So, I'm sitting here at my favorite Starbucks in the whole world, a photo of which is beneath, and I'm thinking how lucky I am to have made it here through 2,000 miles of absolute torture in a 45-year-old British roadster.
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| This picture proves that even Starbucks can be politicized. |
I now have my own 'Cold Mountain' story after suffering a genuinely cold mountain, driving to and through Flagstaff, AZ yesterday in the worst winter dust and wind storm I've ever been in...and I've been in some doozies. It equalled the blizzard that stranded me for two days in the Texas panhandle.
My little old red lady behaved fairly well after eating up two starters along the way, and now I have a genuine adventure to talk and write about.
One's mind really wanders when driving alone through endless desert. I thought a lot about an argument and bet I have with an expat retired American dentist we'll call George, who I became close to while living in the Middle East.
He hates this blog (although he usually reads it).
George is a curmudgeon. According to another mutual friend, he's best described as having "brittle charm."
Old George is a wingnut to the max and believes every anti-Obama conspiracy theory that comes down the pike. He emails me the latest and most outrageous, and like his preferred candidate, doubles down on them even after they've been thoroughly debunked.
He'll be a very happy camper when Donald Trump gets the GOP nomination. But George won't be so happy on the first Wednesday of November, 2016.
It's not because Trump will lose to whomever is up against him (America generally comes to its senses in important elections), but because the day before we actually went to the polls and voted.
You see, George is so convinced that America is on the verge of going to hell in a hand basket that he bet me President Obama will declare martial law and suspend the presidential election.
If the election doesn't come off on time, I bet that I would take George out to the most expensive dinner at any restaurant he chooses, anywhere in the world. I will fly back to the Middle East to do it, too.
Unfortunately for me, if I win, I still have to fly back to the Middle East to collect my dinner. But it will be worth it!
This afternoon, I hop on a jet back to Washington state, to drive back here tomorrow in our real car with the three loves of my life: my wife and two cats.
I'm working up a big appetite.
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