Nevada and Revelations

37 days until the election! We rise at 5 a.m. and get on the road. I finish reading Revelations, which we began reading because we figured that since several Christians we have spoken with have talked about Armageddon, we may as well go directly to the source to learn about it. After reading it, we’re still confused- we haven’t seen any Satanic dragons, angels trumpeting doom, and our disaster preparedness skills have definitely improved over the last 2000 years! It was also interesting to read about how no one seemed to be totally innocent of the Lord’s wrath, and even after the plagues and killing, only those who were pure and good were allowed into the glistening divine city of Jerusalem, stating that “sinners” still abounded! We put the New Testament aside and read poems written by women writing about women’s absence from the cannon instead. A welcome change.

Our first stop is at the Red Lion Casino where there is a Starbucks and free fast internet where I get stats on Iraq and the US. We talk with a Democratic Michiganite Kerry-doubter in the parking lot. We cross the Nevada-Utah border at midday (accounting for the hour we move forward), and stop to crunch around the salty ground. We meet a woman moving to Colorado and she gives us a $20 donation in exchange for some bumper stickers for her and her mom. Sam also met a woman from Australia who votes in Arizona and some other eccentric folks who were supportive of the truck.

We drove into Salt Lake City and stopped at a gas station and then at the Firestone repair shop to see about getting the cigarette lighter fixed. We met a woman who was excited about our “Pink Slip Bush” tank tops and despised the Bush regime. She talked about Cheney and Halliburton and all the lies that Bush has been telling us. We spoke with a young guy about the electrical problem and he tipped us off to checking to see if the stereo was working- that would indicate a blown fuse. An interesting moment was when his co-worker came over and said that Firestone doesn’t work on electrical for box trucks- he obviously knew what vehicle we were driving. We went back out to the parking lot and met two young ladies who took photos of Sam and I flashing peace signs by the pink side of the truck. We replaced the fuse and were on our way- with recharging capabilities oncemore! (and oh goddess do we need electrical outlets because we have EIGHT machines that require energy!).

We drove around the corner to the large mall and parked in front of the mall entrance to repaint the Iraq death total. We spoke with two young women- one 20 and one 18- neither of which were going to be voting in the upcoming election. She was going to an eight month program to be a nurse’s assistant and it seemed like nothing mattered to her at all. And yet she did stand and talk with us. One woman was formerly Mormon and very obese. When we asked her about what was important in her life, whether we should go to war, how she would feel if she was drafted, etc., she replied indiscriminately, “I don’t care.” It was the kind of numb “whatever” that comes from someone who is dulled by oversatiation- like she had eaten so much popcorn culture and saturated fat lies that she was a round onion of apathy. I imagined how it would be to peel off the layers, and what it would take to see all the love and light inside of her jump out. The other woman was more interested and wanted to know about Codepink- she had that opening in her- we could see it in her eyes.

Sam painted the new death toll onto the truck: 1043. Then a woman in a car came up and told us we had to leave because we were harassing people in the parking lot, and we weren’t allowed to be parked there. She initially stated that she was with Security, and later that she was going to get security. She said to Sam, “What am I supposed to tell my children when they see this truck?” Sam replied that she would be happy to talk with her children. The woman obnoxiously declined the offer and stated that she was going to get security because we weren’t allowed to be there. Sam asked if this was public property rhetorically and pointed out the First Amendment rights. “Looks like you’re the one who is harassing me!” Sam exclaimed, and told her to go get security and find out what the rules really were. The woman ushered her husband to go and they left.

Once back on East I-80, we drove to Wyoming, where we stopped for gas in Rock Springs and at a rest stop with a beautiful trail to an onlook. At the rest stop we spoke with an Asian-Canadian truck driver who was very pro-peace. We slept at the Dogwood Rest Stop where it was very cold and the stars were pecked out of the still night sky by crows. We slept under this punctured atmospheric tent, curled in sleeping bags until the sun was long out in the sky.