This day could be summarized as a long drive across the American Midwest with various stops for food, gas and bathroom visits. The AC was on full blast throughout the day as it got pretty hot and humid once we got out of the desert and into the farm belt. We drove constantly in shifts through the day and night forgoing any motel stays as we had to be in Chicago by Tuesday morning. The team did stop off the highway in Wyoming to catch a beautiful sunrise while shivering from the morning cold. Time was passed in the van talking, sleeping, listening to CD's and tape mixes and watching DVD movies like Starship Troopers and There's Something About Mary on the notebook computer. It was tempting to go buy a load of fireworks at the various gas stations that hawked them in states where they were legal but what would one do with a load of Black Cat firecrackers? Hmm...

When we were crossing Iowa approaching the Illinois border we were pulled over by the Iowa police for allegedly driving 95 in a 65mph zone. It was Robert Karimi's shift for driving and the officer was a young guy who said he clocked us going 95 with radar. Probably because of the way we all looked in the van when the officer shined his flashlight he asked Robert when was the last time he smoked pot and had Robert pull out all items in his pocket and even frisked him. No drugs were found. Then the officer said he wanted to search the van and Robert replied that he was welcome to search it. The officer didn't search the van. The whole episode was tense as we didn't know what was going to happen. The bright spot beams shining into the van from the police car and the long wait didn't help. There was a possibility of Robert getting arrested as the speed was 30 miles over the speed limit. Luckily, he only received a ticket and the officer wished us good luck as Robert said we were California poets headed for a poetry event in Chicago. Luck comes even in the most perilous times. But bad luck also comes in the form of a $120 fine. It's money Robert can ill afford and if he wants to contest the ticket he'll have to show up in Iowa traffic court in September.

After that tense and harrowing episode with the Iowa police, we crossed into Illinois with Robert still driving the van. As it is usually is after getting ticketed, Robert was totally following the speed limit and the law. Maybe it was the fact we were in a van with darkly tinted windows and a CA license plate and it was after midnight that a Illinois State Trooper began tailing us. We were just not getting any breaks that night. We drove 65 mph for several miles with the trooper following us. Then the trooper went into the other lane and slowly pulled alongside the van trying to look inside but it wasn't going to happen with the tinted windows. He then pulled back and continued tailing us. At that point we decided this guy really wanted to pull us over and was looking for that excuse to do it. We did what we could which was take the next off ramp and not surprisingly the trooper followed us off the highway. When we turned to go into a gas station the trooper cut off the chase and went the other way. We breathed a sigh of relief.

That's our Monday.