So anyway rob left the Ratdog show the morning after (it ran late due to UA winning the NCAA cahmpionship that nite...) after checking the messages using LYNX (which is like driving a stick on the infobahn...) at the Tuson main library rob caught bus #8 to Taos transit center and then took #26 to TTT truck stop exit (a good one...) get off at Circle K.
85 cent fare rob caught out to BENSON and then got a ride to WILCOX with a nice fella who spoke NO english and had a REALLY FRESH side of beef in the car I mean like right out of the slaughter house fresh...anyway he dropped me off at the Burger King exit (I wasn't really hungry for some reason tho..;) which is a good exit: lit, water available, truxtop nearby and then BANG Las Cruces 200 miles away in 2 1/2 hrs...
If you get dropped off in Cruces and want to make it to a good exit w/out walking far follow 'Avenida de Mesilla' til it turns into 'Idaho' and just go til you see I-25; it puts you near exit 3 (the Mesilla Valley Mall) a VERY good northbound toward Albquereque exit.
As I said, it takes a WHILE to get a ride in N.M. but you will generally get to where you're going in one or two rides...(esp w/a SIGN).

Nothing weird happened to speak of except the 50 mile an hour winds...
And oh yeah, the Albq. library has Netscape but they're REALLY ANAL about you using CGI sites (Hotmail and dead.net are CGI's) so are 1/2 the others in existence but that's another story...
(Unlike the NASHVILLE one that is WAY mellow about THEIRS) ;)
No ID or card neces. time limit only when people waiting (rare).
While I'm on the subject, NEW Orleans uses LYNX log in as 'visitor' then go to Yahoo and type Hotmail to read & reply, but you can't compose from a blank field...
If you live in ORLEANS or JEFFERSON Parish you can register for the free - net too but that's a different process: go to the main New Orleans library @ Tulane & Loyola and inquire...
The free - net even provides rudimentary e-mail (not Hotmail, tho...)

Oh yeah
THE weird stuff:
here's why I didn't go to the austin gig:
I caught a ride w/a retiree in an RV (reallY) who wanted help navigating OKC so I volunteered. He was a gracious host, bought breakfast at JESSE's along I-40 west of Amarillo which gets points for:
a: LARGE PORTIONS
b: GOOD PRICES
c: 3 hot sauces
d: dr.pepper
and E: the waitress warned me that the Dallas Morning News outside was only delivered 3 times a week before I dropped the 50 cents on an off day!

So I went on thru Norman & Dallas to the NEW ORLEANS gig.
I was in a small town outside Dallas called 'Terrell' when I caught ONE ride all the way to HAMMOND, La - a right friendly town across the lake from the Crescent City (about 49 miles all bridge). Just go to exit 28 on I-55 (near the I-12 interchange w/a NEW ORLEANS sign and wait...
there really isn't anywhere else FOR anybody to GO...
While you're riding, check out the houses on the swamps (up to code and EVERYTHING! mail via BOAT!, the flora, the fauna, get this: N.O. is RE-installing the 'streetcar named desire' (really) *STELLA*!, and oh yeah THE cemeteries!
I AGAIN caught out in AN RV - a head this time who gave me a ride up I-59 past KILN, MIss (Brett Favres hometown) Hattiesburg (a resident of which miracled me) and then up thru Laurel and MERIDIAN (home of 'the father of country music' Jimmie Rodgers...)

Normal travel more or less thru Birmingham (met a fellow who claimed to have been involved in sniper incident in Baltimore, MD in 1976 whose gas tank was bleeding dry so rob had 5 bucks to give (just to hear the story was worth it)...)
P.S. - B'ham northbound exit kind of a walk but go about 5 miles up by FULTONDALE (I'm obviously skippin' shows)...the distance's are a tad too tight for hitchiking (c'est la vie) but what I can when I can doncha know...
It's been a really pleasant trip otherwise and most mickey d's in Tennesee have dp so.. ;) ;) :)
And only ONE idiot asked me for drugs while I was sellin' shirts (a NEW low #!).
Anyway off to somewhere...
More tomorrow...

P.S. check out the space center in HUNTSVILE, Alabama if you can.
And at least 2 of my rides not just freaks - one was a 'respectable businesman in a BMW' said the *local* cops (not state troopers) in the first county inside TN on I-65 can be real pinheads so...
Be careful thru there...(fortunately I didn't get to find out one way or the other..:)

SO rob went to to the Nashville show shortly after receiving a missive from the Spacecub that said they were going out of their town (Pittsburgh) for a while; I didn't think anything of it and while I was walking thru the parking lot of the 328 Performance Hall (328 4th av) Broadway exit (near new arena)

*SURPRISE*

1 Spacecub delivered to Nashville!

I of course got flustered and went off to my own planet but that's the way things are...
(I had just been wishing I could see them in person for a bit)
Be careful what you wish for you JUSt might get it!

ANYWAY the hitchiking stuff:
I haven't left yet, I'm still in Nashville @ the main library: 2 netscape; 20 LYNX.
Time limit is flexible - 15 if patron waiting; unlimited otherwise...(Hotmail is impossible to compose in LYNX)
(you may REPLY, and forward, but BLANK pages are unavilable).

Good suburban bus rts for htichin' are #10, 12, 18, 26.

All go near the interstate out where the land is flat...
Ask driver for direction o' travel.
Also N-ville isn't that big physically - you can probably walk across it but there IS a LONG BRIDGE over the Cumberland River & it is illegal to walk on interstates in TN so...

N-ville bus fare 1.35 to 1.65

As for the show:
I remember SAMSON & DELILAH, sugar / sunshine,
and being REALLY thrilled to see the Spacecub but having a rough time showing it ;\

Anyway off to MEMPHIS
(I'd go to Athens but it's kinda a pain to hitch there and back w/no radio...)
(It's off the highway about 30 miles so...)

I hafta agree w/the commercial appeals comic book critic;
THE SPIDER MAN CLONE SAGA REALLY BITES!
(I've never seen a comic book critic in a newspaper before except Cleveland and I thought I'd plug him!

Oh yeah, ROB's official Kentucky Derby horse:
'PHANTOM ON TOUR'

Win or lose I'm behind that horse all the way..;)

Hey he DID only lose the Ark derby by 1/2 a length ya know..;)

And some thoughts on 328 Hall in Nashville:
2 stuffy
The free postcards are a nice touch and the draft dr.pepper goes down nicely...

I-40 bridge from TN to Ark remodeled from 2 lanes w/shoulder to 3 lanes w/narrow shoulder.
BEST BET FRONT ST ON_RAMP AND HOPE
WAY dangerous to walk ACROSS MISS RIVER BRIDGE NOW...
(No public transit to Ark as of this typing *sigh*).

Write to Legendary Rob.