I am awakened on this sunny and scorchingly hot Bastille Day by the irritating song of a Blue Jay who flits about several feet away. Going back into
the house for two minutes, I manage to pick up more cat-stuff and am terribly congested and dehydrated for the first two hours after we set out. The
others have been talking about how they think there might still be something wrong with the van, but being a non-driver, I don’t have much to say on
the issue. To my delight, we stop in Manhattan... Manhattan, Kansas that is. Apparently people don’t eat a lot in Manhattan because we can only find
two restaurants, but it is a nice little town. Nice to pass through that is.

After another hour or so of travel, Mike suddenly reports that he is unable to accelerate. We slow down, Mike reports the steering is going as well,
and we stop. The car is unable to move. We get out to try to figure out where the fuck we might be. There is absolutely nothing in sight except
fields and one overpassing road. We set off to find a milemarker; the road is unlabeled; Mike calls AAA. As we walk around, we begin to appreciate
how truly hot it is. It’s really really hot (We later find out it’s about 101, with a heat index of 115). We start to think about how much water we
have and how long it might take for help to arrive. The water is extremely warm.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take long. A towtruck was already out our way picking up a small SUV which is on the bed of his truck. He hooks us up to the
back and we are on our way. He lets Scott and me ride in the SUV with our seats all the way down which is quite an experience, kind of like flying.
At the auto place, it becomes apparent that everyone is going home for the day and we’ll have to spend the night in Salina, Kansas, which we later
find out is exactly equidistant between New York City and Los Angeles.

After a long buffet dinner, we finally do some real dumpster diving. There are several promising retail establishments, but either the garbage just
got picked up, or they never do anything but take lunch breaks, because all they have is food. One appliance store has a large TV and several
refrigerators. We decide the best thing to be done is to smashy smashy, but for now we move on. Amazingly, the best finds in town are at the
goodwill thrift store, which has a large dumpster that looks like the entire contents of the store were thrown into it. The best item is a small
portable TV, but there are also a lot of funny Christian books, some caution tape-like stuff, a bizarre exercise device that could be good for
smashing with, and a “Paymaster” stamping machine that originally cost $134 and is way heavier than it should be. Overall, I’d have to rate it my
most successful mission yet, and certainly an educational one.