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Culture, healing, politics and bullshit - Not necessarily in that order

The general, socio-political and very personal rantings and ravings of a hip hop head from the hood hustling for change... Of himself.

You all know me and are aware that I am unable to remain silent. At times to be silent is to lie. For silence can be interpreted as acquiescence.
—Miguel de Unamuno



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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Ntimbanjayo Family Roadtrip Update:

Leg One - Friday Afternoon

Leg one of the Ntimbanjayo family road trip finds me at the airport, patiently waiting to get the hell out of the ignorant, shiftless, lazy-ass employee zone.

I swear I could smack the HR guy or gal who hires these folks.

ME: "Can I bring this unopened bottle of water and fruit cups thru the gate?"

THEY: (not looking in the bag or making eye contact) "No liquids past this point, if it's liquid, you can't get through here"

I guess if she would have looked in the bag and actually heard me...

Never mind. San Francisco is up next, and then I get on a plane so small I might get to fly it into Oregon. After my microbrews.

Oh, and don't think I'm sleeping on the goings on inside the Matrix...

Michigan and Florida actually disenfranchised voters a year ago...

Oh, and speaking of Michigan, did Kwame say 'nigger' at the State Of The D?

It's not that Hil is racist, I think not. A lot of folk believe that Barack is a phenomenon. The whole thing is a fluke to have made it this far. No one planned past super Tuesday, that's all. I don't think Geraldine meant any harm it's just some folk think that certain people will vote Democrat regardless of what that party had not done or who represents it.

They really think that this is a case study of a person of color making an impact by enunciating and actually generating interest via a viable platform. Like Shirley, Brother Gregory, Jesse and Rev. Al didn't have one regardless of personality. Some folks just can't believe that a brother can get that far... So this is the response.


Oh snap, time to board.

So far, no one is dead yet. I hope it stays that way. Once we get in the car, that is.

SEACREST, OUT

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LEG TWO : Saturday Morning

Finds us leaving Sacramento headed east on I-80 to Reno.

We got bigger hitch put on the truck, got the trailer hooked onto it and packed the whole house with the help of a moving company and filled said trailer all in about 3 and a half hours. We hot the road around 9:30 pm Central time and drug the trailer very slowly up and down I-5 thru great elevations, unhappy truck drivers and snow.

Someone was initially freaked out but I'e done this run in my rig before from Vancouver to Ontario California a few times so things were cool. We got from southern Oregon to Sac-town in under 5 hours and since I wasn't supposed to drive this leg but ended up doing it we took refuge in a name-brand hotel (never doing that again, trust me, next time we stay at the Bates Motel... at damn near a hundred bux? Sheeeeeyit. Gotta keep it cheap mane) and I got some much needed sleep.

Now comes the scenic route... CA to NV to the Sierra Nevadas into Salt Lake City. Old stomping grounds and lunch with an old friend and the kids.

So far, good times and good memories to boot.

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UPDATE - Wednesday, 3/11


We made it.

After driving to Sacramento to avoid storms and still getting caught in mountain based, foggy snow snafus... Seeing Reno and salivating all up and thru Lake Tahoe... driving thru Donner's Pass (elevation 8000+ feet) and seeing the clouds meet the mountains while driving over the Continental Divide (elevation OVER 10,000 feet)... Stopping in Salt Lake City and introducing my wife to old friends (we crashed at her spot, good looking out Jodi), laughing thru Cheyenne Wyoming and getting stuck for seven hours on 3 inches of ice on an entrance ramp (I did get good sleep while waiting for emergency services... Finding out that certain truck stops in Nebraska serve good non-Mexican made tacos and folks in Iowa drink plenty of green beer for St Paddy's... Introducing my wife to the world's largest truck stop and rolling thru Chicago morning traffic we made it to find out that the keys to our duplex didn't work. The place has three bathrooms and I was holding my pee all the way from friggin' Joliet...

Luckily we called our agent and he was on the scene in less than ten minutes.

I opened the doors, met the movers as they came to unpack our stuff and took my driving ass to bed.

2409 miles in 55 hours. 7 hours of sleep total. My wife didn't even have to touch the steering wheel. The truck could only tow 1000 pounds, the trailer and hitch with our stuff weighed over 2000. I slept most of the day yesterday. My boss wouldn't let me work.

I woke up yesterday afternoon to the news that I have a NEW truck.

The catch... I gotta drive to Olive Branch, Mississippi to get it.

That's why I got an extra day off... I get it now. So I'm back on the road. Chicago to Mississippi in under 8 hours today.

I am a driving ass.

11 comments:

Aly Cat 121 said...

Now you know you can't drink water unless you buy the $5 water from the airport. My Daddy already got a reg flag on his azz in Oakland for asking too many questions (in a big black man sorta way)

The Second Sixty-Eight said...

Yes Special K did indeed drop the N-bomb in the state of the city address. And I was cheering his sentiments when he went on his tirade. Why? Because that shyt became breaking news almost immediately. Which goes to prove that his views on the media were definitely on point. They can't go a day without rehashing something or creating something to talk about. Not one day! But I digress... I don't want this to turn into a post.

SMDH @ the world post 9/11.

Sounds like several microbrews may be needed for that plane.

This Florida and Michigan vote thing is high comedy! The national party bosses wanted to bytch slap the state party bosses by making our votes meaningless. Now these dickheads actually want us to go out and vote again at a cost of around 10 mil. And I assume they think I shouldn't feel slighted by the whole mess.

Damn, didn't mean to write a post up in here...

The Brown Blogger said...

No problem... I'm over here nodding in agreement.

SACRAMENTO!!!

LadyLee said...

Oldboy, ya'll be safe out there on those roads!

And uh... now, if we would've all been good little black children and voted for Billary, we wouldn't be having any of these problems right now. I mean, this is allll our fault, isn't it? Afterall, Billary has done so much for us all!

LOL. I know I made you cringe!

I don't know how to feel. It is as if... if I succeed, if I go TOO far, then I am an anomaly. We gotta get past that.

(And Billary should've had enough sense to plan for an entire campaign run, like she was running against a white man or something. Humph.)

Anonymous said...

I would like to see more pics. Pictures are important. I have to live this trip through you lol.

Aly Cat 121 said...

*update comment* LOL I knew ya azz was driving *chuckle* My hubby do the same thing. Tahoe is the sh*t huh? And yall was on 80 east, dayum that's my old stompin ground. (I miss Cali). Glad you all made it safe.

Jazzy said...

Wow...loved the pics and would love to take a nice long road trip myself. Cant though...motion sickness aint no joke! LOL!

You're driving ass sounds like you really luv it though!

aquababie said...

weather has been fairly decent here in the 'sip. damn man you can drive!

Darius T. Williams said...

too much driving for me...and Kwame didn't say that...did he?

Gallis said...

I love road trip blogs. Sorry I haven't been by as much. Been busy. TEN FOUR GOOD BUDDY.

Nika Laqui said...

Wow those mountains are beautiful!!!