or so. went downtown and wandered for a few minutes. asked some goth kids if anything was going on in town or if they knew any cool places to check out. tilly and the wall were playing at the bemis center. $25 though, but you did get free beer and food. thought about but just wandered some more. ended up in drastic plastic, a music store, and chatted with some guys in there. michael, chris, and scott. turns out michael's brother used to live in boone, nc like me. oliver? didn't ring a bell. but i'm sure someone who's reading this knows an oliver who used to live in boone. anyway, i tell them about travelling; living out of the car and all; chris offers to let me crash at his place for the night and get in another shower. shit yeah! so get his digits and we all plan to meet up later. bought the hookers (old murder city devils band) cd while i'm there. fitting i found it, since the deathcab is decorated with the skull logo of the murder city devils.
decided to go off the main road and park in the cornfields for a few minutes. soak it all in. it's really like looking out onto the ocean or desert. corn as far as the eye can see...
got off the main interstate leaving bethany, mo and took some crazy rural roads. 136w and 40w towards omaha. rolling hills, cornfields, barns. no one, no where, nothing. just me on the road; driving fast as hell, going up and down these huge hills. oh, the wind in my hair, and bouncing souls blaring on the radio- "find what's good, and make it last. find what's good, and make it last."
stopped off at a KUM & GO gas station in bethany, mo. had a big smile on my face for that one. it's pretty funny shit when all you've been looking at for hours is cornfields. love 'em and leave 'em.
if you want to have a better outlook on life--shower regularly. finally got a shower in this morning at the state park. first one since the nite of 9-19-05 at kelly's in st. louis. 4+ days. that's the longest i've ever gone. scrubbed the hell out of every crevass for a good 20 minutes. good hot water too. i was bathing partially in restrooms in various places, but you can really only lather up your head, face, and upper torso. lower body?...yeah...4 days...nothing. never wanted to tea-bag a pot of boiling, soapy water as much as i did the last few days. fortunately, it didn't come to that.
was about time to get out of columbia. been there long enough. left around 11pm heading northward. ending up outside of macon, mo which is home of the TOASTMASTER. odd fact. they have it printed on their water tower. camped at long branch lake and state park.
managed to rig a temporary fix to my muffler dilemma. got some advice from my friend, cindy, about using a hanger. gave me the idea to use galvanized wire and just wrap that bitch up.
this asian guy walks by me wearing a michael chang (former tennis pro) iron-on tee. i am suddenly envious.
slept at another walmart parking lot last nite. best sleep yet. didn't wake up until 10am. was raining all morning so the sun never came out; thus i never got baked in the back of the deathcab. the more i've started thinking about this adventure, and the writings, and all of it-- the more i feel this is the groundwork to something - a novel/movie/art - but i keep asking myself -why? does it have to be more than just my life? can't it just be that?
they really come out of the woodworks for wilco here; and rooftops, windows, you name it. i got a kick out of taking pictures of other people taking pictures.
so yes, indeed; wilco is big shit in columbia. they closed off an entire block of downtown for these guys. the street was packed with everyone and their grandmas. i like wilco but don't know many of their songs. i think everyone here has pretty much grown up with them. so, i went in and out of the blue note (which technically hosted the event) getting a couple drinks and just people watching for the evening. coolest thing though, inside the blue note, they had a digital projection and music videos playing. caught ladytron's - seventeen (remix) video. had to shake my booty for a few minutes hadn't seen it before.
well... in columbia, mo on my way to lawrence, kansas to see the band-Sons and Daughters tonite, and the Decemberists too, but i don't really care for them - the guy's voice gets on my nerves. apparently, columbia is well known for its large pillars. the university of missouri is pretty chill and the whole town reminds me of boone except bigger and without the mountains. also just about everything has the word 'boone' in it too. this is boone county and there's a town of boone not too far from here. crazy. found a public library after wandering campus and downtown. tried to do some updates there but it's impossible. computers suck and there's restrictions on everything. but was able to check email and bills. got a coffee on the first floor and chilled for a while. still trying to recover from last nite and the driving. the girl working the coffee bar is well...let's just say, 'hot.' maybe i'll come back.
woke up to kelly's cell phone playing a little ditty. 8am. hmm...don't even know what time i went to bed. was able to turn it off after messing with it for a few minutes. woke up for good around 9:30am. went to the bathroom. freshened up. was fortunate to have gotten a shower in last nite, and a place to sleep, and most of all to have met some cool people and make some new pals. brushed my teeth. bent over to spit out the toothpaste. then--WHACK!!! i'm seeing stars. smacked my head right into a shelf just above the sink. hard, wooden fucker that gave me a bruise in the middle of my head for the rest of the day. pretty sure i'm not the only one that's happened to. snuck into their bed took some pictures, saw a boob, got a middle finger, and said, "later masturbaters. thanx for everything."
