invasion of america - the fourth seal is opened

Annapolis - Jackson, Michigan

700 miles. All up hill.

Every day of riding on this trip has seen a monsterous headwind. Not just a casual wind that is to be expected on a motorcycle, no. This is a serious wind that has actually blown me off the road and has broken off tree limbs on trees in front of me. It's been brutal and it's kicking my ass.

Before I leave on any leg of my trip, I check the weather to see what I need to expect and to see if I need to reroute for any reason. Well....

Growing over the Rockies is a dandy of a storm. It has dumped over 14 inches of snow in Utah and Colorado, which is over a month early for that area(I ride through there on my last week) and it's created a cyclical weather pattern which is feeding itself, much like a hurricane. A dying hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico has sent a bunch of warm moist air north to get the wheels of the cycle turning. And that has slammed directly into a massive cold front which is blowing in from Canada and this has sent the atmosphere directly above the great plains into a frenzy. All of this energy and moisture and wind.... Is directly in front of me. I have just two days to get to Jackson, Michigan for my show and if I don't beat the weather there, I will be doomed. There is no way I can sit this storm out, it's for real. For the first time on the trip, I am thinking about carting the bike in the back of a truck, just to be safe.

Instead, I checked out of Washington DC around 3 PM and headed west. Ahead of me is a storm that is over 1000 miles wide and moving at rate of 60 miles per hour. It is dropping 5 inches of rain an hour and has sustained winds of over 70 miles per hour. It has created over 30 tornadoes in just one day and that killed 11 people and presently it's due to be in Jackson at exactly the same time I am. I have to determine rather quickly if I can out run the storm and drive around it to the north and beat it to Jackson OR, if I should wait a bit, and try and drive around it to the south after it passes by. Sadly, this option, safe as it sounds, is where all the tornadoes and heavy winds will be found. There are heavy winds with either choice, but what else is new????

I left three hours late from DC so I was already at a huge disadvantage when I got on the Interstate. I wanted to take the US highway, but I am now officially in a big fat hurry so I can't lollygag along.

Nemesis number 1 - Traffic. Leaving the DC corridor is impossible in the afternoon as it probable would be in any major city, because that's when all of the rats are piled up, trying to jump ship. It's just murder trying to get anywhere. Thankfully the shoulders of the highway are large and they are clear and it just so happens that I have a motorcycle so I am able to skirt most of the log jam without much of a headache. When I get to Northern Maryland, the roads are wide open but it takes 3 hours to go 100 miles!. It's 7 PM. The storm is in Northern Kentucky and just over 700 miles in front of me and closing the distance fast.

Nemesis number 2 - Chill. The storm is a low pressure ridge that is sucking all of the cool air out of Canada (which must mean it's stifling hot there) and it's freezing up the countryside. It's possible for you to see your breath with the sun still high and in the sky and shining bright. It's only going to get colder as the miles pass as I have a small, but impressive mountain range in front of me that will require me to rise up in elevation about 2000 feet. I rode as far as I could, but finally I had to pull over and put on the snow gear... In a town called, Frostburg. Freezing equals death.

As night fell, it finally occured to me that I am now officially going home. That every ride is west and with each mile I tally, it takes me closer to the Perch. I won't lie - I miss home and there are moments when I wish the whole thing was already over. I love this entire experience, even the parts that are trying to kill me, but I am extremely cold and with every home I pass that I can smell a fire burning in the fireplace and with every person I see snuggled up closely to another, I want to be "there". The road has taken me as far as I dreamed it could but now that pure desire will have to focused and used to take me home.

Nemesis number 3 - Road construction. If you're in a car, you don't think about it, but when you're on a bike, the bumps and grooves of road "demolition" are torturous and very scary. When they peal up the old asphalt they leave long striated grooves that grab the tread in your bike tires and, much like a train on fixed tracks, they dictate the ebbs and flows of your ride. Sudden jerks to the left and right are not uncommon and it freaks you out like nothing else. Miles and miles of endless striated grooving can give your soul a tumor. It slows you down quite considerably and that means it's going to take longer to get "there" AND that means you could miscalculate the distance and run smack dab into the middle of the storm of the century..... And death!!!

It became very apparent when the heavy winds and the stinging rain began to fall that I wasn't going to beat the weather. It was now night time and I was in hell. Or what motorcycle riders consider hell; Rain, wind, cold, road construction and the Interstate at night!!! Conditions couldn't be any worse. SO... I decided that I should just enjoy my death and so I thought I would do some sightseeing. Fuck you Mother Nature!!! Besides, I have always wanted to see all of the 9/11 crash sites. So in the frigid raining death darkness of Maryland, I rode north into Pennslyvania to Shankesville where United 93 crashed into a field. It took me about an hour to get there, but it was worth it.

