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Be sure to read this post! Beware of scammers. https://www.indianagunowners.com/threads/classifieds-new-online-payment-guidelines-rules-paypal-venmo-zelle-etc.511734/
The Road Home
- Thread starter NathanJefferson
- Start date
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Ooohh! Now you've done it! I'm going to go nuts until I find out what happened!
Throw out a "teaser" then stop!BRAT!!
I'm hoping for another section of the story tonight... I mean its only 10 o'clock on a Friday night
Oh, goody, goody, goody. (rubbing hands together greadily and clapping)
Thank you.
I'm not the author! I was only stating I hope the author writes another installment tonight!
Man, I feel like a **** because I got your hopes up. Sorry!
(Sigh) That's what I get for trying to do three things at once. (Well, four if you count trying to stay awake.
) I wasn't paying attention.
NathanJefferson
Master
- Feb 16, 2010
- 1,506
- 38
Sorry, trying to finish up the next installment, if I don't have it up tonight it will be up by this time tomorrow.
NathanJefferson
Master
- Feb 16, 2010
- 1,506
- 38
Radio Broadcast: Details are flooding in from all across the country, too many to share but here are some of the more dire items we've been notified about from the effects of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck along the New Madrid fault line last night. The entire city of Memphis Tennessee with about 800,000 residents is in complete ruin after the effects, there are reports that few if any structures larger than 2 stories remain in the entire city. St. Louis is reeling from major damage and we have reports of catastrophic flooding hitting the City of Chicago.
The President is planning to address the nation regarding this early in the morning, no time is currently scheduled since he and his entire administration are putting every effort into mitigating this trying catastrophe.
Rolling out of bed at 4:00 John grabbed his luggage and tossed it in the truck, a few seconds later Joe came over and got in the drivers seat. John hated having Joe get up this early to drop him off at the airport, but he was his ride.
They pulled up to the airport and instantly recognized something wasn't right. The small terminal was much darker than it normally was at this time, the majority of the lights were off, no people were in sight except for the two uniformed police officers leaning against their car in the middle of the lane. The police waved them over as they approached.
"Guys all flights are canceled due to the earthquake." The first officer said.
"Wait, what?" John replied
"There was an earthquake last night, turn on the radio. The whole Midwest is messed up… Bad. Sorry guys, but we don't know if or when they will start flights back up." The officer said as he started walking slowly back to his position holding the car up, signaling the conversation was over.
Dumbfounded, Joe drove on, not knowing where to go next as John pulled out his cell phone and began dialing home.
"All circuits are busy." He hung up and tried again, same message, again, same result.
"What's wrong?" Joe asked.
"I can't get through, all the lines are busy." John replied.
"Alright, well, how about we grab something to eat and figure out our next steps." Joe said as he turned the car down the road to a favorite diner of his.
On the way they turned on the radio and tuned into a news station. At least they thought it was a news station but it was actually the local hip-hop station broadcasting the same information that every station was currently sharing on the national tragedy. They learned that there was a massive earthquake and that the death toll already in the tens of thousands and that was just the initial estimate out of very few affected areas, and was expected to increase many times over the coming days as more details flood in.
Pulling into the diner they noticed it was already packed, and it was only about 4:30am. They got a booth in the corner to try and get away from the commotion of all the patrons discussing everything they heard so far and others glued to the TVs at each end of the bar. As they sat down John tried the cellphone again and got the same response.
With little information to go on they started devising a plan of how to get John home. Joe still had to pick up his truck from a worksite where he switched out for the work truck. That was about a total of 6 hours of drive time from where they were, luckily in the right direction. They decided that instead of leaving the truck there John would go ahead and drive it home and worry about getting it back to the proper local at a later date, worst case scenario they could just pay to have it shipped back west, probably for less than a plane ticket would cost anyway.
The main problems they were concerned about were gas and roadway being clear and passable. With all the shortages happening across the country it was already hard to be sure you could get enough gas to make it without waiting in long lines or dealing with odd/even rationing schemes. Now that there was mass devastation through the heartland who knew how hard it would be to find useable fuel.
