Chapter 11.
In the process of trying to buy a Gaggia machine we learned they were imported from Italy arrived in New York, like immigrants 100 years ago.
After clearing customs they went by train across the US. It took weeks for our espresso machine to arrive, but it was worth the wait. We ordered it from a dealer in Los Angeles but it came to America from Italy in a cargo container, across two seas and the Hudson River.
It rode on a freight train to California inside a steel container then was unloaded and shipped to our front door in the back of a shiny brown truck. We were lied to: "Are they in stock?" I asked the dealer in Los Angeles and he said yes, in stock and ready to ship. Their big lie was they were in stock (in Italy). So we'll never do business with them again.
Considering how much we spent I hoped it lasted many years.
It's simple to operate: we added dark roasted beans under the lid and RO water in the tank. While it ran the first time we adjusted the volume of coffee it made to match our mugs (6oz), over time we adjusted the grinder for the flavor intensity we wanted. The first dozen cups were tasted then dumped in the sink while we got it adjusted and rinsed out. David said we needed to buy some nice ceramic espresso shot mugs to be authentic. Those were hard to find online.
Another disadvantage of ceramic over insulated acrylic was you had to pre-heat ceramic mugs or they zapped the heat (and some of the flavor) from the espresso.
Slowly our new kitchen was becoming more useful. And with the smoker outside and the new pots and pans it was starting to look like an actual mini restaurant kitchen. We seldom ate in the booths, we preferred to eat at the bar because it had more space and easier clean-up after a meal because the sinks were close.
Another structural change we made was the kitchen floor plan. Originally you entered the kitchen from the hallway or dining area. We closed off the hallway opening to add cabinet space. Another big change was the removal of the only window in the kitchen, but the window was small and didn't open.
We hired a highly recommended Mexican carpenter to build a stained wood rack on the wall where the window used to look out on the back yard. Now, that entire wall above counter height was racks for booze or wine bottles. Slowly we filled it with wine and liquor bottles that didn't need refrigeration.
We added a small wine bottle cooler because both of us liked our wine chilled but didn't want to use up valuable refrigerator space. At first we wanted polished walnut on the wall behind the shelves but he talked us out of that because only a white wall would allow us to see the contents of the bottles. He also agreed to add holes in case we decided later to add LED lighting strips to the bottle shelves.
In the lower cabinets we could store bottles and keep extra kitchen and bar supplies. The remodel more than doubled the volume of storage over the original 1948 turquoise/white/tan kitchen.
We added four shelving brackets for small shelves so we could add small appliances; the perfect ice cube machine, a bread machine, the wine chiller, and there was room for one more. We were thinking about one of those hot dog roller cookers but decided to cook dogs on an iron skillet with a ridged cooking surface instead. We decided to leave the satellite alert receiver in the living room now instead of the kitchen counter.
We had one short mission in Lubbock Texas, we took the jet due to the urgency. Two guys held up a local home store and in a panic they took hostages and threatened to kill them if anyone entered the building. They grabbed a young family of five, with three small children. I guess Lubbock had no SWAT team and the cops were unprepared for a situation like that, so we were asked to get there ASAP.
Just so you know, in cases like that if the jet was busy or out of service we had to decline the case, but luckily it didn't happen that often. This was why the jet usually re-fueled and left right away after dropping us off.
We dropped and raced to the airport in our Batsuits and took the jet to Lubbock International then to the home store parking lot by police car with lights on and the siren blasting. That was our fastest response to date, only 105 minutes, they still didn't have any demands or orders from the crooks other than to stay out or they'd kill the hostages.
The presence of little children eliminated sleep gas as an option but we could still use a spider to watch what was going on inside. Since they were easily available by phone we decided to delay spider deployment.
Shortly before we arrived they demanded a helicopter with a 500 mile range and a full tank of gas. To us it sounded like they wanted to escape to Mexico. David suggested they could also disappear off the radar in many places in mountainous New Mexico. The good news was we had a weapon specifically designed to take down helicopters. Cops at the scene said it appeared the robbers had not anticipated this scenario.
David said, "Well, then let's tell them how we usually handled robberies. They could leave as long as they left the USA and never came back, make it sound like a routine and honest offer.