amy asked if i knew about the storm that was coming thru. sure enough a few minutes later, it's pouring down rain-thundering and lightning like crazy. then the power goes out. coffee shop - pitch black. the entire street - pitch black. we all run outside and watch the light show in the sky. i asked if it storms like this often in st. louis. to which the reply was, "nope, never."
while mingling with amy, this guy sits down next to me, starts working on his laptop, and chugging beers. root beers. like 4 of them in the time i was there. which equalled the number of coffees i had, but still... it was root beer. fitz's root beer. not coffee, or...BEER. he always made amy open the bottles for him even though they were just twist-offs. at one point, a bottle sat in front of him for a good 20 minutes because amy forgot to open it. so he just sat there... and sat there... until he finally got her attention. he also kept sniffing his wrist at random times. he said he had hugged this girl earlier in the day and the scent of her perfume was still on his arm. so he kept sniffing it to be reminded of her. made me smell it too. just perfume to me. i didn't have the sudden urge to start humping his arm or anything. i made a comment about how i was glad for his sake that the scent only got on his arm; otherwise he might be sniffing some rather inappropriate areas in public. lance corporal jeremiah.
amy worked at the messhugah cafe. our introduction was amusingly confusing. after ordering some food and taking a mini shower in the men's room's sink, i sat down at a table for a few minutes and relaxed. i heard her yell something from behind the bar. there was loud music in the background and i was delirious from driving, lack of sleep, wandering, etc... so i didn't quite follow what she was saying. i thought she was asking if i had ordered the caeser salad. hmm..was it caeser or greek i ordered? i couldn't quite remember now. so i said, "uh, i don't know, i think i did, yeah that's fine." and then i thought she said something about how she could mix the two together if i wanted, so i was like "yeah that's cool. it doesn't matter really." she kept talking but i was clueless. all along she was just trying to say my salad (whichever one i did in fact order) was ready at the end of the bar. i go and grab it and she asks me something again... i still can't comprehend shit. so we go back and forth once more. what? huh? what? who? but i eventually realize she's asking if i'm "on the sauce?" drunk? oh right? jamie's acting kinda crazy. understandable. i reply "no, just been driving a lot and...blah blah blah." explained what i've been up to a little--just quit the j-o-b a couple weeks ago, packed up the car, and split. so we start chatting some. it's her last day on the job coincidentally. trying to move to colorado in a couple weeks. we shoot the shit. good fun conversation.
drove to the public library. wasted my day there. then drove around town for a couple hours. checked out delmar blvd. went too far down the road into the wrong side of town-GHETTOS!! but came back to university city. wandered around aimlessly ending up at a coffee shop-messhugah cafe.
i asked a girl at the bookstore where there might be a relatively safe place to sleep if she had to spend the nite in her car, on the road, in the middle of seedy st. louis. she recommended a part of kingshighway rd that is somewhat residential. eventually made my way there. parked across the street from a church, hoping it might be safer. also can't help but appreciate the irony of it. the Deathcab in front of a church? might start doing it more often. i laid for a long time with scott's swiss army knife, blade open, in my hand while i started to doze off. but then i started to imagine what i must look like. scrawny white boy, all cramped and sweaty, in the back of a crazy looking car, holding a tiny knife in his hand for defense? i just started laughing and put it away. if someone really wants into my car ain't nothing i can really do to stop them when all i have is essentially a fancy butter knife.
arrived in st. louis late afternoon. i just wanted to get out of the car and get a coffee somewhere; anywhere, but a gas station. ended up near tower grove park and immediately came across mokabe's at the corner of grand ave and arsenal. just chilled upstairs for a few hours and read my first book while on the road. Illusions:the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach-a gift from scott and jessica-best buds from boone. great book. put a lot of things i had been thinking about in perspective. a few shops away i also found a used book store--dunaway books. a copy of Dr. Suess's "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" was staring right at me.
drove thru louisville, ky expecting to be impressed since i had liked lexington so much. dismayed though. way to industrialized. went into downtown louisville some but quickly left, heading west again towards st. louis. ridiculous amounts of driving thru the flat farmlands of southern indiana and illinois all afternoon. pointless. i could have gone north thru indianapolis and some other major cities but no, instead i thought i would take the more direct route. direct=boring. drove into evansville, in. almost fell asleep.
i heard foot steps outside my car again this morning. woke up and ripped off one of the 'curtains' expecting to see someone. looked out to find a foggy pasture and cows mooing at me.
