The Road To Nowhere

It was 9:57AM.I woke up on Alex's couch in his garage/shop, an American flag draped across my body. I looked around and saw the conveyor dryer that I helped him fetch in Charleston, it seemed to be taking up a lot of space. The end of the belt was a few feet from my head. A Miller beer can made into a pipe was sitting on the floor underneath the belt. I remembered smoking pot with Alex. I think Alex has smoked pot less than twenty times in his life. I have no idea how many times I've smoked. The funny thing is, I hadn't smoked in a year and a half before my fiftieth birthday in January. Lately I've smoked quite a bit. I want to sing the praises of marijuana, like someone who has connected to some religion, I want to tell others, smoke some reefer, it eases traffic congestion, maybe you'll rethink some of those goals that you were never really interested in, but you think are good for you.

I'm fifty. Wow. I remember Alex saying to me in between hits, "you are clearly going to live until at least ninety, look at you". Of course we were stoned.

The night was incredible, adjectives wouldn't be sufficient to wrap up the details, the vibe or any other part of the evening. Neptune played on "The Bus". Neptune is a band that started as a sculpture project. They had one guitar that looked like a medieval torture device. A couple of people estimated it weighs 50 lbs.. I picked it up and I think that estimate is about right.

Mark drove the bus down Orange Blossom Trail (Hwy. 441). we tried our best to make a route that ended up in the Hoops parking lot as the band played its encore. Hoops is the dive bar where we began the trip. Our timing wasn't even close. That sort of precision may be easier in a world that is more regimented, a more corporate music world. We ended up going near Apopka and heading to George's Hideaway on N. Edgewater. We ran into our friends John and Courtney. It seemed like a crazy coincidence, running into people we knew in a another dive bar outside of town. Just before we pulled into George's we were pulled over by a cop. I didn't get out of the bus, but according to accounts by Mark, Alex and Greg the cop seemed stunned by the bus. The bus looks like a post-apocalyptic vehicle ala Road Warrior. Noise streamed out into the street as the band continued to play. Alex ran into the bus, in the middle of the cops questioning. He said. "The cop wants the band to stop, but they sound so fucking good, I can't ask them to stop." The music continued. The band later said they didn't know we'd been pulled over. The cop asked Mark, "What is going on here? What is this?" Mark said it's a private party. I've known Mark since 10th grade Spanish class. I can't picture anything but a deadpand delivery from him. Mark was wearing a bus driver uniform shirt with an American flag on the sleeve, he had a few days of stubble on his face and red suede hush puppies on. The shirt was from an actual bus driving job he'd had, but it all looked very thriftshop.

We were pulled over for not having tail lights. I think there was some sort of toggle switch inside that solved that problem. He also warned us about noise violations. The cop ended up letting us go. Mark later said getting pulled over was the highlight of the trip. In retrospect I agree. If he or any of us had been busted, maybe not.

We were going to have a second show. There was some agreement against that idea, mostly by the band. I think they were getting little shocks from electrical shorts or at least that's what I heard via someone else. I was at a post-decision making point. I had been drinking, later I compounded it with pot. I'm a lightweight with pot.

After parking the bus in Greg's yard and knocking parts of his and the neighbors fence down, Alex and I bicycled to the Hideaway. We split a pitcher of Blue Moon. It may not have been necessary, but we drank and soon after smoked.

In two weeks we're planning another bus trip. I think it's going to be called "The Show To Nowhere." Freddie and Johnny's psychedelic, soundtrackish band will play on the bus. We're telling everyone to bring sleeping bags and tents. We'll probably leave Friday night and come back Saturday night. We're not telling anyone where we're going.