The police showed us a floor plan of the building, the structure was huge. It had the same floor space as two football fields side by side, they believed the two crooks and the family of five were in the back in an employee break room. Everyone else had fled the store. The power and air conditioning were still on and they had cell phones or could use the wall phone in the break room. The only thing that had happened was they communicated their demands to the cops; they were arranging for a Texas National Guard chopper to land outside the back employee door. Lubbock Police wisely picked a small four-seat helicopter that offered the greatest distance but didn't provide enough space to take hostages along.
They said there were no other ways in or out of the building. The cops said they intended to empty a few registers of cash and run out the front door, but someone hit a silent alarm which locked all the registers and dialed 911. They ran to the back office and grabbed hostages in the back of the store.
The family were local residents with no criminal histories. They were a family with three kids under the age of eight. The local cops said the perps had southern Mexican accents.
When we asked if they discussed taking the hostages on the chopper the head detective at the scene said they agreed to run to the chopper and get inside but leave the family on the ground as they took off because it was too small to lift that much weight.
We reviewed the area on maps and decided they could only leave in the chopper flying straight south to Mexico or southwest to the corner region of New Mexico which was hilly and could sort of hide a helicopter. David said his first guess was to Mexico and second choice was to southeastern New Mexico, like maybe the area between Carlsbad and Hobbs because it was hilly with scrub brush.
If they wanted the cover of trees and mountains the closest spot was Fort Davis Texas, or the state of Coahuila in Mexico where they had mountains with thick forests. Then David mumbled it didn't matter because they'd never get that far.
Their flight might go two thousand feet at most, then suffer a controlled crash if the pilot recognized a busted tail rotor in the first two seconds.
We examined the area around the store, which was near I-27 south of Lubbock. There were lots of wide open fields since the area was mostly natural gas wells. We had them notify the local agencies that they could have a natural gas pipe break occurring in the next two hours from a crashed helicopter.
The cops advised us the Texas National Guard chopper had already left the airport and the pilot was fully briefed on the probability of losing the tail rotor soon after departure. It was a scenario every rotary wing pilot learned in school.
I was given the task of calling into the store to tell them the three-seat chopper was on the way. Police told us it was a fifteen year old R44 Raven helicopter, four-seater but they removed the fourth seat before he left the airport.
The guy I talked to in the store sounded Mexican, he used rural farmer-talk like in Guatemala. He didn't ask questions but he sounded scared and was panting into the phone. In the background I heard kids crying.
We talked on the phone for about a minute, he never asked who I was but probably heard my south Texas accent, something he was familiar with. I reminded him he needed to release the chopper and pilot, leave him with enough fuel to get back to Texas and set down somewhere safe but he never commented. His voice sounded panicked and breathless.
It sounded like they were unprepared for this outcome. I told the cops to check the plates on every vehicle in the parking lot within a half mile of this store, do it right now. We also told them to alert the fire departments and EMS that there was about to be a helicopter crash south of town, they should dispatch crews to that area now.
We had a discussion over Whispernet about sending in a spider and decided not to because they did not appear to be prepared to kill or harm anyone when we arrived. They believed me when I told them a helicopter was on the way and they would not need any hostages on their flight (the pilot offered himself as a hostage in place of the children).
It appeared they wanted to commit a simple armed robbery and bolt with some cash, this scenario was totally beyond what they planned to do.
Five minutes later a helicopter was heard in the distance, the sound echoed off the large back wall of the store. I was sure they heard it inside too.
We stood by a group of police cars, a fire department guy ran out to the paved area behind the store and lit three road flares to show the pilot where to land. He touched down and opened two doors and got back in the pilot's seat but left the engine running at its slowest speed, so the rotors never stopped.
Soon, the back door opened wide and out walked a woman holding the hands of two small kids followed by her husband, he carried the baby against his chest. They were followed closely by two armed men wearing blue hospital masks, sun glasses, and baseball caps, as the frightened group moved quickly to the chopper.
They ran across the paved area, the two men climbed inside and shut the doors, then the family ran like crazy towards us. David already inserted a helicopter round into the firing tube but set it on the hood of the police car, I confirmed it was the correct ammunition. We'd fired dummy helicopter rounds before but never a live round at a live helicopter with people on board.
They taught us in school it should never give us tone when aimed at an airplane, bird, hot air balloon, or blimp. But it would give tone for most helicopters parked at an aviation museum that hadn't flown in 70 years. But it might not recognize a very oddly shaped helicopter used as a sky crane, or a tiny homebrew gyrocopter.
We watched as the chopper rotor sped up and it suddenly got very windy, sand blew around like crazy. I made sure nobody stood behind David. The family ran past us and the cops put them in one of their cars.
