The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #37 in MD,DE,VA,WV,KY,OH,IN,IL,IA,
& NE 9/18/99 1,067 miles this trip, odometer now 47,135. Total
miles this year 15,100
From Coleridge, NE, Hi Everyone!
Summer has come and is now gone. It seemed like it was very short.
Summer had just started when I noticed the days starting to get
longer, the humming birds disappeared, schools opened and summer
was gone. I'll soon have to join the humming birds and head south.
The humming birds have a long way to go so they need an early
start.
The trip from Maryland to Nebraska went well but I did have some
problems with Keith (my new navigator with Co-Pilot 2000) I asked
him to plot the route to Forest City, IA where the GMC International
club convention will be starting on 9/26/99. I started the trip
from my son Jeff and daughter-in-law Alexis' place northwest from
Salisbury, MD with stops at Sanford, VA to visit my daughter Jenny
and her family, a stop in Franktown, VA to check in with my son
Mark and then to my sister-in-law Virginia in VA Beach, VA before
heading to my old home town Coleridge, NE. When I started my trip
Keith wanted me to go south to come into Salisbury, MD on US 50
from the west. I failed to tell him that I had to fill my propane
tank in the north part of Salisbury and I headed east to come
into Salisbury on US 13 from the north. When he saw that I was
not headed to route 50 he told me to turn right at the next intersection
to get over to route 50, I kept going east and he again told me
to turn at the next intersection. This is standard routine, he
usually stays cool and just keeps calling out the next road that
will take me to where he wants me. After I ignored him the third
time he lost his cool and told me in no uncertain terms. "In
5 miles turn right on route so & so" as soon as he got
it spit out he would repeat it with the shorter distance. I could
tell that he was mad at me for ignoring him when he just kept
repeating it over and over again, he never let up I finally turned
the speakers off as I wanted to listen to music and every time
he said something the audio-relay would shut the music off. I
finally got my propane and was back on the route he had marked
and he was again cool.
After short visits with Jenny and then Mark I headed for the bridge-tunnel.
There was a new toll taker there and she wanted $18, I told her
she was only getting $13. she finally saw it my way. After a short
visit with Virginia I headed west on I 64 Keith was not acting
normal but I didn't know what was wrong with him. After I got
into WV I decided that he had been drinking and was now drunk.
Don't ask me what he was drinking or where he was getting it,
he was out of his head, saying things that made no sense. He was
repeating things that he had told me over an hour ago. Perhaps
like me he has a short memory and he makes notes about what he
is going to say. After he says it he puts the notes in a drawer.
When he gets high he reaches in the drawer, pulls out some notes
and starts reading them in random order. He was also telling me
to exit at the next off ramp and go north when I 64 just kept
going west. He was definitely high on something, I remembered
that just before I started the trip I got on the internet and
downloaded an update to the anti-virus program and after running
it I ran Defrag on the hard disks. Could he have gotten something
from the anti-virus program that messed up his mind? About this
time I recalled an adventure that I had back in 1945 that might
be a clue to his problem. I had returned from duty in the southwest
Pacific and was at the Naval Air Station in Seattle, WA awaiting
discharge. I was told to clean the upholstery in a small twin
engine flying boat called a Widgeon. I was given a 5 gal. can
of carbon-tetrachloride and a rag. I would slosh some cleaning
fluid on the rag and rub the upholstery. I was impressed! This
was the best cleaning fluid I had ever used. It didn't take me
long and I had the upholstery looking like new, however, I had
inhaled enough of the vapor and I was now up on cloud 9 and it
took me awhile to get back down to earth. Shortly after this another
man using this stuff got up on cloud 9 and never came down, he
died up on cloud 9. After that, the Navy took carbon-tetrachloride
out of the inventory and we could no longer order it. It was also
used in fire extinguishers and that also ended. Was it something
in the anti-virus program that put Keith up on cloud 9? Or, when
I defragmented the hard drives, did I lose some of his cards and
now he is no longer playing with a full deck? He acts like it
could be either one. I was about to uninstall the program and
reinstall it to see if that would solve the problem. I turned
him off and when I turned him back on, he introduces himself,
tells me where he is and tells me to type in a destination and
he will take me there. When I do this he stays sober, it is only
when I reopen a planned trip that he gets all messed up.
I will send Keith's bosses a copy of this letter and see if they
have any ideas as to what is bothering Keith. While in Coleridge
I did uninstall the Co-pilot program and the voice program, then
reinstalled them, told Keith to plot a course from Coleridge to
Sioux Falls, SD then to Forest City, IA and then to Albuquerque,
NM. I'll see if he stays sober on this trip.
The weather here in Coleridge has been a little windy and when
the wind went down so did the temperature, some talk of frost
but I haven't seen any. I see on TV what is happening back east
and I'm glad to be out here but will be glad when I can head south.
I'll see if I can find a computer to get on and send this letter
before I head to Sioux Falls.
Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits.