Indianapolis

The first thing I have to say is this is a hella interesting thing to be doing and I don’t mean la la lark but it’s engaging in many ways. Just to see this stuff, the Plains, the Rockies which are, by the way, turning a brilliant poplar / beech/aspen yellow at the top and all those mountain sport d’hivers towns are looking lively and hopeful.

It was a long night. Ironies accumulated to the point where I am really back to as good as normal ever gets considering.

The bus I got swarmed off of night before last, I think it was, broke down out on the highway stranding for two hours while the company got a replacement out there, and lo and behold, in Denver, we were waiting for a second coach to Kansas and here they came streaming into the lobby like long-lost friends. And off we rolled into the night piloted by

A natty little fireplug of a very focused no-nonsense black man  who kept a tight ship slamming on the brakes in the middle of nowhere we thought to throw a rowdy from the back row where the kids were cutting up pretty fine, but he just had to take a leak, and did, after scaring those with a guilty conscience half to death and reducing the noise level considerably.

Jose the horny Mexican finall went away after trying manfully all his Spanglish game, including tipping a half pint of tokay just like would have at one time really rang my bell but he wasn’t very attractive, kind of skinny dumb unlike his friend a real Mexican, squatty and compact and self-collected and never said a word.

But it wasn’t free, I scored a seatmate anyway, a big seatmate.

What you have to do is stack some shit on the seat beside you and get busy when a fresh batch boards and just refuse to give a shit or make eye contact and this guy was the very last and I chickened out and he clocked me and won my respect by asking permission to sit down. Luckly he was a stoic of epic proportion, never in my actual space, more intelligent and well spoken than looks would lead you to believe, and we did OK.

I’m always busy and I got a lot of shit. Digging something out, putting away, taking off boots or finding different glasses. I read , I type, I fiddle with my phone, well everybody does when its dark you can see the glow from a dozen screens bluelightine the dark back of the bus like little towns from a high up airplane passing by. And I nosh, salami and cheese cocktail food, jerky and raisins, apples, hardtack, sesame crunch.