VUST UNT MOVE... DA!

Lights Out

Up till now we picked cameras, talked technical, had some fun with a few things. Dave's leave'n for the trip soon. Dave managed to pick up some friends along the way, and got luck in the big STL for a change for a freebee, and has found another rider from Saint Louis, to piggy back on. He has a truck and trailer and it's saving Dave major money on the trip to California, and gas for the pony.

Dave kept telling me about this guy who was loading his bike on a trailer to take it to the start in California. One day it was on, next day it was off. This went on for weeks. I remember the day it went from pipe dream to, we gotta hurry. Dave put all this together in less than 24 hours. When we got into that window, Dave lost his mind...

I have seen the walking brain dead but this beats all. Dave literally, I think forgot were he was, what time it was. and was in his own time warp. You could talk to him, and it was like he had this force field around him that filtered only certain words to his brain.

I still have not asked him, what was going on in mind during this period. It in some ways he reminded me of the movie Home Alone, where the family over slept and the taxi cab was honking his horn. I know I talked to him for periods of time and there was either very little or no response to anything I said. I can imagine the pressure that he must have been having at the time.

As the set up, video clips are going to be short and fruitful. I tried to piece together portions so you could get an idea of the sheer unreality of the moments that followed. I think Dave finally realized it's go time but the plane wasn't fully fueled to take off.

As this went...

The day started for me at home at 0600 hours, in between phone calls, the garbage man, and some dumb robo call from some idiot machine selling life insurance... Like duh, your a machine on the other end and you won't hang up, that kind of day, I was having.  As the morning moved on Dave and I where playing phone tag, Daniel was still at Webster University, and the whole day was just a dream, at that point.

At one point I wasn't sure that we where even going to shoot. Well that ended pretty quickly when Dave and I got hooked up. My next issue, was Daniel. I needed a camera man that day because I was interviewing Dave, and his ride, Which really did not materialize due to Dave's purple haze. I really mean it, for a while it was like, talking to a guide that just lost his map, and your stranded in the middle of the desert with no compass.

I think we tied up with Dave around 1200 hours. I know it was close because I saw the paint peeling off the street when cars went buy because of the heat that day. It was extremely hot. We got some shots outside and then met Dave at the door way to his house. Dave looked like he just got up. As we went in I could tell he hadn't packed yet. Dave had that far off deer in a head light look in his eyes.

I think Dave working all his jobs and not sleeping or eating right caught up to him. He only gave himself two days off work to get ready for this trip. I will say that when planning something this huge, you have got to start packing like two weeks before you leave to see what your unpacking the night before you leave.

From what I hear, most riders over pack for the trip, and never use half of what they pack on their bikes. In Dave's case he just didn't pack until that day. That might be the right way to do it. It leaves fate to chance, meaning you will pack less, because you don't have a list of junk to pack weeks before.

Getting through the day was in my opinion like waiting to see Santa Clause at the mall. The anticipation, and the wait seems like days, and then its over in five minutes. That's how today is going. Hurry up and wait!

Going through all the pre curser we have been through on this adventure,  I realize that with all the footage I have, I don't have enough. I have realized that I should have moved in with Dave the last week to cover a lot more of the Dave dialogue than what I did. I feel depressed and part of me says I failed with my coverage to tell a complete story. To late now.