Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 23:37:49 -0500
To:heublein@bellsouth.net, cal@gsbs.uchicago.edu, Danielle_Fuchs@peoplesoft.com,
ecb5u@virginia.edu, homunculus@mindspring.com, Rich_Fuchs@peoplesoft.com,
SNAFU@CC.MUSIC.UGA.EDU, smw4s@virginia.edu, ryssa@virginia.edu, geof@neuron.nrl.navy.mil,
joeboy@VNET.IBM.COM, cbw2c@virginia.edu, weishaupt@aol.com, WeilacherG@lynx.aon.af.mil,
brs@s-1.com, fife@s-1.com, abhijit@s-1.com.com
From:fuchs@med.stanford.edu (Michael Fuchs)
Subject:Day 2

Fuchs Overland Dispatch, Day 2
Dateline: Oklahoma City, OK
2.13.97

Awoke groggily after much sleep, belly full of Taco Bell. (While the roads
in these parts are sucky, the T-Bell is as good or better than home.)
Showered, and attempted to dry myself with a towel obviously intended for
a midget anorexic waif supermodel with no modesty. Packed up, and opened
the door to find: not the rain I had resignedly expected... but *snow*.
Big fat wet flakes coming down. 'Feh', I couldn't help but think.

I skipped Memphis entirely, as the city proper was off of my route, and
the weather sucked. I saw it off to the side, and it looked grey and
unattractive. Much like Philadelphia. I immediately crossed the
Mississippi; this startled me. Across the river, in Arkansas, things
immediately turned flat and agrarian.

Evidently, the modern rock revolution has penetrated only partially into
the heartland. I did have some radio luck, but soon realized that part of
my difficulty was due to the nature of the 'scan' function on the radio.
It simply was not smart enough to know that I would much prefer to listen
to the brand new Live, with some static, than to listen to bubble-gum
oldies or dinosaur classic rock, in perfect clarity. Hopefully soon, more
agent intelligence will be programmed into these systems. "Find me some
modern rock coming in at all, or some big band swing which is recognizable
and improving." "Okay, boss." With the current technology, however, I
stopped using the scan button and starting using the tune button, checking
the entire space of possible stations. I was rewarded with 'Test for
Echo', by Rush!

The snow was on the ground for hundreds of miles. The following was
terrifying: I passed one car in the median. Then a truck, all but
overturned, in the median. This was followed by no less than 20 sets of
swerving tracks in the snow--in the median. People were going off the road
like lemmings. I drove *extremely* carefully. Part of the worry is that my
driving regimen involves fair doses of drumming on the steering
wheel--and, worse, scribbling notes in my little notebook. Ain't much to
do on the road but think, so I let my precocious brain run rampant--and I
try to harvest as much of the output as possible. I just have to write
stuff down. Unfortunately, when I do so, I tend to be steering with my
elbow, and swerving a fair amount. This was not a good thing to do in an
environment where an appreciable percentage of the drivership was going
into the ditch. Losing good ideas was almost as painful a prospect as
ending up with the truck on its side (and my motorcyle on top of my
bicycle inside). I tried to compromise--evidently with success (I'm here
now).

The radar detector turned up broken. This was a loaner, or parting gift
(not yet sure which ;^), from Alex, and has come in quite handy. As the
truck appeared humble, I did not think that speeding would be an issue.
However, it turns out that the rig is quite stable at higher speeds, and
I've been able to make great time through some of the more barren and
straight stretches. The radar detector has helped a lot; its loss was
painful, so I undertook to fix it. The problem appeared to be a blown fuse
in the power supply. Have you ever stopped at one of those truck stops and
noted the large aisle of hardware and supplies? Well, they have fuses. I
bought a box of five 2-amp fuses, and the radar detector proceeded to blow
another 3 of them in a row. I went so far as to buy some 5-amp fuses
(which was ill-advised), but luckily the machine took the next 2-amp fuse
and is still running. Unfortunately, this was when my credit card went
'thunk'.