The second concern mostly hinged about how he would get across the mighty Mississippi. From what they were hearing in the news the worst waves of destruction ran right along the river and reports of downed bridges, new lakes and even the river flowing backwards were coming over the television as they talked.
They grabbed the atlas out of the truck and continued planning the route John would take to get home as they ate their breakfast. From their current location in Helena they were going to drive back to the worksite in northeast Wyoming to drop Joe off, gas up both trucks and pack John's truck with every gas can they could find. Then John would hop on I-90 and drive back east, hopefully being able to get across the Mississippi on 90 and then turn south on I-39 until he could get on I-74 and from there he could get on I-70 all the way back to Columbus.
Easy enough, no problem John thought. He choked on his coffee nearly spitting it out in response to the sarcasm he had running through his head.
They finished up their breakfast giving the waitress bill back when she opened it up and laughed a little bit.
"Hon, didn't I tell you cash only today? Our machine is down and we can't run plastic right now."
"Oh, sorry, didn't know that, let me take care of that." Joe said as pulled out his wallet and handed her a pair of twenties. He could see John's brow furrowing as she said that, knowing every hiccup that happens on this trip could be catastrophic.
Before leaving town they stopped at several banks, trying the ATMs at each one. On the third try they were finally able to get cash out. John withdrew the max he could from his debit card and his credit cards, giving him $900 of new cash in addition the $74 he already had in his wallet. Joe pulled the max out also but he only had a debit card, leaving him with $300 in addition to the $150 and change he already had.
Then they began the long trip through the wide open. A few hours later they had to stop for gas. Pulling into the gas station they noticed that the prices weren't listed here just as they weren't at all the other stations they were passing along the way. Quickly a man in blue coveralls ran up and told them "cash only, $10 a gallon, limit of 10 gallons a person". They took a second, looking at each other, trying to gather themselves. 10 gallons would only get them about half of the way remaining.
"Alright, I'll take 10 gallons." John said and then he smiled really big and cheesy, "And he'll take 10 gallons too."
"Sorry, no can do, 10 gallons per car." The attendant said, rolling his eyes, this obviously wasn't the first time he heard that today.
"Well, I'll tell you what, I need at least 20 gallons, and I've got $240 dollars, why don't we make a deal?" John said.
This got his attention and the attendant looked around real quick and said "Ok, you got cans in the back? If I get caught selling more to you I'll get my ass chewed. So you hop out and head over behind that truck and I'll set it up. Just wait for me to give you the thumbs up."
Carefully john took out $240 from his wallet making sure that the attendant couldn't see that he had several times that much, he didn't want to get bidded up. Joe hoped out, grabbed the two gas cans out of the back. They had a few gallons in each so he put that in the tank first and then headed over to the pump that the attendant indicated.
The attendant called over the radio and told them to put ten gallons on the pump John had pulled up to. Then he slowly walked over to where Joe was standing, waited a couple of seconds and told them to put 10 gallons on that pump. A stern reply could be heard coming over the radio, "You already sold them their 10 gallons!". He started cobbling together a story about how its for the guy who walked up with the gas cans and told the lady inside to look out the window and see. A few other quips back and forth and finally the gas was authorized and Joe started pumping.
Before walking away the attendant told Joe to walk across the parking lot and get in the truck out of sight. Joe nodded and as soon as he finished filling his 10 gallons he started hoofing it. John, not clued in to what happened spent a few seconds waiting on Joe when he saw him about 150 yards across the parking lot. Jumping back into the truck he drove over and picked Joe up. Since the truck was about 2/3rds full now he was going to wait until later to put the remaining 10 gallons in to prevent overfilling.
Back on the road they kept driving along, stopping along the way to refill the tank. Around noon they arrived at the worksite. There wasn't a soul to be seen. They filled up the truck, the gas cans and Joe's truck from the bulk tank. Then they spent about fifteen minutes scrounging up any gas cans they could find, they found 3 more 5 gallon cans and filled them all up. Joe filled those up also, putting two in the company truck John was going to drive and the other in the back of his truck. He apologized telling John that even though he had a bulk tank back at his farm with several hundred gallons that he might not have enough to make it all the way there, even with a full tank.