After a few seconds of intense ground level wind and blowing sand the little helicopter lifted off the pavement, cleared the local power lines, roof tops, and turned around towards the south (our first prediction for escape route) where they'd fly over miles of bare flat grassy desert with scattered natural gas wells and storage tanks and power lines.
As soon as it lifted off the parking lot David raised the firing tube to his right shoulder, stepped away from the police car, aimed, and pressed the button and held it in. I watched him track it and release the button which meant he had tone. "Everyone stay clear and cover your eyes!" I shouted.
When the chopper reached about 140 feet in the air he pressed and held the large rubber covered button, after two seconds came a bright flash and belch of white smoke as it launched with an odd `FUMP' sound.
The weapon left a faint smoke trail in the air as it accelerated towards the chopper, and then appeared to slow down, course correct and chase after it. Because of the trees and surrounding buildings we quickly lost sight of the helicopter and the weapon behind it.
I think it took about eight seconds until we heard one loud pop that sounded like one stick of dynamite.
Once the round deployed by the tail rotor their flight would only be airborne for several more seconds. About thirty seconds after firing we saw a black mushroom cloud rise into the sky in the distance, I said to myself I hoped nobody was killed, especially the pilot.
I thought about the pilot briefly, they supposedly told him what was going to happen that we were going to shoot him out of the sky, but being a military pilot he might have been ordered to fly regardless. If that was the case I'd like to shake his hand for being the real hero of the day.
On the nearby interstate we heard police cars and fire trucks zoom south towards the gas fields.
We heard on the fire department radios someone yelled that the chopper landed hard in the desert but five people got out alive. Even a mile away we heard dozens of sirens as police, fire, and EMS raced to the scene.
David looked at me with a smile, in the distance behind him the ugly black mushroom cloud rose higher into the sky. On the police radio we heard men shouting into their radios from the scene, we even heard a few pops of gunfire in the distance.
Behind us the city police searched the home store to make sure everyone left.
While David collapsed the tube and opened the case and stuffed it back inside I whispered to El Paso: `Mission accomplished. Find us a ride home please, Lubbock to El Paso.'
One Lubbock cop with a big smile on his face walked up and introduced himself, he asked what weapon we used.
"Well the initial smoke and fire was just enough of a charge to get it moving. They're too small to see but it used a solid propellant rocket motor and deployed small wings and vertical stabilizer so it actually flew like a radio controlled airplane chasing a helicopter."
"What's it called?" He asked looking totally amazed.
""Simple, it's an M179 anti-helicopter weapon, its regular old military surplus. They used `em in Vietnam. It's like having a hand grenade go off by your tail rotor." I told him but that was a lie, it was cutting edge tech and top secret.
It was smart enough to chase just one specific helicopter taking off from a busy airport like Atlanta and totally ignore the jets. And if it lost the target it would fly back to us and crash without exploding.
I had no choice but to lie to him. We shook hands and he said thanks and walked back to the other cops and fire department that watched the scene behind the store. I watched the cop search on his cell for `M179,' I half expected him to shout at me, "Hey! An M179 is a broadcast microphone, not a military weapon!"
We were ready to ask for a ride to the airport when we heard a report over the police radios that two perps were in custody, one had minor injuries, the pilot had minor abrasions from jumping out of the chopper at impact. They said when the chopper hit the ground everyone jumped and ran. One perp fired a couple shots but they were surrounded, threw down their weapons and surrendered. The bag with the cash was blown around as the chopper blades slowed to a stop. One of the fire department guys yelled to everyone that they had three guys picking up cash that was scattered across a wide area.
I smiled at David and raised the lid on our case and pulled out the voice recorder and walked towards the spot where the chopper had landed (three road flares still burning on the pavement) and started to record our report. David stood beside the police car and watched me pace in circles while I recorded our summary of what happened starting with the moment we were alerted.
We asked again for a ride to the airport and were told the Lubbock County Sheriff was on his way. When his big diesel truck drove around the corner of the building David whistled and waved to hurry back. The Chief wore a cowboy hat and a broad smile on his face, the only thing missing from his costume were spurs on his boots.
He walked up to us with a big grin and in a voice that sounded like actor Slim Pickens. Although he was obese and very tall he was still very appreciative and friendly. The entire scene briefly reminded me of the TV series Bonanza. David whispered the sheriff was built like his father.