I was trying to pay for gas (and the fuses, and some cool cheap shades for
bikeriding) when my Chevy Chase gold card was rejected. "What?!" Now, I've
cranked through credit more quickly than anticipated before--but this card
has a $7,500 limit, and I've only been using it for a few days. A quick
call revealed that, when I had used it to pay for some phone calls (in a
strange place), Chevy Chase security had attempted to contact me to make
sure it wasn't stolen--and gotten a "this number has been disconnected"
message. So they blocked the card. Getting them to unblock it was pretty
easy (yes I do know my mother's maiden name), but getting it to actually
work again took some time. This sucked. While I was waiting, and
admonishing the clerk to "please try it again", I determined that one
cannot, in fact, simulate a Cafe Mocha by pouring some low-fat chocolate
milk into a cup of bad coffee. Word to the wise.

I skipped Little Rock, too, as the weather was still bad. As I drove by,
the radio DJ announced that classes at UALR were cancelled; he sounded
strangely familiar to me... and I realized he sounded like Clinton. Anyone
who thinks there aren't distinct breeds of southern accents should line
that guy up next to a rural Georgian, next to an old money Richmonder.

I pulled over at the Lake Dardanelle State Park, which wasn't that
impressive. I took a picture, and considered that I might put these notes
(and the pictures I take) onto a web page. Look out for that. (It'll
happen just after Alex and Lesli get their wedding web page up.)

Lake Dardanelle, and Humble Chronicler

I passed another trailer with freezing, crowded, terrified cows in it. The
last time this happened was in 1991, and that was the moment when I went
vegetarian entirely, and for good. This time, the cows kept stumbling into
eachother as the trailer bounced over the bad road. The terrain got quite
hilly around Ozark, AK. Imagine that. 8^)

My cab setup is actually quite cozy. It came with bucket seats; the
climate control and defrost work well. I've got my big travel duffel bag
(bought for me before I went away to college, by my foresightful father)
in the passenger seat. In the middle is the bag with my laptop, belted in.
There's a bin in front of the dashboard, with my sunglasses, camera, a
cannister of 15% oleoresin capsicum, and my little black bag with the
Ruger and a spare mag. I'm both comfy, and safe, I think.

I stopped at a Native American themed visitor's center, near the site of
the Trail of Tears. All the picnic tables had teepees over them. [The
picture of that will be right here, in the webified version. 8^) ] On the
sign, with OK hi-lit on a U.S. map, I was struck by how in the middle of
the country this state is. That might go some distance toward explaining
why I heard so much more John Cougar Mellencamp than usual, on the various
radio stations. I also realized how completely landlocked this area
is--and I became slightly claustrophobic. Strange.

I heard 'Crash' by the Dave Mathews Band. Dave always makes me feel warm
and nostalgic. Even though I was never much into his music, back in the
days when he was playing weekly at fraternity parties all along Rugby
Road... still, he's a Charlottesville boy who has done well, and I feel
connected. Most of the cities in OK seem to have Native American names (as
does the name of the state, I guess, come to think of it).

The hotel where I type this dispatch has these good qualities: it is near
town; it is within walking distance of a Taco Bell, and a place to buy
beer; it has a pool hall/arcade *in the lobby*; it costs $21.95/night.
Unfortunately, it is also just about the rattiest room I've ever been in,
and it doesn't smell that great either. Perhaps I've been staying in too
many Marriotts and historic inns, these last couple of years. Either way,
I'm staying someplace decent when I get to Santa Fe. At least the heat
works here (it died mysteriously in the night in the last place).

Miles Travelled Today: 491.1
Total Miles Travelled: 886.6

Tomorrow: Was thinking about a morning ride through Oklahoma City, thought
I might check out that federal building, and swear silent oaths against
the bastards who would kill innocents. However, I'm almost through this
6-pack now, and it's still pretty chilly out (though I don't have a
forecast yet). We'll see. If I do the ride, I'll probably drive to
Amarillo afterwards; if I don't, I'll go straight on to Santa Fe. There I
plan to stop, ride across the Rio Grande to Los Alamos (paying homage to
Dick Feynman), then back through some Peublos. Yeah, this is the southerly
route--but apparently it's still mid-February every place you go.

*I will now wave the Mojo Stick, and hope that I can log in again. (Took
almost 45 minutes last night to get online.) "No bad mojos."*


--> d a y 3 -->