The rural Pennslyvania countryside is incredible and even in the darkness I could see it's beauty. The towns were much like the small towns of New York and I couldn't say, "aaaaahhhhh" enough times. My favorite thing about PA was that fact that every business is named after a person, which I feel makes it more personal, OR more childishly selfish. As in, "Tony's Pizza" or "Mary's Coffee" or "Ted's Auto shop". Simple and easy. I liked that.

Shankesville was quiet. It was closed. I found the only open door in town, Ida's Country store and was given directions to the crash site with a warning; Beware of black bears! Apparently there are a lot of bears in the area are they are very active and super dangerous. I should, "stay in the car at all times and not wander to far off into the field". That made me feel better. At least I know that when I sit on the motorcycle that the bear won't be able to attack me.

It's a dark ride to the site. Even the headless horseman wouldn't make this trip. It's cold, the storm was beating up the trees and leaves were blowing everywhere. My headlight was barely strong enough to cut through the dark and I was making up excuses not to go. I finally found the field and the memorial. It's on top of a dark hill in the middle of nowhere. It's just a temporary memorial (it should take about sixty years to finish if the government works at their regular pace) with a small ranger station and a bunch of flags on flagpoles, which were being killed in the gale force winds. There was also a huge floral display that was left over from last week's anniversery and some seats that were all facing in the same direction. There were no lights and there was not a soul there to tell me where to go or what the protocol was. I didn't want to get off my bike or turn off the engine because the headlight was all I had for light. I was wearing my thick gloves so unzipping my tank bag and digging out my maglight would have been like flossing your teeth while wearing oven mits. If I take off the gloves, it's a frozen death. If the chill doesn't get me, the bears will surely smell my manmeat and eat me. I'm pretty sure these are Daniel-eating bears just like the ones of Upper Michigan.

I turned off the bike. I got out the flashlight. I walked out to the spot, which is nothing more than a crater. Not that you would know it was the impact sight if you looked at it unless you knew who it was created in the first place. Otherwise it looked just like a casual grassy knoll in this huge forest clearing. The fluttering flags were really distressing but they added to the overall asthetic of the moment.

Things happened here. Much like the World Trade Center and the Penatagon from early this morning - something bad happened here and you can sense it as you stand there in the stillness. It's years after the "moment" but it still breathes with the sentiment. I'm filled with mixed emotions over what I should do next.

Bear!

I was back out on the main roadway in less than twenty minutes. I found a gas station and while I was appreciating my traditional free cup of coffee during the "I once rode across the country" monologue which is given by every gas station attendent I meet, I had my moment. It was a deeply crusing moment where I didn't feel that my flippant attitude should sully another site. I felt very cheap and empty.... It was bad coffee.

This is the half-way point of the trip. Half-way mileage wise and half-way in time. So much has changed inside my head and around me and nothing I planned out has come to pass. In some way that has made this trip much better than I could have ever imagined if I had planned and dreamed of it for years. I am full of so many feelings and I know that it's good to be this way. I feel... Human.

I drove on until the weather beat me off the bike too many times for me to ignore any longer. The winds were so bad that it would actually blow me and the bike off the road and for a moment I could see my death. It was pissing me off. I stopped in St. Clairesville, Ohio for the night and I hoped that it would all pass by me by morning.

I woke up in the morning to find that I was in the eye of the storm and it was only going to get worse through out the day. There was nothing I could do about it so I packed up, geared up and pushed on. With each stop I make, I lose another part of my gear and in the last stop I have all but given up on the notion that I am going to ever again be able to camp on this trip. So why carry around some of this shit? I resolved to rid myself of all unused gear by Kansas City. If I make it there.

Ohio was delightful. The storm was laid out before me like a checker board in the sky. Patches of brilliant sun would quickly be wiped out by menacing rain clouds. They would pass and the sun would return. It felt like a bunch of second chances that I was abusing. For ten minutes it would be hell and then for forty minutes it would be heaven. During the forty minutes, I was just loving the Ohio country side and gawking at the Amish like everyone else(you haven't lived until you've seen a four year old Amish boy in the hat. He could be a toy like Elmo). During the ten minutes of hell, water was being lifted off of lakes and smashed into the side of me as I rode the bike down the rural county roads. The winds would howl and the bike would sputter. Then sunshine would come out and calm everything down again. It was a unique day.

I finally made it to Jackson, Michigan unscathed and safe from the storm. I was completely dead in the water - physically, but the show was delightful and the motel heater dried out most of my clothes. I passed out early, woke up late and began the trek south... To Indiana....