From: Sandy King (sanking@clemson.edu)
Date: 05/06/03-07:51:11 PM Z
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the exciting account of your trip. Good luck in crossing
Kansas. In addition to the hail and tornado you must also watch out
for the outlaws. From what I have heard there are desperados
everywhere once you get west of Kansas City, and women too. Better
keep the silver bullet headed straight west on I-40 to Denver, and
don't dare venture off the road. The seductive voice of Jane on GPS
might be safer than all those off-road continental Kansas women who
may want to lure you into who knows what, for what ever nefarious
reason. But about all, don't allow anyone to take a "neked" picture
of you. Could get back to Chicago.
Sandy
>Return-path: <Ender100@aol.com>
>From: Ender100@aol.com
>Full-name: Ender100
>Message-ID: <27.3f7acf5b.2be8d892@aol.com>
>Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 05:21:22 EDT
>Subject: Endercam Tours CaliforniaðCross Texas
>To: Ender100@aol.com
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>
>Yes, Ender has crammed the Silver Bullet with photography gear and instructed
>Jane, the Voice Navigation System, to determine a course for California.
>This trip will again include Fountain Hills, AZ and San Diego, CA. While in
>AZ I will head down to Tucson for a one day, one-on-one workshop with Keith
>Schreiber on Palladium printing-a 19th century process of hand coating
>watercolor paper with a palladium solution and contact printing a
>photographic image on the light sensitive material with sunlight or some
>ultra violet light source. I suppose I could rent a tanning bed for my
>exposure. The one difference will be that, unlike the early photographers,
>the enlarged negatives will be made digitally rather than in a wet darkroom.
>
>This trip west I plan on making it up the coast of California to Monterey,
>where I will attend a workshop on photographing the nude outdoors given by
>Steve Anchell, the Editor of Photo Visions (and author of the Darkroom
>Cookbook).
>
>I left Elgin last Saturday so that I could make it to my friends in Golden
>Eagle, IL, Bill and Kathy, in time for Music Night. Every other Saturday
>night, they have a bunch of friends who bring their guitars, mandolins,
>fiddles, banjos and harmonicas to their house and play music. When I can
>make it, I like to join in. Sometimes their Yellow Lab, Max, also joins in.
>
>After a great night of music and a good visit with Max, the Appaloosas, Bill
>and Kathy, I set out around noon Sunday for the West. It always feels nice
>use the St. Louis area, the "Gateway to the West" as a point of departure. I
>can almost visualize the Silver Bullet being slammed through the big Arch by
>a giant croquet mallet.
>
>I set a goal of 600 miles the first day, in spite of the late start. It was
>a nice drive. Jane had set a course from Golden Eagle to San Diego, via
>Fountain Hills. She got me to Interstate 44 and we set the cruise control on
>Fast Cruise. It was a beautiful day. The countryside was lush from recent
>rains and there were lots of newborn calves and colts to watch dogging their
>moms out in the fields.
>
>Now one of the annoying things about me when I am riding or driving in a car
>is that I am a compulsive sign reader. No matter what it is, I read it. For
>years I have read at least a book a week. I think perhaps this compulsion is
>my way compromise with the fact that if I try to read a book in a car, within
>15 seconds I am grabbing for an airsick bag. Anyway, we are sailing along
>Interstate 44 and Jane tells me to ignore the approaching exit and continue
>on I-44. I glance over at the exit and notice that IF we were to exit we
>would have access to two county highways. Highway "O" and Highway "Z". So
>there they were the two large signs in black and white, side by side,
>indicating the exit to- "OZ"! This turned out to be prophetic.
>
>When I travel, I keep hitting the FM seek button to tune in the nearest NPR
>station. I was doing pretty well through Missouri-not as many Jesus Stations
>interfered with the tuner as I would have expected. Later in the afternoon
>Jane said we were approaching the Southwestern corner of Missouri, not far
>from the Oklahoma border. About that time, there was a special bulletin on th
>e NPR station that a number of Force 4 & 5 tornadoes had hit north of me in
>Kansas. Since I was driving through "Tornado Alley", it was comforting to
>know the action was north of me. I did, however, start keeping a closer eye
>on the darkening skies in the West-directly in my path.
>
>It wasn't long before the sky had darkened quite a bit and the Silver
>Bullet's big V8 engine beginning to labor just a little against the rising
>headwind. NPR repeated the warning about tornado sightings in Kansas and
>began giving accounts of the destruction and deaths that had started to be
>reported.
>
>The wind and rain were really beginning to buffet the Silver Bullet by now.
>Jane was being unusually quiet. I thought at times I could hear her
>breathing and it wasn't because I had turned her on. About that time I began
>to notice little round balls of ice landing on the hood of the car. I
>figured that if they didn't get any bigger, I'd be fine-they did. Pretty
>soon they were hitting the windshield with the sound of an aluminum bat
>cracking a home run. I figured it was about time to start worrying. Well,
>actually it wasn't that hard of a decision to make-to worry, because the
>announcer with the serious voice on NPR was back with more good news. A line
>of severe thunderstorms including heavy rain, hail of up to 4.25 inches in
>diameter, strong winds AND numerous tornadoes was sited in Oklahoma headed
>northwest. The picture on their Doppler Radar indicated that the front
>seemed to be intent on following Interstate 44 northwest and was about to
>wreak its havoc on the population of Miami, Oklahoma. A week ago I was in
>Florida shooting and I was sure Miami was down there, where I left it. Now
>that's the thing with these spring storms-things just don't stay where they
>are supposed to.
