5/3/00
ROAD TRIP - DAY 2
5 PAGES

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: FOR WHATEVER REASON, I DON'T SEEM TO HAVE THE CHRONICLE OF DAY 1. MOST OF THAT DAY HOWEVER WAS SPENT SHOOTING THE INITIAL SCENES FOR THE MOVIE "ROAD TRIP" WHICH LATER BECAME "WISH YOU WERE HERE." WE SHOT A FULL DAY OUT IN JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK AND THEN WHEN THE REST OF THE CREW RETUNRED TO LOS ANGELES, I KEPT HEADING EAST FROM THERE, PASSING THROUGH ARIZONA AND SLEEPING IN MY CAR SOMEWHERE IN NEW MEXICO NEAR THE BORDER.)

Day 2 of the great American Road Trip began a little ragged. I barely got any sleep the night before. Sleeping in the car, I didn't realize that the temperature was goign to dip down to about freezing. So I probably only slept for 2 whole hours. When 8am rolled around and the sun was up, I figured I'd just say fuck it and go for it. I figured if nothing else, if I got tired in the middle of the day, I'd take a nap and then drive through the night. I drove for about a half hour just to wake myself up and get myself into the day. Then I stopped at good old Stuckey's for their 99 cent breakfast, called my dad and told him where I was (New mexico) and where I hoped to be by the end of the day (Arkansas). Then I jumped into the car and started driving. New Mexico is a damn windy state and I was white knuckled on the wheel at all times just trying to hold it steady. Within a couple hours, my hands were hurting, actualy felt like they were blistering. I started to get a rhythm going as I drove. I figured each of these states I could make it across in just over 4 hours. I stopped every 2-3 hours to gas up and take care of uh... buisness. Atually, that was one kinda funny thing. I'd have to pee really bad. But I'd hold it in until i had to stop for gas. So for about an hour, I'd be squeezing it in. Then I'd stop and gas up and momentairly forget that I had to go to the bathroom. So I would literally forget to go and then get back in the car and start driving. 15 minutes later it'd be back again and I'd be like "oh shit." But I didn't want to stop again, so I'd just hold it another 2-3 hours until I stopped for gas again. New Mexico was a hard state, not only because of the wind but becuase since all the cities were spaced so far apart, there were patches where you just could not get anything on the radio. And I had no tape deck so I just turned off the radio and was alone with my thoughts. I thought about Boston, about the friends I hadn't seen all semester, about Mary Ann. I wasn't quite sure just what I was going to do aobut that whole thing. Should I give it one more try? No, the voice in my head was saying "Behave Hodges, she has a girlfriend. let it go."

By the time I got to Texas, I had gotten into my grove. I was down a few thousand feet, so I was able to change into my shorts and t-shirt. The temperature was up to about 70. The windows were open and I was jammin'. Now one would think that Texas would be all country stations and while they did have a lot, I think of all the states I went through with the exception of Tennessee, Texas had the best rock stations in the country. There were so many of them, and they were all playing fuckin' great music. I never had to seek for very long before I was jammin' again. I got a lot of good picuters of farms and windmills along the interstate. I just kept pulling over and taking pictures. It was beautiful. Bright and sunny day.

I was only goinig through the northern tip of Texas so I was through in just under 4 hours. When I crossed the Oklahoma line, the skies had taken on a purple tint and the clouds were starting to roll in. I was cruisin' along right in the zone when my world changed. I remember distinctly I was listening to "Eclipse" by Pink Floyd when all of a sudden the music stopped and I yelled, "Ah what the fuck!" And then a newscaster came on reporting that there was a tornado watch in effect for Oklahoma. It sounded like the big danger area was the southern part of the state, but that the storm was moving north towards where I was. At first I thought, wow, cool, maybe I'll get to see a tornado. As I kept driving, the tornado watches became warnings, meaning that they had touched down and from here on out it was all storm chasers reporting where they were touching down. They were gradually moving northeast toward Oklahoma City. They were saying which counties they were touching down in. Here I am driving with the map on the steering wheel, trying to figure out where they are in relationship to where I thought I was. Caddo County I remember specifically. They were touching down in Caddo County. Small ones at first but picking up in intensity as they moved northeast. They said on the radio that they would probably reach Oklahoma City in one hour. Judging by the map, I thought I could probably make it through the city before they got there. The dark black and green clouds were still behind me and to my right, so I was still ahead of them.