When he climbed out of his large white truck I estimated he was 6'5" and nearly 300 pounds of sweaty redneck.
"That was some fancy shootin y'all did, let me be the first to say thank you fer helpin out and protectin' them hostages too." David actually laughed and vigorously shook his hand and turned on his best Houston accent (the guy's hand easily enveloped my entire hand, wrist, and partway up my forearm):
"Ain't nobody ever jeopardized kids and got away from us. They pissed me off. We coulda taken them inside the store but that was the only way we had to get the family safely away."
"Fantastic, you boys did a great job, I'm gonna call yer boss and thank him my-self. Y'all done a out-standing job!"
He shook hands with us again, I asked if he could run us to the airport and he told us to hop in back, so we did. David handed him one of our cards that had our office phone number.
We got in his truck and drove to the interstate and headed north to the airport. The hostage situation was in a store on the far south side of town, south of the 289 Loop, but the airport was far north of the city but he ignored the speed signs and got us there quickly.
Twenty minutes later the three of us entered the front door of the passenger terminal, and walked together to the TSA checkpoint. I was surprised to see so many people yelled `Hi Sheriff' at him, it was like walking beside John Wayne. He waved and cheerfully acknowledged everyone that shouted at him, I bet in that 200 foot walk he shook twenty hands. For the little kids that greeted him he pulled tiny junior deputy badges (stickers) out of his shirt pocket and handed them out after exchanging salutes and smiles. It was very nice to see kids react to him like he was a rock star.
He unclipped a section of the barrier strip and gestured for us to follow him around the TSA and their x-ray equipment. He shouted at the supervisor it was a police matter. And much to my surprise we bypassed security and went directly to the gate area, without a ticket. David opened the case and switched comms back on and whispered to El Paso we were inside the terminal at Gate 2 and wondered if there was a late day flight to El Paso or any towns in the area and were told yes, a thirty passenger plane should land in 85 minutes. They flew a circuit from Amarillo to Lubbock, Midland, El Paso, and Albuquerque, several round trips a day.
We walked over to that gate, I'd never heard of Rio Grande Airways before but that's what it said on the sign at the boarding gate, we asked if there were seats on the next flight and after she looked at her computer she said it should have three empty seats. We told her it was an emergency trip, we were federal officers on an emergency mission. We'd even take flight attendant seats if that was all they had.
Seventy minutes later we were seated in the back of an older jet airplane (Dornier 328). The terminal had jetways built for newer passenger planes but this small jet plane boarded from the back, so everyone had to walk downstairs, out the doors, across the tarmac, step-up inside the plane on portable stairs then walk up the aisle to our seats. We put our cases on the shelves above our heads.
It took about 23 minutes to fly from Lubbock to Midland International Airport at 300mph at 4,500 feet. But it was nice getting to see lots of stuff on the ground. In fact, after we took off we flew over the place where the helicopter hard landed and got a glimpse of the big black spot, I took a photo with David's cell for him to see, since he wasn't by the window. I guess that helicopter burst into flames about three minutes after the hard landing.
From wheels down to wheels up Midland took 40 minutes, then it was non-stop to ELP, a 55 minute flight. They announced their next stop after ELP was Alamogordo, and ended the day by returning to Amarillo.
With such a short flight there were no drinks, or peanuts, or even a cartoon on the screens. They never even pressurized the cabin or turned off the seatbelt sign.
We landed on runway 26L as the sun set behind the Franklin Mountains.
El Paso was divided by a north-south mountain range; their shadows caused a false early sunset on the east side but the sky stayed bright blue, so the east side could be slightly cooler than the west side. This was also probably why there were a helluva lot more people living on the east side, that's where Fort Bliss was too.
With the borders on the west side they also had less land than the huge valley on the east side but El Paso was kind of squeezed between the mountains and Fort Bliss, the city had already grown out to the state border and continued to grow north into New Mexico, but the taxes were higher up there. El Paso literally was in the arm pit of Texas.
On the down side El Paso was very isolated, which was part of the reason why Fort Bliss was there since the 1840s, to protect Texas and New Mexico from the Mexican Army and protect civilians from rogue Indians, it's also one reason why the southern transcontinental railroad ran past the fort. Few people knew the extent of military and government land that occupied New Mexico and far western Texas.