As they were getting ready to part ways Joe went to his truck and came back with a small black canvas bag.
"Hey buddy, how about you take this piece of junk back with you, I can't stand looking at it anymore." Joe said handing him the bag.
Looking inside John saw a black handgun, several extra magazines, a couple boxes of ammo along with other standard range gear like ear plugs and safety glasses.
"Joe, I can't accept this…"
Joe interrupted "I've got my sweet new pieces at home, I'll be home in a few hours. Besides, it would be illegal for me to sell them to you, so I'm just loaning it to you for a few weeks until you make it back out here. "
John started to reply but Joe cut him off, "Boss man, just take it. Please, it will make ME feel a lot better knowing you've got it with you on your trip home, and we've been dodging it all day but we both know it is probably going to be a LOT harder than just a drive that will take you at least 20 hours if NOTHING else goes wrong."
John looked down at his feet, "I know, I just can't believe this is happening…"
"but it is, so take this" Joe said as he handed him the canvas bag, "and this. For the gas you paid for earlier, I would have had to do that anyway, and I'll go ahead and put in an expense reimbursement form for it" Joe said as he handed John the $300 he withdrew earlier.
John thanked him, the men shook hands and drove their opposite directions.
The President is planning to address the nation regarding this early in the morning, no time is currently scheduled since he and his entire administration are putting every effort into mitigating this trying catastrophe.
Rolling out of bed at 4:00 John grabbed his luggage and tossed it in the truck, a few seconds later Joe came over and got in the drivers seat. John hated having Joe get up this early to drop him off at the airport, but he was his ride.
They pulled up to the airport and instantly recognized something wasn't right. The small terminal was much darker than it normally was at this time, the majority of the lights were off, no people were in sight except for the two uniformed police officers leaning against their car in the middle of the lane. The police waved them over as they approached.
"Guys all flights are canceled due to the earthquake." The first officer said.
"Wait, what?" John replied
"There was an earthquake last night, turn on the radio. The whole Midwest is messed up… Bad. Sorry guys, but we don't know if or when they will start flights back up." The officer said as he started walking slowly back to his position holding the car up, signaling the conversation was over.
Dumbfounded, Joe drove on, not knowing where to go next as John pulled out his cell phone and began dialing home.
"All circuits are busy." He hung up and tried again, same message, again, same result.
"What's wrong?" Joe asked.
"I can't get through, all the lines are busy." John replied.
"Alright, well, how about we grab something to eat and figure out our next steps." Joe said as he turned the car down the road to a favorite diner of his.
On the way they turned on the radio and tuned into a news station. At least they thought it was a news station but it was actually the local hip-hop station broadcasting the same information that every station was currently sharing on the national tragedy. They learned that there was a massive earthquake and that the death toll already in the tens of thousands and that was just the initial estimate out of very few affected areas, and was expected to increase many times over the coming days as more details flood in.
Pulling into the diner they noticed it was already packed, and it was only about 4:30am. They got a booth in the corner to try and get away from the commotion of all the patrons discussing everything they heard so far and others glued to the TVs at each end of the bar. As they sat down John tried the cellphone again and got the same response.
With little information to go on they started devising a plan of how to get John home. Joe still had to pick up his truck from a worksite where he switched out for the work truck. That was about a total of 6 hours of drive time from where they were, luckily in the right direction. They decided that instead of leaving the truck there John would go ahead and drive it home and worry about getting it back to the proper local at a later date, worst case scenario they could just pay to have it shipped back west, probably for less than a plane ticket would cost anyway.
The main problems they were concerned about were gas and roadway being clear and passable. With all the shortages happening across the country it was already hard to be sure you could get enough gas to make it without waiting in long lines or dealing with odd/even rationing schemes. Now that there was mass devastation through the heartland who knew how hard it would be to find useable fuel.
The second concern mostly hinged about how he would get across the mighty Mississippi. From what they were hearing in the news the worst waves of destruction ran right along the river and reports of downed bridges, new lakes and even the river flowing backwards were coming over the television as they talked.
They grabbed the atlas out of the truck and continued planning the route John would take to get home as they ate their breakfast. From their current location in Helena they were going to drive back to the worksite in northeast Wyoming to drop Joe off, gas up both trucks and pack John's truck with every gas can they could find. Then John would hop on I-90 and drive back east, hopefully being able to get across the Mississippi on 90 and then turn south on I-39 until he could get on I-74 and from there he could get on I-70 all the way back to Columbus.
Easy enough, no problem John thought. He choked on his coffee nearly spitting it out in response to the sarcasm he had running through his head.
They finished up their breakfast giving the waitress bill back when she opened it up and laughed a little bit.
"Hon, didn't I tell you cash only today? Our machine is down and we can't run plastic right now."
"Oh, sorry, didn't know that, let me take care of that." Joe said as pulled out his wallet and handed her a pair of twenties. He could see John's brow furrowing as she said that, knowing every hiccup that happens on this trip could be catastrophic.
Before leaving town they stopped at several banks, trying the ATMs at each one. On the third try they were finally able to get cash out. John withdrew the max he could from his debit card and his credit cards, giving him $900 of new cash in addition the $74 he already had in his wallet. Joe pulled the max out also but he only had a debit card, leaving him with $300 in addition to the $150 and change he already had.
Then they began the long trip through the wide open. A few hours later they had to stop for gas. Pulling into the gas station they noticed that the prices weren't listed here just as they weren't at all the other stations they were passing along the way. Quickly a man in blue coveralls ran up and told them "cash only, $10 a gallon, limit of 10 gallons a person". They took a second, looking at each other, trying to gather themselves. 10 gallons would only get them about half of the way remaining.
"Alright, I'll take 10 gallons." John said and then he smiled really big and cheesy, "And he'll take 10 gallons too."
"Sorry, no can do, 10 gallons per car." The attendant said, rolling his eyes, this obviously wasn't the first time he heard that today.
"Well, I'll tell you what, I need at least 20 gallons, and I've got $240 dollars, why don't we make a deal?" John said.
This got his attention and the attendant looked around real quick and said "Ok, you got cans in the back? If I get caught selling more to you I'll get my ass chewed. So you hop out and head over behind that truck and I'll set it up. Just wait for me to give you the thumbs up."
Carefully john took out $240 from his wallet making sure that the attendant couldn't see that he had several times that much, he didn't want to get bidded up. Joe hoped out, grabbed the two gas cans out of the back. They had a few gallons in each so he put that in the tank first and then headed over to the pump that the attendant indicated.
The attendant called over the radio and told them to put ten gallons on the pump John had pulled up to. Then he slowly walked over to where Joe was standing, waited a couple of seconds and told them to put 10 gallons on that pump. A stern reply could be heard coming over the radio, "You already sold them their 10 gallons!". He started cobbling together a story about how its for the guy who walked up with the gas cans and told the lady inside to look out the window and see. A few other quips back and forth and finally the gas was authorized and Joe started pumping.
Before walking away the attendant told Joe to walk across the parking lot and get in the truck out of sight. Joe nodded and as soon as he finished filling his 10 gallons he started hoofing it. John, not clued in to what happened spent a few seconds waiting on Joe when he saw him about 150 yards across the parking lot. Jumping back into the truck he drove over and picked Joe up. Since the truck was about 2/3rds full now he was going to wait until later to put the remaining 10 gallons in to prevent overfilling.
Back on the road they kept driving along, stopping along the way to refill the tank. Around noon they arrived at the worksite. There wasn't a soul to be seen. They filled up the truck, the gas cans and Joe's truck from the bulk tank. Then they spent about fifteen minutes scrounging up any gas cans they could find, they found 3 more 5 gallon cans and filled them all up. Joe filled those up also, putting two in the company truck John was going to drive and the other in the back of his truck. He apologized telling John that even though he had a bulk tank back at his farm with several hundred gallons that he might not have enough to make it all the way there, even with a full tank.
