From:  Chris Hoke <mineralrock@yahoo.com> 
Subject:  day six, minneapolis-st paul. 
Date:  Sat, 14 Oct 2000


we were woken very early, very rudely by some damn
jackass, he was telling us to get out of his parking
lot. well, it's five thirty, this is no time for
banging on doors and yelling and such. dad said, you
want me to call the police?  we're leaving right now.
i had had nightmares all night, or rather, one
nightmare that kept me up too long, and i was bushed.

so i woke up anyway, having to navigate minneapolis
before daylight, trying to get dad to a park. we did
get there and i feel asleep again, happy that no one
would bang on our door here.

when i woke up, it was daylight and i could see the
park was beautifull. thinking back, i wish i had
gotten outside and looked around, but all i wanted
was a cup of coffee. this we had in abundance, so i
drank and cleaned up, and we planned the day.

right now its twelve thirty six, and we just watched
this film about the dakota massacre. it's real
horrible how we treated them.  just horrible.  and
we still disrespect them. especially in sports.  the
tomahawk chop.  chief wahoo.  if they just got rid
of that mascot i'd feel alot better. so i'm feeling
a bit morose, a bit heavy in the heart.

dad went for a run, actually there was a run
benefiting some poor little girl who had a rare
disease, so now we have:
a note pad, a pen, a tshirt, a pop can holder, and a 2
page "runners world" buy me thing. i decided to stay
in and write emails, check em and the like.

so then we went to this golf course, edinbourgh usa,
it's public but it was really pretty. the only problem
was some guys who didn't want to play with us, and that
was frustrating. but we had fun.  on the first tee dad
was like "golf is like life" or something, and i said,
no, golf should be fun. but life is fun. "so, see, golf
really is like life" and whenever we got frustrated we
would just relax. so, yeah, it was fun.  a bit
frustrating, losing balls everywhere, hitting good
drives and then not being able to find the green. i can
drive half decently, and putt ok most of the time, but
i can't chip to save my life. always in the sand.  i
can hear wes laughing at me, cause we always complain
about our fathers taking us golfing. well, buddy, i'm
sorry if i enjoy myself.

by the time we were done with the round the sun had
set, in fact on the seventeenth we saw it set, it was
magnificent and i took a picture. oh, i also lost a
dollar, even though i got 1 stroke on the 3's, 2 on
the 4's, and 3 on the 5's.  pathetic. i kept saying to
myself "you are completely pathetic" cause my game was
like that. goodness, taking 3 shots to get out of the
sand.

so, we went for some grub at the adjacent pub type
place, all duffers and golfers and cute bridesmaids
stealing cigaretes. they had funny accents, and were
real friendly.  did i mention dad smokes all my smokes?
yup.  so we had some chili, and it was mighty tasty.
hot and full of 'stuff' very mighty tasty.

then we decided to hightail it to an rv park
to...uh...take care of some rv buisness and also stay
the night. we got there and this little ten year old,
samantha, she was running the show.  her mom was just
there for legal purposes, i'm sure. child labor laws
and what not.  well, she told us where to go, how to
hook it up. backed us into the lot, etc. what a
firecracker.  full of spirit and a vivacious quench
for life.

i miss my friends.  i miss david, i miss wes, i miss
eddie munchemups, i miss the great nickopopolis,
Special Agent Johnny Aloha, sunnysun and jenjen and
dzurick, blowers and the big p, steve who is working
too hard, ray and sneaky pete, shawn and natalie and
all those crazy shaker kids. i keep seeing things and
thinking how much certain people would appreciate it.
wes would've been down with downtown, natalie would've
loved all the sculptures we saw, john would've been
staring at all the scenesters (there are TONS of em
here) nick would've loved the nader signs and the
co-ops all around, angus would've loved just sitting
around, cracking jokes about all the minnesotans.
sunny would've loved walking around the mall of
america, just soaking it all in. you're all so special
in yr own ways, and especially to me.

sniff.  allright, i'm sure some of you are ready to
vomit, after all that filth.

so, my night was not done yet.  i was out of
cigarettes, gee i can't imagine why. dad has two
excuses:
#1: "i just don't want you to feel left out"
#2: "the sooner get rid of em, the better i'll feel"

ha ha ha.
so i needed cigarettes. i jumped on my bike and went
searching for a suitable establishment. i found it,
but i realized my wallet was in the rv. so i went back.
only i didn't, because i was lost. in minneapolis.
with no id.  could've died out there, and no one would
know. "john doe, was wearing black hoodie, blue nautica
pants, has prosthetic eye, etc." see, i told you i was
feeling heavy tonight.

i finally saddled up to a dominos, they must know
where i'm supposed to go. i couldn't remember a street
name, or the name of the rv place, but i remembered all
the landmarks. it's by a mobil, a fire station, a SAV
liquor store, at the bottom of a hill. they all looked
at me like i was from mars.  or jupiter.  or duluth.
finally the delivery guy came, and yelled at his
coworkers for being stupid. he couldn't believe they
didn't know what i was talking about, and he pointed me
in the right direction. i got there and promptly got my
license, and headed back.  all this exercise, and the
last thing i wanted was a smoke. isn't that &%&^%&^$&
ironic?  that's what i'll do instead of swearing. like,
that ^%#&%*$ yahoo who knocked on our door at five
thirty in the morning. he was a real $&^$& of #%@%^, if
you know what i mean. got some real smokes, some
marlboro mediums.  i'm having one right now, but it's
one o'clock. i'm tired, guys. and that was my day.  got
back, watched a movie with dad, a bruce willis flick,
and hit the sack.

which is where i'm going right now.

as always, ***/***/****
mineralrock@yahoo.com

chris