Then the storms started. Thunder, lightning, and hail, fucking hail. The wind had picked up to a good steady clip and the hail was riding that wind like a pro. PING, PING, PING went the hail stones on my car. It sounded like I was inside a tin can as these things pelted my car. They bashed apart on the windsheild and I thought for sure it was going to shatter it. I couldn't see, but I thought I could manage, so I held on until I was going about 10 miles per hour and said, okay I need to get off the interstate. I pulled off at the next exit and gassed up. The hail stopped immediately and the air was hot and wet. You could feel it, the electricity in the air. It didn't feel like it had just been raining and hailing. The wind was still blowing but it didn't cool things down. It was an 80 degree sauna as I sat there looking out toward Oklahoma City about 10 miles away. The black clouds still seemed behind me and to the south and the rain HAD eased up, so I decided to go for it. I was so fucking excited truth be told. Fear hadn't really crept in yet. It hadn't registered yet just how serious this night would become. I thought this was just another day in Tornado Alley and things were under control. So I set off.

The funny thing about Oklahoma City is the very clear line between city and country. In just about any other city, you have the center of the city and then suburbs that go on and on until you get to the rural areas. Here, you were amongst farms and then Bam, you're in the city. Things seems fine and under control. Actually directly in front of the me, the sun was poking through the clouds. I seriously was a little dissappointed because I figured it was over before it had started. The black clouds were still to my right and behind. Then the road curved…. Suddenly I was driving directly towards the coming storm. I had thought I could make it through the city before they got there. But now according to the radio, the tornados had already entered the southern end of the city and were moving north. Now I thought might be a good time to get off the interstate. I pulled off at the next exit and joined about 20 other cars underneath the bridge. We all sat there in our cars, waiting. The wind was blowing hard, but you hardly knew it because it was so charged with heat and humidity. I had out my map of the city listening to the radio. They had hit Pickering Airforce base and torn it completely apart and were still moving north. I looked at where I was. I think it was 13th street or something like that. They were heading directly towards me. Suddenly I hear somebody yell "IT'S COMING! EVERYBODY UNDER THE BRIDGE!" I don't know what made him shout, but suddenly everybody was out of their cars sprinting toward the side of the bridge and up the ramp to the underbelly of the bridge. This old woman was having trouble making it up the ramp so me and this other guy helped her up. The funny thing is, nobody really seemed scared. They all seemed like I was at this point. Kind of excited since it didn't seem quite real yet. I saw two guys standing out in the street looking up at the sky. I left the perch under the bridge and walked out. And looked where they were looking. There, about a quarter mile away, a funnel was forming. A tornado was literally forming in front of our eyes. The clouds were literally funnelling around themselves and forming the indicative cone of a tornado. Even though logic said that if that thing did touch down, we'd be screwed, it still wasn't quite real. It was awesome. We were giddy watching this thing form right in front of us. I had grabbed my camera when I ran up under the bridge, and I used it now to snap a coupld of pictures. Then after a couple of minutes, the thing just broke apart. I don't remember how we got the go ahead that it was okay to leave. A cop maybe. Maybe somebody heard on the radio. Either way, the tornadoes had passed us by and we were safe to continue driving.

I tried to make my way back to the interstate. The tornadoes had knocked out power to this part of the city and so all the traffic lights were useless. But somehow, there was no traffic confusion. People just automatically worked together and traffic at the intersections moved smoothly. I found my way back to the interstate but only got about a quarter mile before I had to get back off again. The highway had been closed because a tornado had blown across it and basically tossed cars left and right. It wouldn't hit me until a little later just how close I had come to dying. I had fully intended on just barrelling through the city and hoping I beat the storm. Had I not at the absolute last second decided to get off the interstate, I would've been caught in the crosswind and probably would've died.

God I remember thinking just how helpless this city and people seemed at this time. And now as I think back on it, it makes me sick to my stomach. Once the tornadoes started touching down, there was no music, no sports, no news. It was all storm chasers reporting where they were touching down and how big they were and where they were headed. It wasn't like a hurricane where you had a few hours notice before it got to you. One of these fuckers could touch down in a matter of minutes and until somebody reported it on the radio, meaning somebody had been close enough to spot it and radio it in, you had no idea where these things were. You could do well to try and avoid the ones they were telling you about, but there could be a dozen more that you had no idea about. There was no national guard, no military support. It was all just the people fending for themselves. All they had for support was their radios. I remember not quite believing when I heard a storm chaser say that one tornado had landed on some highway and was following the highway north, literarlly just following the road up. He said, "Stay clear of highway 60 (?) and if you are already there, get out of your car and get up under a bridge. If you're caught out in the open, get into a ditch, get down as low as you can and start praying." He actually said that "Start praying." This was the first and only time I heard the Emergency Broadcast signal when it wasn't a test. You get so conditioned to hearing that sound on TV and the radio that you forget that it's there for a reason. Funny though, by the time I heard it, it was too late. It actually detracted from the stormchasers because by the time they sent out the beacon, the whole state had already been informed for over an hour what the Emerency Broadcast System was just now telling us. That little computerized voice didn't seem to have much bearing on anything by this point.