As they were getting ready to part ways Joe went to his truck and came back with a small black canvas bag.
"Hey buddy, how about you take this piece of junk back with you, I can't stand looking at it anymore." Joe said handing him the bag.
Looking inside John saw a black handgun, several extra magazines, a couple boxes of ammo along with other standard range gear like ear plugs and safety glasses.
"Joe, I can't accept this…"
Joe interrupted "I've got my sweet new pieces at home, I'll be home in a few hours. Besides, it would be illegal for me to sell them to you, so I'm just loaning it to you for a few weeks until you make it back out here. "
John started to reply but Joe cut him off, "Boss man, just take it. Please, it will make ME feel a lot better knowing you've got it with you on your trip home, and we've been dodging it all day but we both know it is probably going to be a LOT harder than just a drive that will take you at least 20 hours if NOTHING else goes wrong."
John looked down at his feet, "I know, I just can't believe this is happening…"
"but it is, so take this" Joe said as he handed him the canvas bag, "and this. For the gas you paid for earlier, I would have had to do that anyway, and I'll go ahead and put in an expense reimbursement form for it" Joe said as he handed John the $300 he withdrew earlier.
John thanked him, the men shook hands and drove their opposite directions.
NathanJefferson
Master
- Feb 16, 2010
- 1,506
- 38
Radio broadcast: FEMA has been activated and all national guard and army reserves have been called up but the ability to contact all members has been difficult at best. The international community is already making preparations for thousands of relief workers from around the world to help with the devastation in the heartland.
Estimates are already over 100,000 dead and almost 20 million people displaced from their homes from either structural damage, flooding or other security factors like ruptured gas and sewage lines.
Stay tuned for all the latest updates and for the live broadcast of the Presidents address later this evening.
John was on the road cruising down the highway at a steady 75. He could easily go faster, hardly any cars to be seen especially going the direction he was going and the speed limit was posted at 75 which wasn't really enforced unless you were going close to 90. He periodically tried calling home but every time he got the same all circuits are busy.
He turned the radio off since he was not getting anything worthwhile from the news, just more and scarier details from the major cities that were affected. It wasn't anything he thought could be helpful since they wouldn't give any specifics of what roads were open or closed or anything else that would pertain to his travel. Luckily he didn't ever hear them mention his destination, Columbus Ohio. That at least made him happy and he hoped that there wasn't too much damage since the city was somewhere between 4 and 5 hundred miles from the quakes center.
A few hours into the drive he came up on Chamberlain where he had to cross the Missouri River, everything was fine here from what he could see. He did notice several crews that looked like they were surveying and inspecting the large bridge that I-90 took across the river but the road was open. Even though he didn't have problems here a pit started welling up in his stomach at the thought of getting across the Mississippi. He knew this would be his biggest obstacle since he was already hearing from news reports that most bridges were damaged, many completely closed and impassible if not outright collapsed.
He planned on taking the bridge on I-90 which was around 500 miles north of the epicenter but he was still very worried. The news stories were describing how the river was flowing north now from some point along the southern half of Illinois. The design of many of these bridges, built to manage the flow of the river but only in one, the normal, direction. Due to this the reversed flow was washing away even more hope and what remained of many bridges used to cross the mighty river.
Seeing that the gas gauge was getting below 1/4 a tank John decided to start looking for somewhere to fill up. Out of the first three exits he tried two didn't even have gas stations that he could find and the other was closed. On the fourth try the station was open, but wouldn't sell him any gas. The Governor ordered rationing by your license plate number and today wasn't his day, but he was more than welcome to spend the night in the lot and buy gas tomorrow. It was only a little after 5:00PM and he didn't have any time to waste so he emptied two of the gas cans into the tank and drove on.