Before modern civilization arrived about the best commercial enterprises for the desert southwest were mining, farming, and cattle ranching. The entire region was dotted by tiny ghost towns and abandoned gold/silver/uranium mines, and long abandoned railroad beds. They've grown cotton, and some citrus trees, spinach, radishes, cucumbers, and peppers along the river.
Before the 1930s Uranium was mostly used to make decorative green glass items that looked weird in direct sunlight.
Because Fort Bliss was so large lots of soldiers retired there and stayed in El Paso so you found lots of older couples with one spouse born in Germany, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Usually the soldier served in their country, married, and brought her home and they lived the rest of their lives in Texas. This meant you'd find lots of Asian food restaurants around El Paso, along with German, and the Middle Eastern too.
Soldiers from Israel, Germany, and Jordan had been trained at Fort Bliss for decades because their home nations purchased air defense systems from the USA and their soldiers came here for training.
Without Fort Bliss, El Paso would eventually die. And if El Paso died then Juarez would slowly die too. The entire metro area that spanned three states and two countries was home to a population bigger than Chicago. If they registered and obeyed the laws most citizens from Juarez could freely cross the border for shopping, working, or visiting in Texas. Hundreds of college educated Mexicans crossed daily for work and lots of young people crossed to attend classes at UTEP. The point was that despite the border the two cities were tightly connected and very dependent upon each other.
We found a Goodwill Store in El Paso that sold bulk used hospital scrubs, all of them were sky blue, we wore them like PJs at home. They were very lightweight and nearly indestructible. We packed those to wear while our clothes were in the washer on motorcycle road trips. They easily squished down and fit inside a quart Ziploc bag so they were perfect to bring along for washday on the road, we could also wear them at night as PJs, although I usually asked David to sleep naked.
Our route would go like this: El Paso, Denver, Moorcroft, Salt Lake City, Reno, San Francisco, LA, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Deming, Las Cruces, and El Paso.
Four days after the situation in Lubbock we started our time off (Thurs to Wed), packed our stuff and left on the motorcycle with three days worth of clothes, bathroom gear, and our new rain suits, and $9k in cash. We carried extra face shields, one clear, one smoke tinted. The extra face shields sat in cloth sleeves inside the front fairing.
The forecast was dry for most of the trip. Our plan was to drive north on I-25 to I-90 then east to near Moorcroft Wyoming to see Devil's Tower and spend one night in town.
After Wyoming we'd go west on state highways back down to I-80 and drive all the way to San Francisco then follow the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) down to Los Angeles and back home to El Paso on I-10. The one segment we were likely to see rain was between Folsom California and Santa Barbara.
We started this road trip without first making hotel reservations, our schedule was too flexible for that. It was weird packing for this trip and not being able to use a suitcase or even a backpack. We laid our clothes out on the bed then carried everything to the garage and packed the three trunks on the motorcycle. It almost felt liberating not packing anything but essentials. We brought one tiny digital camera (ELPH-180) and our old Chromebook laptop that didn't have any military or personal stuff in it. We brought grocery store plastic bags to use in place of suitcases to carry clothes from the bike into the hotel room.
The back end of the Goldwing had three lockable cases (trunks), he used the top one I used a side case and after putting our clothes and bathroom stuff inside any leftover space we used for rain suits, laundry soap, laptop computer, cell chargers, and munchies for on the road.
This trip would put almost 4,000 miles on the bike, the odometer said 929.1 when we left home. Most of our driving would be on interstate highways dodging chunks of truck tire tread.
Four thousand miles in five days was eight hundred miles a day, an average speed of 65mph was twelve hours a day driving time, roughly. We agreed to try to limit our daily driving hours to twelve per day. We were not planning on stopping to sight see at other sites along the way.
We'd take turns driving even though David loves to drive.
We're not taking the pelican case (or any weapon except some pepper spray and pocket knives) along; the case will spend the week with our boss. I bet he will not tell his wife what's actually inside when he brought it home!
As a joke we fabricated two scenarios how the case coming inside their home would likely go (we've met her before). We were certain she well knew he was a liar, everyone knew it. He'll slip it under their bed and hope she didn't notice
`Phillip, what's that?' She yelled from the living room while he positioned it under the bed.
`I'm babysitting an equipment case for our agents while they take a trip on their motorcycle. I'd sure like for us to do that someday Hon.'
`What's in it? I've never seen you slide anything under the bed before.'
`Well I don't know for sure, some kind of electronics that are worth a lot of money, that's why they wanted it to stay with me instead of at the office.'
