1984 Chapter 7: 2279 Part 4 -Attention Klingon Commander

I woke up at 10:40 AM and I was not happy.   I showered very quickly and vacated the room feeling rushed and not ready to move on yet. The sun was harsh the day was turning out to be a hot one. What day was it even? Tuesday.  In one way they all feel the same now and in other ways they are complete opposites of other days.  One thing is for sure, Tuesdays never felt like this.

There was a desire in me to take it in today and my rush from the motel room did not accommodate that.  East St Louis Illinois was down the road today.  It would be just before I crossed the Mississippi River into St Louis Missouri.  I could find a waterfront park or something and take pictures of the Gateway from across the river.  This plan made me feel better.  It was going to be a good day.

I stopped and got gas, coffee, and a muffin and hit I 70 West again. All I needed to do was to drive a couple of hours then I could chill by the Mississippi, which I was really looking forward to.  The symbolism that this river held, the history.  The terrain is different on either side of it.  The historical significance. Radio station call letters begin with a W east of it and on the west side of it the station call letters start with a K. There are 2 exceptions to this; the first station in the US, KDKA is in Pittsburgh, PA, and WFAA in Dallas, Texas. 

 I was beginning to think that East St Louis must be coming up, but before I knew it the highway opened right up and suddenly I was on a bridge over the Mississippi River. The bridge dropped me hard into the biggest city I have ever driven through. No mercy. The afternoon rush was brutal! I spotted the arch in the sea of the sprawling city that seemed to go on for light years.  I laughed at my lack of experience and planning. "oh, I'll just find a nice riverfront park and take pictures." What an idiot!

Photo by Tiffany Cade on Unsplash

St Louis for my inexperienced self felt like piloting a plane through an asteroid belt.  It seemed to take an hour to get through the chaos. The hot afternoon air blasted through the windows.  It is 1984, and AC is for rich people. I held the steering wheel hard with a white knuckle grip, fearing taking a wrong turn. At one point I did stay in a lane that took me off the highway that I needed to stay on.  Shaking, I found my way onto I-44 West, my new roadway that would now carry me all the way into northeast Oklahoma.

When the Ion storm was over. I felt like I had been dropped into a pot of hot oil.  I needed a break, but I waited until St Louis was 20 miles behind me before I took in some healing McDonald's therapy to soothe.

I noticed, that once you get out of St. Louis, the terrain opens up in a dramatic way.  Even though southern Illinois was flat, this was different.  It made me feel small, a speck under an infinite sky.

I had been noticing this cloud hanging over me recently.  It was guilt.  At 18 you do not understand what it is like to be a parent.  So I stopped in Eureka, where they have Six Flags Over America.  I called my mother from a shopping center payphone.  She was glad that I had checked in with her. I noticed after hanging up the phone that this shopping center also had a movie theater. This gave me an idea......."Attention Klingon commander, this is Admiral James T Kirk, I'm alive and well on the planet's surface.  I'm sorry about your crew but as they say on earth, 'cest la vie!"

I went to see "Star Trek III The Search for Spock" again for the second time in 3 days.  Just could not help myself.  It was relaxing.  I got out of the theater and it was getting dark.  I got onto the highway and headed southwest on Interstate 44.  The movie was a great destresser and I was moving right along for a few hours. Around 1 AM in Conway Missouri, a rest area beckoned me to pull in, I turned off the engine, pulled the armrest up on the front seat lay down, and was asleep in minutes.