One The Road With Keith- Day Two
What’s a ‘collect’ call?
Keith Geiger
A summary of Day Two of Keith Geiger’s Journey from Moraga, CA to Pittsburgh, PA:
7:30am— After spending the night in a Salt Lake City fleabag, Keith’s alarm goes off. No way. Snooze city.
8:00— Keith’s alarm goes off again, only this time it means it.
8:30— Brush teeth; check. Checkout of hotel; check. Make sure the Keithmobile wasn’t stolen overnight; check. Okay, let’s light this candle.
9:00— Keith pulls into a Utah gas station located high up in the mountains east of Salt Lake. Ten seconds after squeezing the nozzle, the pump runs dry. Oops.
10:00— Goodbye, Utah. Hello, Wyoming. Where the heck is everybody?
11:00— Keith notices the AT&T cell phone coverage in Wyoming is terrible. He remembers his dad talking to him about what he should do if the car breaks down in an area where his cell phone won’t work. He tries to remember how to pull off a “collect” call.
12:00— Another 10-mile construction zone. What’s the use of a 75-mph speed limit if you’re stuck for ten miles going 45 behind a truck?
1:00— Keith passes yet another tractor-trailor truck with “SWIFT” on the side. That’ the tenth one he’s seen today. Where are they going, and what are they carrying?
2:00— You haven’t lived until you’ve had lunch at a Denny’s counter in Rawlins, WY. Afterwards, Keith takes a picture of the scenery and sends it to his parents. He swears he saw the ghost of General Custer’s riding over the hills. At least Wyoming is burnt brown. Nevada was nothing but a sea of gray.
3:00— Keith pulls off the road for a short siesta in Laramie. If Nevada was boring, that makes Wyoming comatose.
4:00— Tired of listening to his music, Keith turns on the radio. He’s lucky if he can find one station to listen too, much less two. He can only find either country western and gospel on the radio. Keith becomes very thankful that he grew up in California.
5:00— Goodbye, Wyoming. Hello, Nebraska. What’s a cornhusker?
6:00— Another ten-mile long, single-lane construction zone. The fifth or sixth one today. Keith is missing all the, ahem, beautiful scenery because his eyes are focused on the back of the SWIFT tractor-trailor in front of him. This is easily the most frustrating part of the trip.
7:00— Exhausted, Keith calls it a day in North Platte, NB. This time he gets a modern hotel room with clean sheets ,Wifi, and a Dunkin Donuts across the street. After finding the best steak in town, he’s going to come back to his room and chat with his friends on the Internet. Two days, 1300 miles. He’s halfway to Pittsburgh. Tomorrow he’ll see Nebraska, Iowa, and maybe Illinois. And maybe a tornado.
Stay tuned for further updates.