You know how when there's an earthquake out here, literally within 10 minutes the whole world knows that it's happened because it's all over the news. I called my mom after this whole thing at the bridge just to say I was fine. She had no idea that anything was even happening. She didn't sound worried or anything, and my mom is a worrier. It furthered the feeling that this wasn't that big a deal, but just another day in Torndao Alley. It didn't occur to me until the next morning when I saw the newspapers that I was in the middle of a national disaster.

Since I couldn't use the interstate I was trying to navigate state roads to a point where I could get back on the intersate. Mind you, it was all country roads because I was 10 minutes out of the city. Here I am, drivng as fast as I can having no idea where I'm going, only knowing that I'm going east which is the right general direction I want to be going. By now it was night time which made it even more dangerous because you couldn't even see these fucking things. Although, the lightning did make it like day. It literally did not quit.. FLASHFLASHFLASH. It never went more than a half-second without lightning. The whole sky was charged with purple corona around the clouds. And here I am, just desperately trying to find my way back to the interstate. No the worst had not passed. I was right in the thick of it. I had my A/C at full blast because the outside air was so moist and hot that it was fogging up my whole car. And then came the scariest moment of my life. You know how when it's rainning off in the distance it looks like a cloud is falling. Well, that's what I saw. In my head, I was driving towards rainfall. Where I was it wasn't raining. Just a lot of wind and lightning. I'm listening to the stormchasers on the radio, which isn't doing me much good because I have no idea where I am anyway. I'm just driving, taking turns at random. Signs that point towards I-40 actually turned into dead-end roads. Then I hear them say "An F4 has just touched down in Sharry." F5 is the strongest kind of tornado. 20 seconds later, I pass a sign, "Entering the town of Sharry." What I had thought was rainfall was actually a big fuckin' tornado about a half mile across. It was "wrapped in rain" which is why it didn't look like a tornado in the lightning light. I could no longer see it, but I knew it was out there. I cranked the car around and started sprinting back in the other direction, positive that I was going to die. I came into another little town where there were cops and a whole bunch of people standing outside this one building (a shelter). I asked the cop "I heard one is moving in this direction." He said to park my car and head to the shelter. I parked my car next to some building, resigning it to whatever fate would bring. If the tornado came this way, that was it, my car was history. I walked over and stood with a crowd of people. Everyone just standing and waiting to see what would happen. Waiting for the word from the cops to get underground because the tornado was coming. These two people just started talking to me. "Is this your first tornado?" "This is my first time in this state. I'm driving from LA to Boston." "Well, welcome to Oklahoma." The cops came over and said it was okay to go. I asked for directions to the I-40 and he gave them to me. I was determined to get the hell out of this state. 20 minutes later, I'm right near the entrance to the I-40. I stop at a gas station which somehow still had power and people there to run it. I preface this with the fact that I still hadn't received the plate for my car. There was nothing to indicate where I was coming from or going to. When this guy filling up at the pump next to me says, "Hey man, you that guy goin' from L.A. to Bostin?" Somehow word had spread through the town that there was an outsider here. I gassed up and got found my way back to the interstate.

By now, it had started to rain, so visibility sucked, but that was okay, because I was pretty much the only one on the road. I figured the cops weren't going to give me shit. They had bigger fish to fry, so I did 90 through the pouring rain. I said enough Hail Marys to save myself 20 times over and gradually realized that I was leaving the worst behind me. I was determined to get to Arkansas. According to the radio, the tornadoes weren't going to go much furhter east than 40 or 50 miles of Oklahoma City. So I knew if I got to Arkanasas I'd be definitely out of the danger zone. I had never been so happy to see a state line.

And it was in this stretch that I made my decision that I had to give it one last try with Mary Ann. It's a cliché if ever I've heard one before, but staring down death, really and truly made me realize that I couldn't put it off. I would give it one last try and either be rewarded or ultimately shut down. Either way I'd know.

I parked at a gas station about 10 miles over the Arkansas border. The rain was still coming down and the wind was blowing but I was out of danger. I had a hard time sleeping. I kept waking up to the sound of wind and thunder, certain that a tornado was barrelling down on me. I wondered if the people who worked the gas station would run out to tell us if one was coming or if they'd just leave us to figure it out for ourselves. As long as I was still hearing music on the radio I figured I was okay. There was no emergency. But every now and then, I'd wake up during a news report talking about the tornadoes and I'd freak out thinking that they were here. But luckily I made it through the night without incident.