>
>I thought about this development and, out of curiosity, I asked Jane where
>Miami, Oklahoma was. Jane was silent for a few seconds, then she responded
>in her sexy voice that since we had been making such good time, (in fact, we
>were ahead of schedule) we were due cross the border into Oklahoma and pass
>through Miami in less than 20 minutes. It appeared that we and the storm
>were about to meet the citizens of Miami in about 20 minutes. This seemed to
>be one of those situations where a person ought to make a really good
>decision. However, by now, the hail hitting the windshield was so loud that
>it was difficult to think. Plus, the non-artistic side of my brain was
>distracted by the effort of trying to calculate the velocity of a 4.25 inch
>hailstone as it punched it's way through the windshield of the Silver Bullet
>and lodged itself between my teeth. Not to mention other calculations
>regarding the cost to remove all the dents from the sleek silver skin of my
>new 4Runner.
>
>About that time an overpass materialized out of the weather and I tested the
>hi tech all wheel drive breaking system by swerving and breaking in time to
>nestle in under the overpass behind a couple of other equally intelligent
>drivers.
>
>So Jane and I set there under the overpass free of the din of the hail and
>again able to hear the serious voice of NPR as they repeated their warnings
>about this impending storm and their instructions regarding what to do if you
>are caught in the path of a tornado. Meanwhile, I am replaying in my mind
>all the film clips from the Discovery channel of NATURES MOST DANGEROUS
>STORMS-not to mention a few scenes from Twister thrown in for good measure.
>One in particular was the scene of the cow sailing through the air. I'm
>thinking about all those fields of cattle we had passed and trying to
>calculate the damage that would be caused to my photography equipment if a
>side of beef were to kiss the rear gate of the Silver Bullet at 200 mph.
>
>The beef scenario then reminded me of our experience just prior to the storm.
> We had been driving along just fine when SPLAT, something very large was
>pulverized on the windshield, right in the center of my field of vision. Now
>it was too early for bats and I didn't see any feathers in the primordial
>ooze that was still being spread slowly upwards on the windshield by the 85
>mph slipstream. Now what kind of bug could be this big and this stupid to
>not get out of the way? Then I noticed one little barbed leg flowing along
>with the emulsion and I would pretty much guess it was a June bug-a really
>big June bug. But wait, I hadn't been driving that long! It was still the
>first week in May! Well, I had driven south though and Nature wakens earlier
>in the South.
>
>It's funny how the mind works. There Jane and I are sitting under the
>shelter of this overpass about to go sailing with the cows and I'm thinking
>about June bugs. Then it dawned on me-the connection. The Biblical Plagues.
> I was sure it wasn't June bugs, but maybe grasshoppers or locusts or
>something like that. That was the first plague, wasn't it? We had
>unknowingly left the safety of our own home and driven south into a land
>where they plant FM Jesus stations everywhere to drown out the voice of
>reason and sanity-NPR. Jane had unknowingly guided me into some Bible
>Pageant Nightmare. I tried to squeeze from my failing memory the story of
>the plagues I had heard in the Methodist Church as a kid. But I couldn't
>remember the different plagues-how could I be prepared if I didn't know which
>plague I was facing and in which order? Why did I pay more attention to the
>ice cream socials when I should have been seriously studying the Bible and
>preparing myself for death and destruction?
>
>Just at that point, I noticed that the hail had ceased to fall. And then the
>most amazing thing happened. It was as if Someone had suddenly punched a
>small hole in that huge, dark, angry cloud overhead and a dazzling shaft of
>light shown down on the road just in front of us. Was this a sign? Was
>Charlton Heston going to walk out of the rain holding a National Rifle
>Association Membership Form? The shaft of light was almost blinding. Was I
>having an epiphany? Was this how the Rapture begins? Wasn't the Rapture
>what came just before God destroyed the earth? All rapture aside, I decided
>to slam the Silver Bullet into All Wheel Drive and get the hell out of there.
> As I accelerated towards the light, the non-artistic side of my brain said
>to the other side of my brain: "The faster you go towards the light clouds
>the less time you spend in the dark clouds and the less your chances are of
>going cow sailing." Made sense to me.
>
>Figuring I had heard enough prophesies from NPR, I put on a Lucinda Williams
>CD and adjusted my lumbar support. Appropriately, Lucinda sang:
>
>"I would risk the Serpent's bite
>I would dance around with seven
>I would kiss the Diamondback
>If I knew it would get me to heaven
>
>REFRAIN-
>'Cause I want to get right with God
>Yes, you know you got to get right with God
>
>I made it to Oklahoma City and got a room there.
>
>Well, I'm not the most religious person in the world. Very spiritual maybe..
>But wait a minute...I'm headed for New Mexico and Arizona-Rattlesnake
>country! Was that one of the plagues?
>
>Monday morning as I passed through North Texas, I came upon the cross
>depicted in the attached image. Signs claimed it to be the largest cross in
>the Western Hemisphere. Another sign invited you to stop along the way to
>the cross to have the best biscuits and gravy at the Holy Mary Restaurant.
>
>Enjoy!
>Mark Nelson
>
>
>Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:TexasCross.jpg (JPEG/ogle) (000887FE)
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