Final report from our intrepid reporter on the ground.
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Ain't it amazing that it's only 12:15 PM and it already feels like a long weekend, for some strange reason...
Got home at nearly midnight. Damn, I was beat. Stressed. Pissed. Long unexpected detours. Late morning at the shop, looked over the project cars and came upon my decal, now a little less sticky.
They passed them out to everybody, kids, women, seniors, Oathkeepers and everybody had one. It was funny, but at the same time it was almost like those Guy Fawkes masks were. No need to know your name, we know each other well. Nobody called us, we got in whatever we could get in and got there. It wasn't convenient, it wasn't easy (It wasn't cheap! I owned nothing to rough it).
It was actually an OK thing, that some biker pulled up alongside at 2AM in the morning and I fed him. Followed by a Retired Aussie Cop and his wife later that morning. Think about it. They got on a Jumbo jet and flew an expensive, long and fatiguing flight, that probably came to LAX, then got a rental car an either drove or flew to Vegas.
And they weren't there yet! It's a long remote drive through vast territory, sharp hard peaks, finishing by dropping into the Virgin River Gorge and finally into our place of gathering. It amazed me that they came out to support the Yanks! They know the weight of The Crown, and just voted out their 'Green' Government.
The Oakland biker got on his bike sometime Thursday night in the San Francisco Bay area and tells himself and his unhappy second wife, "I'm going to Nevada tonight", even with the threat of divorce. He rode all night, headlight burning through the desert night, with a dirty comforter bungee strapped to his bike and he's going to sleep in the soft dirt, with just that?
Why would Aussie and Oakland just show up? And just do it. Didn't even give it a second thought. Amazing, isn't it? Then a gent pulled up on a 'Glide from New Mexico. I picked up and handed him a flat rock for his kickstand and he appreciated the gesture. So now we have LA County, New Mexico, Australia and Oakland, standing around and it is not even an awkward conversation, no social hesitation, nada.
I think you'd have to be in denial to admit that there's a huge unheard ground swell of unhappiness right under the surface. We who know, know what's going on.
The Pull
I felt it, did others too? I asked. The people I talked to all readily admitted to feeling that exact same thing, without a doubt. No funny looks, like 'what are you talking about?' You had to follow it. It was scary, but weird. It was very collective, no leadership need apply, Tea Party included. A mass action without a command given. Amazing, isn't it?
Inconvenience was a given. I took a bath in the brush like a terr... I ate hard rations and slept in the back of a Focus wagon, with my feet hanging out in the air out the back. I made coffee on a rock I tipped over at the bottom of the road embankment and that's where I whipped out my nice little stove that will fit in your pocket and perked me up some boiling water. I just grabbed stuff at the Sporting Goods store and it wasn't till I got to the camp and peeled the sticker off the pot that I realized I paid $50 for that Titanium and said to myself, "Nice."
A US Senator, a Majority Leader goes on (and gets instant coverage, unlike the start of this story) and declares infamously and wearing the exact kind of sunglasses you'd want to wear coming out of a black car in Vegas, "It's Not Over." Sinister too. Does not like losing. My interpretation of that is a threat, is it not?
Believe it, it became spooky late at night in that Nevada Desert with the windows wide open in your station wagon, hatchback up and looking up at the very bright moon. You waited for the far off beat of chopper blades, building up in volume as they got closer. Far off, the hard crunch of gravel. It was uneasy...
Earlier that day, two Cessnas from the BLM circled and circled in slow lazy circles. Click. Click. Click. Doesn't that make you feel just, oh so secure...
Let's move on. Senior Senator then declares the next day that all his [Bundy's] supporters are "Domestic Terrorists." Absolute top tier official, with close friends like Obama, Hillary and Nancy, loves Hillary for president, declaring that we were now full blown FBI filed 'Persons of Interest.' Oakland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Australia, New Mexico and on and on. Every walk of life, from law enforcement Oathkeepers to bikers and foreigners, but all of them friends, so wearing that homemade patch that bright Friday Morning, April 18th was more than wearing a little piece of paper.
Want to hear a funny thing? Somebody called my Shop Partner and asked him his opinions about 'planes circling around' and that he was doing an 'interview?' My partner said rightfully that he didn't know anything about that. Funny thing, I never gave his number out to anybody. Isn't that amazing?
I look over my dirty car, unfurled sleeping bag, all covered in the fine talcum powder dust of the riverbed. I look at my reflection, my four day old beard, haggard and tired look and wonder...