We drop the hippie bus off on Vashon, and prep Dave's "fast, modern car" for the speedy trip down to Gerlach to liberate his 23' stepvan from the small town outside Burning Man where it broke down. We Rain-X the windshield 'cause the wipers are broken, still dusty from Nate's return drive from the playa earlier in the month. Towel in back for Anna. We enter the soup just south of Tacoma--fog and rain, microdroplets sticking to the windshield despite the water repellant, visibility nil. We talk politics and sex, Dave's keen eye picking out schoolbus potential on the side of the road. His plan is to create the ultimate party bus. Sounds good to me. We make it as far as Bend, OR, pull into a Red Lion with GOD BLESS AMERICA on the readerboard. There are a lot of signs like this along the road. Flag decals on the inside windows of cars. Earlier, heading south on I-5, a line of 7 Apache attack helicopters, fully armed, flew over heading north. Exercise or emergency response? Who among us can tell the difference? Nothing on the news in Sandy, OR Harley bar where we stop for a beer, and Sarah returns my call. Seattle is still there.