`I'm guessing you're not telling me because I won't like the answer?' she replied keeping the subject alive.
`Let's just forget about it, okay Hon? It will be here for a few days then we'll never see it again. Like I said, it's just electronic gear.' She let the subject drop knowing he was lying to her, again.
We kind of chuckled when we acted out their discussion over our helmet comm system for the second time, like Act-1, Take-2:
"Honey, what's that?"
"Nothing Dear, it's a case from work I have to baby-sit while they're takin days off."
"What's in it?"
"Two atomic bombs, two smart missiles, drone spiders, satellite communications, and a bottle full of self-igniting toxic gas powder pellets, really it's nothing, nothing at all dear."
"Honey did you say two atomic bombs?"
"Yes dear, but they're very small, like a can of Pringles, very small, perfectly safe."
"Honey, did you just say that atomic bombs were safe?"
"Yes dear, they're very small, like two cans of Coke."
"Honey?" she continued to shout from the living room sofa. "Remember when we got married and I told you I would leave you if you lied to me?"
"Yes dear, how could I forget that glorious day. You, me, your mother, the hotel in Vegas! Drunk Elvis screwing up his lines!"
After that we got the giggles and couldn't continue mocking them. The game we called `What will they say,' was something we did regularly and our boss and his wife were regular imaginary contestants.
Day one: Alarm time 3am, we both showered, shit, shaved and left at 3:40am in the dark. We packed the night before and had a hard time sleeping because of the excitement. We'd ordered some stuff from Amazon for the trip, like gel seat cushions and better gloves and two extra (128gb) micro SD cards for the Honda sound system for copies of our entire music collection. The bike also had a camera on front that needed a 128gb card to record onto. The gel cushions were already strapped onto the seats and everything else was already packed on the bike.
Our helmets had speakers and microphones built-in. They plugged into the bike so we brought the Whispernet jammer along too, the echo Whispernet caused would quickly become annoying.
We'd stop for drinks, food, and bathroom breaks. But we packed Slim Jim's and beef jerky to munch on the road.
We left Thursday heading north on the highway to Transmountain Road, then over to I-10 and north into New Mexico. The sky started to turn dark blue when we were in Las Cruces heading north on I-25. We exited the highway at Main Street when we saw a sign for WAFFLE HOUSE. Just for fun after eating we filled the tank and got back on the highway. We'd only gone 52 miles so far but since there was a gas station next door I said why not. We both peed at the restaurant then topped off the tank and got back on I-25 heading north up the center of the state with the Rio Grande valley beside us to the right the entire way.
David drove us north (3 hrs) to Albuquerque (09:30) and I drove us to Pueblo (4.5 hours 13:00), then he drove north of Denver (2.5 hours 15:55) and we stopped that evening at a hotel in Loveland Colorado along I-25, checked-in at 7:05pm and ordered delivery food for dinner.
While we waited for our order we both showered. When I went outside to pay for the food I saw a sign, they had a small laundry room so we got into our used hospital scrubs and washed our first load and ate our delivery food in the laundry room! I checked his undies for dried crust around his dick to see if my hand work had turned him on. Yes, there were obvious spots on the front of his undies from precoming for a couple hours on I-25.
Back in our room we spent the rest of the evening spooning and watching a funny old musical-comedy on the TV with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Edward Everett Horton. That was the movie (Top Hat) with her famous disintegrating feather dress scene she wore during their dance and the song Cheek to Cheek.
David said he thought Astaire was a mediocre actor but she was decent. He sounded and looked like he only had one attitude all the time even if his clothes were on fire.
After lights out when we spooned I asked him to tell me the truth, how was it to drive on the highway with my hand down his pants or up his shirt. David said it was pleasurable but getting horny while driving wasn't always nice because there was no way to stop and get relief, unless we did it along the interstate with hundreds of people driving past watching the show. Then he said maybe it was better if I played with his tits instead of his dick because that didn't turn him on as much but it still felt great. Just to be funny he said he didn't want to wear out his dick before retirement.
Day 2 (Friday): We left early the next morning and took a shortcut in Wyoming to shorten the ride by 80 miles, we used Wyoming Highway 59 up and over to Moorcroft, then about fifty five more miles north to Devil's Tower National Monument (6 hours from Loveland). It turned out that shortcut was a source of income for local police departments, we passed three radar speed camera traps, but we cruised at the posted limit. Since we didn't have the pelican case we couldn't claim immunity. I held up a middle finger to the speed cameras just in case.
