Finally finished posting everything through the Detroit segment of Road Trip 98. There’s lots of pictures, including the disturbing but exciting demolition of the Hudson’s building in downtown Detroit.

Link du jour is Wishbone, where you will be treated to the job from hell and a really nice response to a crypto-capitalist.

Check out Webzine98 Saturday night at the Transmission Theatre. Look for a rare Planet SOMA – Schismatic convergence in a setting other than a greasy burger joint.

So I’ve posted the first couple of pages of journals from Road Trip 98, including the SF to Cheyenne and Cheyenne to Indianapolis pages, along with the trip “stats”. It is most flattering that so many people are interested in seeing my dusty old vacation slides…

I’ve been back in the rut known as San Francisco for two days now and I’m not enjoying it. I miss places with heat that works. I miss my friends from the road. I miss White Castle, dammit.

Still catching up on the email. Still catching up on the business. Still feeling like absolute shit, but loving the Count Chocula I smuggled in from Minnesota.

And, alas, still just as disillusioned with San Francisco…

Supreme Idiots:

In 1986, the US Supreme Court ruled that Americans have no right to privacy in their bedrooms in a case involving two consenting male adults in Georgia. This week, however, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Georgians do indeed have this right to privacy as they overturned the state’s sodomy laws.

Here’s the catch: this time around, the case involved an adult male who was fucking his 17-year-old niece. What this all means is that fags aren’t really worthy of privacy, but when the law won’t let Bubba pork his brother’s daughter, it’s time for some serious action!

Of course, the new ruling also makes us sodomites “legal” too, so it’s a good thing. I guess the “designated idiots” here are mainly the ’86 Supreme Court. But somehow, my impression of the state of Georgia isn’t enhanced all that much either…

Stripping Idiots:

OK…imagine you’re a Bay Area mother in with a 15-year-old daughter. Your precious progeny wants a particularly lewd male stripper at her birthday party. Even though he’s fondling the girls’ breasts and going in their pants, you allow it to continue. You don’t want to “embarrass” her in front of her friends, after all. At the end of the show, the stripper bares his willy, prompted by a big tip.

Now imagine you’re a judge who has to decide who’s the bigger idiot. Is it the mom for letting it happen? Or is it the stripper for thinking no one would get pissed that he was feeling up 15-year-old girls? Hard choice, huh?

I know what you’re thinking, but I promise I had absolutely nothing to do with the protesters who hit Mayor Willie Brown in the face with a pie. Mind you, I completely support their protest against the “economic cleansing” of San Francisco. And I completely support anything which makes Emperor Willie the Pompous appear foolish.

I’m just pissed off that I didn’t think of it first.

There are, as yet, no pictures or journals from Road Trip 98. However, I have added a Statistics page, with some useless information, “best of” items, etc. Look for the real scoop within the next couple of days.

I’m going back to bed now.

I’m home. I’m not wildly excited about this fact. ‘Nuff said…

Is it possible to have jet lag when you DRIVE across the country? I sort of feel like someone hit me really hard with a big stick.

Anyhow, it was a great trip. The details and pictures will follow shortly. Thanks to Erik and Bob, Carroll and Scott, David and Davee, and Bil and everyone else who put up with me. And thanks especially to Luby’s Cafeteria for keeping me fueled with fried okra all the way home.

I’m going to bed now. My own bed. That’ll be nice…

Miles travelled: 7003

States visited: 16

Most states in one day: 4 (on two different days)

Most annoying song heard over and over again: “The Stroke” by Billy Squier

Obscure top 40 song from my past I was most surprised to hear: “Gemini Dream” by the Moody Blues

Strangest radio station: 920AM in Faribault MN (all polka all the time)

Best lodging: Renaissance Tower, Indianapolis

Worst lodging: Motel 6, Kansas City

Cutest boys in the rest areas: Nebraska

Strangest food substance: Frank’s Kraut Juice (Minnesota)

Most pleasant financial surprise: Free ATM service at Norwest Banks thanks to merger mania

Runner-up to above: Cigarettes for $15.00 a carton in Indiana and Wyoming

Best thrift store surprise: The missing piece of my McDonald’s Flintstones mug collection

Crappiest queer bar: Blazing Saddles, Des Moines IA

Strangest queer bar: C’est La Vie, Milwaukee

Most enjoyable felony: Oral sex in Michigan (I’d say Minnesota too, but I’m not sure if it’s felony there)

Most enjoyable misdemeanor: Public drinking in a creepy parking garage in Minneapolis

Most enjoyable infraction: 90MPH through large parts of Nevada and Wyoming

Most roadkill sightings: I-35 through Iowa

Best culinary experience: The King and I, Minneapolis

Runner-up to above: Luby’s Cafeteria, OKC, Amarillo, and Albuquerque

Number of people I met in bars who had seen Planet SOMA: 1

Strangest vehicular sighting: An Oakland city bus parked at a truck stop in Albuquerque

Cheapest gas: 80.9 cents in Oklahoma City

Runner-up to above: 84.9 cents in Des Moines

Most expensive gas: $1.55 in the middle of the Mojave Desert

Runner-up to above: $1.29 in Needles CA

Worst allergy region: Minnesota, hands down