ROAD TRIP

In the Heart of the Heart Counry

Last couple years I drive from Colorado to my home state of Wisconsin to visit old friends. The road runs through Nebraska which has the best rest stops, but construction season is upon us. Trucks and cars forced into single lane trails for miles. We have it rough! Wherever there is open country, shards, strips, and plastic bags cling to all fencing. The road crossed a hundred brooks, creeks and streams. At each bridge, a sign identifying the stream. On the bridge, concrete abutments raised high enough so you can’t see the water. It’s a distraction. This didn’t stop me from looking every time I crossed a bridge.

I saw what looked like rubble in the right lane and veered to the left to avoid it. As I passed, I saw a mama duck and four ducklings headed to the right side. I hope they made it.

The old car has a CD player. I listened to The Sunshine Fix, a happy blend of prog and west coast sunshine pop. Sunrise Highway, a maseterful, moving mix of beach music and melancholia that approaches Pet Sounds in mood and invention. And Lanny Flowers’ Home. Lannie plays mid-tempo power pop that blindsides you with fresh chord changes. His music reminds me of Crowded House.

Nine hours after leaving Colorado I pulled up at my friend Joe’s house in Omaha. Joe is a cosummate artist who has worked for the Omaha Public Power District his whole life. Joe collects action figures. Joe has worked with me on Badger.

Joe had a bucket of morrells and had invited two other friends over. He cracked an egg in a bowl. He cracked another. And another. And another… Nine eggs in the bowl. He added breakcrumbs, coated the morrells, and fried them.

Next day Clear Like Iowa to see my oldest friend Tom Delaney. His brother Bill was there too. Known them all my life. On the way to Tom’s house, we passed this house. At his house, I took my bicycle out of the rear seat and rode back the way we had come to snap the picture.

Tom’s wife Geri grilled some pork loins, sauteed chopped up onion and peppers and served them on buns. Left at nine to drive to Dubuque and cross into Wisconsin. There are a couple of rivers that are too hard to conceal. Like the Mississippi. The steel trellis bridge rises over a hundred feet above the water.

I arrived at Tommy’s place around three p.m. When my late wife Madeline died, both Tom and Tommy dropped everything they were doing to fly out to Colorado. Peter Brandvold, who lived in town at the time, was first on the scene. They helped me through my grief and shock.

Sunday Tommy and I drove to Gibraltar Rock in Lodi, Colorado. When I was a yute, there was a road to the top with a parking lot. Teenagers drove up, drank, smoked reefer, and fell off the cliff. Since then the road has been removed. No trace of it remains. The hill has been taken over by the forest. Tommy and I hiked to the top. The view is spectacular. Very few people on the trail. When we got back to Madison, Tommy, Xtina and I rode our bikes through the Arboretum. It was Mother’s Day and the park was chock-a-block. Monday I drove to McFarland to see old friend Tom Kinney. Sure are a lot of Toms, eh?

Tuesday I rode the Southwest Trail. Madison’s bike trails are beautiful and everywhere. I wore myself out. That afternoon I met old pals Vince O’Hern, who created Isthmus along with Fred Milverstedt, and Marc Eisen, my editor. We met to toast Fred, whom I wrote about two weeks ago.

Wednesday I had coffee with Vince, and hung out with my old friend Steve Weiss. Steve was a public defender most of his life and is the model for Steve Fleiss, the lawyer who employs Josh Pratt as a process server. Biker #11, Gangbusters, is almost finished. It starts, as do several, with Josh serving papers. It provides a blueprint for removing Tren de Aragua from apartment buildings.

Wednesday night with old friend Milton Griepp. Milton was my first publisher. Nexus and Badger. Milton runs the trade site icv2.com. If you want to know what’s happening in pop culture, that’s your site. The next day I drove to Omaha. It was too long. This was the last time. Stayed at Joe’s, and the next day, Omaha to For Collins. Another interminable day. It was good to be home.

W are about to launch a crowdfunder for the Nexus Omnibus, collecting every Capital, First, and Dark Horse issue. The first volume will be oversized and over eight hundred pagess.