This was an interesting area at the western edge of the plains and the beginning of the Rockies. There were other similar rock column formations they believed were all plugs from long extinct volcanoes, like Monument Rock, and Chimney Rock to name a couple.
We parked at Devil's Tower and hiked the paved trail around the base along with the rest of the dumb tourists, of course everyone there mentioned the movie Close Encounters.
We were somewhat surprised by how thin the crowds were in the park. The parking lot on the north side was nearly empty when we arrived. The only place left over from the movie was in the scene at the final road block on the main road, near the park entrance where you paid, that dark brown log cabin building was still there and the tiny tourist town just outside the park, but the film crew blocked the view of most of the town, the KOA, the restaurant, gift shops, and all their signs.
Even today there wasn't much at the park entrance, four or so businesses and a KOA. It really hadn't changed much since filming Close Encounters started in May, 1976.
We came upon a crowd of people listening to a presentation done by a ranger. He said he had climbed the monument several times and said it was flat on top with bare exposed rock and lots of grass and short weeds and a nice view. He said the top was about 900 feet above the parking lot. It was theorized to be made during volcanic activity 40 million years ago. Most of the raised ground had eroded away but left the magma formation behind as the monument. The beautiful jagged column walls, each angled section was about 20 feet wide and were constantly breaking off which made the tower extremely dangerous to stand near. In recorded history many people have been killed by falling rock.
He said in the movie, the mother ship that appeared in the sky above the monument was only about three feet wide, it was on display at the Smithsonian Museum.
During his talk a lady asked to explain in plain language what caused the formation, and he admitted they were just theories but based on the size and type of mineral crystals in the rock it suggests magma flowed up close the surface and also raised the ground, like a blister under the skin. Then it slowly cooled over time -- which caused particular mineral crystal sizes to form. Then the ground eroded away and exposed the plug, it may have erupted to the surface but most of the evidence for that eroded away millions of years ago.
He said the underground pool of magma was very large and lifted the entire area around the monument, for miles around but it's difficult to see today. Everyone applauded his presentation, then we continued hiking the loop and taking photos. We hiked the paved walkway all the way around and got back to our motorcycle and left.
On the way out of the park we shared a bag of Doritos at a souvenir store/restaurant near the park entrance, then drove down to Moorcroft.
I loaded the movie into my cell that night and watched that scene, about 90 minutes into the film. The one thing in town never hidden was the ticket booth in the middle of the road at the entrance to the park where everyone stopped to pay the park fee.
David pointed out in the movie when they were getting close to Devil's Tower and saw dead animals along the road, they were all outside farmer's fences along the highway probably so the movie studio didn't have to pay anyone to use their land.
The world was a very different place in 1976 when that was filmed. Gas was 60 cents a gallon and a pack of cigarettes cost almost the same. A Honda GL-1000 cost $3,500 and didn't include the bags or front faring and had points and condenser in the ignition circuit. Back then the GL was fast but not considered to be high performance. Part of the Goldwing fun was to dress your own bike, which made them much more unique than today. The Goldwing today (1.8L 4piston, 125hp, 6-speed manual with reverse) were built in Japan in a town 50 miles east of Nagasaki.
We stayed the night at the Cozy Motel in Moorcroft; yes it was cozy but not the price. We were able to order delivery and had a nice dinner and set the alarm to get up early tomorrow because we were going to drive as far west as possible by sunset. The Cozy Motel was 1,390 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. At 70mph that would be a nineteen hour drive.
Day three (Saturday): We only made it to Reno and stopped for the night and did another load of laundry. Reno was expensive but the food was great and the bike ran perfectly, a very comfortable ride. The back seat was probably a better riding position than the driver has. I had adjustable armrests and an adjustable backrest too (he used me for a backrest). When we weren't talking we just cruised with one eye always on the pavement for truck tire chunks, enjoyed the flawless view and listened to our music.
We encountered a few assholes on I-80 but knowing we were off duty and unarmed meant we had to use our best anger control and let them race on by, flip them off as they swerved back in front of us. My other job as the back seat passenger was to perform hand gestures.
One nice thing about being pressed closely together on the bike that many hours was it gave us time to talk about anything and everything. We spent a lot of time talking about our parents and our younger years, like before high school age. We both came to the conclusion that it's too bad unborn souls couldn't pick their parents because neither of us would have picked ours.