He kept trying exits but this time being a little more selective, only going where he saw definite signs of a gas station since every extra bit he burned looking for gas might just end up being that much less he can use getting home. Finding two more stations he kept getting the same reply, no gas until tomorrow. Luckily the attendant told him this before he waited in the line that was at least 50 or 60 cars long. This time his little trick of offering a cash bribe didn't work. Evidently they were warned about people running random stings to catch people breaking the law.
At about 7:00 he was coming up on the outskirts of Sioux Falls. He was thinking this might be a good place to spend the night and get some food, being one of the larger cities around for at least a few hours drive. Although the thought of sleeping in a hotel made his stomach turned he knew he was going to be stuck sleeping somewhere if only because he needed to wait until tomorrow so he could buy enough gas to keep him going.
Before getting to the first exit he saw a construction sign blinking the message "All Local Exits - CLOSED" and then it flashed "All Exits to 229 - CLOSED". Sure enough as he passed the first exit there was a line of orange and white barrels blocking the path, as well as a couple strings of what looked almost like chains running along the ground in front of and behind the barrels. He figured they must be tire puncture devices to help dissuade anyone from just driving through the barrels, even though it looked deserted and he could have easily just gotten out of the truck and moved everything from the path. The next few exits looked the same.
Since he obviously wasn't wanted he decided to just go ahead and motor on through, he would just pick a lonely field somewhere to get a few hours of sleep while waiting for the magical time he was going to be allowed to buy the gas he needed. He was just a few miles from the South Dakota and Minnesota state line and decided to just play it safe, for all he knew Minnesota was rationing gas too and their days might be reversed from where he was currently. Just a few miles east of Sioux Falls he pulled off on an exit on a northbound road and started looking for a quiet place to park for the night. With a population density of about 10 people per square mile, making it in the bottom five states, finding a spot was pretty easy.
By this time it was little after 8:00 and John realized that he hadn't eaten anything since the diner that morning. He looked around the truck and was surprise to find a bag full of food, left over from the gas station spread he shared with one of the work crews a few days earlier. A few sports drinks, several bags of different chips and a couple other odds and ends were packed into the plastic shopping bag. Normally he wouldn't touch most of this stuff but after the day he had he was giddy at the idea of wolfing down the over processed starches and grease. He even figured he had enough food to last him a couple more days allowing him to skip food and spend more on gas if need be.
Not knowing what time the gas stations would open he set his alarm for 3:30am, this should get him to the station by 4:00 at the latest and if he didn't have any delays getting his gas or on his drive he could make it across Minnesota just in time to have a victory breakfast on the eastern shore of the Mississippi.
Rolling down the windows to let a breeze through John eventually dozed off into a light sleep.
Estimates are already over 100,000 dead and almost 20 million people displaced from their homes from either structural damage, flooding or other security factors like ruptured gas and sewage lines.
Stay tuned for all the latest updates and for the live broadcast of the Presidents address later this evening.
John was on the road cruising down the highway at a steady 75. He could easily go faster, hardly any cars to be seen especially going the direction he was going and the speed limit was posted at 75 which wasn't really enforced unless you were going close to 90. He periodically tried calling home but every time he got the same all circuits are busy.
He turned the radio off since he was not getting anything worthwhile from the news, just more and scarier details from the major cities that were affected. It wasn't anything he thought could be helpful since they wouldn't give any specifics of what roads were open or closed or anything else that would pertain to his travel. Luckily he didn't ever hear them mention his destination, Columbus Ohio. That at least made him happy and he hoped that there wasn't too much damage since the city was somewhere between 4 and 5 hundred miles from the quakes center.
A few hours into the drive he came up on Chamberlain where he had to cross the Missouri River, everything was fine here from what he could see. He did notice several crews that looked like they were surveying and inspecting the large bridge that I-90 took across the river but the road was open. Even though he didn't have problems here a pit started welling up in his stomach at the thought of getting across the Mississippi. He knew this would be his biggest obstacle since he was already hearing from news reports that most bridges were damaged, many completely closed and impassible if not outright collapsed.
