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Friday, August 20, 2004

The day starts off well enough. After waking I work diligently, finishing up my travel writing in preparation for an afternoon upload to the website. So far I have stayed 2 nights in the same Rapid City neighborhood but take great care to park at different spots (blocks apart) each night as not to attract any attention. The van is dirty from my drive through the Grand Tetons and I don't wish to subject folks to the van's ugliness for any extended period of time.

Additionally, to thwart further attention, I avoid overnighting at the site of my one and only Internet connection, further spreading out my parking presence in the neighborhood. When I first arrived in Rapid City two days earlier, I immediately had a bad feeling about the place but took comfort in my seemingly thorough stealth activities.

Despite my best efforts of concealment, after parking at my Internet connection site (3rd visit) to perform and conclude my content push to the website, I am forced to entertain an unwelcome visitor. In the van, while monitoring my content upload, with my forward curtain drawn for privacy, someone walks by. I can hear her clearly, commenting about how she can't see through any of the van windows aft of the driving compartment and how the drawn curtain is preventing her from peering into the back of the van from the front window.

Geeze, nosey neighbors I think. I had left the car keys in the ignition and the driver door window rolled down. The open window invites another individual, a man, to poke his head inside and demand, "Is anyone in here?!?"

Now that annoys me.

So I pull back the curtain and announce my presence. I'm met with a view of a man, about 45 years old, with arms folded and held into position within the driver-side window opening. Now I'm really annoyed. The dude has a lot of nerve, acting like he ownes the van. I feel a bit invaded.

So he demands of me, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Now that really pisses me off! "Hey pal", I think, "I can park here, it's none of your damn business." But of course that would get me nowhere so I opt to pleasantly explain to the bossy little troll my mode of operation, my website, my travels, why I'm parked there, yadda, yadda, yadda. I give him my travel business card with website URL and tell him to check it out.

In the process of explaining, I mention I usually try to keep a "low profile" as to not attract attention. After saying that he rudely interrupts me, piping in with "Why?" I then told him "Because of paranoid people (like you, read between the lines buddy) but I am always more than happy to talk to anyone who asks what I'm doing" (a white lie for sure, I wasn't enjoying this little interrogation one bit).

In any event, he leaves while performing a victory strut of sorts, proclaiming, "Yes, I -will- check out your site." And to that I think, "Knock yourself out buddy, just go away...", which he does, he scurries away. Now, any reasonable person would research my site and think, okay, this guy is telling the truth, he's just traveling. So with that thought in mind, I set back to task and continued on with my website update activities. A 1/2 hour later I'm done, so I got out, check the fluid levels in the engine compartment, then set out for the car wash that's just a few blocks away.