That's God's domain I guess. If we could pick them it might reduce the number of abused and neglected kids in the world. It might also leave a lot of couples wondering why they couldn't get pregnant.
On I-80 we followed one particular trucker that cruised at 4mph over the (75mph) speed limit, we stayed a few hundred feet behind him for hours. I slid my hand under David 's jacket and rubbed his flesh for hours.
I could lean against his back and rub my hand all the way up to his neck on his front side, I'm sure he was hard for part of the ride across Utah and Nevada. I even checked his undies for dried precome spots, because a man's dick doesn't lie. I saw two big spots on both of our undies that day.
I'll forever have fond memories of driving nine hours across the corner of Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada.
We decided what we needed was a custom jacket for the driver, it needed four sleeves, two for him and two more for my arms, it would look funny and be difficult to explain to people.
Our motorcycle comms system had two-way radio but it was on UHF FRS channels, not CB, but occasionally we heard people on it and we even chatted with some. Most of the people on FRS were groups of cars all driving to the same destination, the most common being Disneyland. Both of us had been to Disneyworld during our childhoods. Neither of us were fans of anything Disney today.
Day four (Sunday): We made it to Richmond California around 11am and crossed the north end of SF Bay on the `580 Bridge,' which was a double-decker that looked old but well painted. We ran past the big prison complex at San Quentin (but only got glimpses of it) then south and across the Golden Gate toll bridge which cost $7.50 cash. Highway-1 took us across SF and out onto the PCH near the coast in the suburb of Westview.
We found a little old motel in Milagra Valley that had no laundry or pool but there was a sandwich shop next door so we stayed one night there, the price was super high but we'll never stop in that area again.
We spent the evening in bed watching reruns on some local SF TV station: Dragnet, then Mannix, and we fell asleep during Mission Impossible. Every time we watched an episode of Dragnet together we got into our never ending discussions about if the character Joe Friday was gay, like J. Edgar Hoover. David said he felt it tried to imply that Joe Friday was married to his career (virtue signaling) so I asked about his sperm pressure issues and David said that's probably why he acted stiff and dorky, because guy cramps messed up his brain.
Day five (Monday): We rode the PCH all the way down to the Santa Monica and got on I-10. Then we stayed in the left most lane and followed the signs to get across and out of LA which was a traffic madhouse. The drive down the PCH took six hours, about 380 miles, we stopped to fill the tank and pee in Santa Monica so we could make it east of Palm Springs without stopping. It always made David uncomfortable to be west of the San Andreas Fault, which passed down the east side of Palm Springs and passed unnoticed under I-10, marked by a small sign.
Our next stop after PS was Goodyear Arizona where we stopped for the night, did laundry, and got delivery Mexican grub, which was very nice. We got eight soft shelled beef tacos and one order of nacho chips deluxe with salsa and all the extra toppings except no seafood or fruit. We ate the leftovers for breakfast the next day.
Day six (Tuesday): We left Goodyear before the sunrise and drove all the way back to El Paso and got home at 11:09pm that evening. I was hungry, horny, and sore. On the way back we stopped in Tucson for lunch then raced home the rest of the way (83mph). When we walked in the front door I went straight to the alert box and changed our status to: Active, which officially put us on-duty and ended our vacation time as scheduled. After that I ran to the bathroom to pee.
We fucked standing up against the shower wall that night. I gotta say, there was something extra satisfying about fucking upward that really satisfied me. I liked the feeling of lifting his heels off the shower floor with his weight supported by my dick, it felt like I was fucking extra hard.
The best part was doing it in our own shower in our own home.
Day seven (Wednesday): The next morning we slept until 11am then did laundry and inspected the Honda and called to schedule routine service, then we drove to ELP and took control of the pelican case. I noticed the microscopic seal we made out of a thin strand of epoxy wasn't broken, so he never opened the case (legally, he needed a specific reason to open it). We brought home a box that had the replacement missile for the one we used in Lubbock.
The boss said he got a very loud but nice call from the Sheriff in Lubbock County about our performance behind the Builder's Square store. That evening we dropped off our bike at the dealer for service and looked at trailers-campers we could pull behind it if we wanted to increase the size and complexity of touring on the bike. David rode the bike while I followed behind in my little Toyota.
We told the boss we'd be back at 8am tomorrow, we had stuff to get done, like get the remodel started on our bathroom. But once we had the case in our possession it was the same as being at work.