He planned on taking the bridge on I-90 which was around 500 miles north of the epicenter but he was still very worried. The news stories were describing how the river was flowing north now from some point along the southern half of Illinois. The design of many of these bridges, built to manage the flow of the river but only in one, the normal, direction. Due to this the reversed flow was washing away even more hope and what remained of many bridges used to cross the mighty river.
Seeing that the gas gauge was getting below 1/4 a tank John decided to start looking for somewhere to fill up. Out of the first three exits he tried two didn't even have gas stations that he could find and the other was closed. On the fourth try the station was open, but wouldn't sell him any gas. The Governor ordered rationing by your license plate number and today wasn't his day, but he was more than welcome to spend the night in the lot and buy gas tomorrow. It was only a little after 5:00PM and he didn't have any time to waste so he emptied two of the gas cans into the tank and drove on.
He kept trying exits but this time being a little more selective, only going where he saw definite signs of a gas station since every extra bit he burned looking for gas might just end up being that much less he can use getting home. Finding two more stations he kept getting the same reply, no gas until tomorrow. Luckily the attendant told him this before he waited in the line that was at least 50 or 60 cars long. This time his little trick of offering a cash bribe didn't work. Evidently they were warned about people running random stings to catch people breaking the law.
At about 7:00 he was coming up on the outskirts of Sioux Falls. He was thinking this might be a good place to spend the night and get some food, being one of the larger cities around for at least a few hours drive. Although the thought of sleeping in a hotel made his stomach turned he knew he was going to be stuck sleeping somewhere if only because he needed to wait until tomorrow so he could buy enough gas to keep him going.
Before getting to the first exit he saw a construction sign blinking the message "All Local Exits - CLOSED" and then it flashed "All Exits to 229 - CLOSED". Sure enough as he passed the first exit there was a line of orange and white barrels blocking the path, as well as a couple strings of what looked almost like chains running along the ground in front of and behind the barrels. He figured they must be tire puncture devices to help dissuade anyone from just driving through the barrels, even though it looked deserted and he could have easily just gotten out of the truck and moved everything from the path. The next few exits looked the same.
Since he obviously wasn't wanted he decided to just go ahead and motor on through, he would just pick a lonely field somewhere to get a few hours of sleep while waiting for the magical time he was going to be allowed to buy the gas he needed. He was just a few miles from the South Dakota and Minnesota state line and decided to just play it safe, for all he knew Minnesota was rationing gas too and their days might be reversed from where he was currently. Just a few miles east of Sioux Falls he pulled off on an exit on a northbound road and started looking for a quiet place to park for the night. With a population density of about 10 people per square mile, making it in the bottom five states, finding a spot was pretty easy.
By this time it was little after 8:00 and John realized that he hadn't eaten anything since the diner that morning. He looked around the truck and was surprise to find a bag full of food, left over from the gas station spread he shared with one of the work crews a few days earlier. A few sports drinks, several bags of different chips and a couple other odds and ends were packed into the plastic shopping bag. Normally he wouldn't touch most of this stuff but after the day he had he was giddy at the idea of wolfing down the over processed starches and grease. He even figured he had enough food to last him a couple more days allowing him to skip food and spend more on gas if need be.
Not knowing what time the gas stations would open he set his alarm for 3:30am, this should get him to the station by 4:00 at the latest and if he didn't have any delays getting his gas or on his drive he could make it across Minnesota just in time to have a victory breakfast on the eastern shore of the Mississippi.
Rolling down the windows to let a breeze through John eventually dozed off into a light sleep.
NathanJefferson
Master
- Feb 16, 2010
- 1,506
- 38
So far so good, keep them coming
Out of curiosity, how long is the planned story supposed to be?
I originally outlined 21 chapters, don't know exactly how that will end up since I've already changed a few around but I think there will be about 12-15 more installments.
Awesome, I can't wait to read the next installment.
NathanJefferson
Master
- Feb 16, 2010
- 1,506
- 38
sorry, I planned on having another segment up last night but its a no go. Swamped at work right now and sick (though I think its just a nervous/stress reaction).
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