Jim Arnold looked at his watch in the early morning light and sighed.
It was 7:20 AM, more than a half hour after sunrise, and the traffic
jam he was caught in was monumental. Nothing had moved since daybreak.
Facing westbound on I-80, he was at least grateful he didn't have the
intense heat of the August morning sun shining in his face. The air
outside felt like a furnace, very hot and dry; and it was already
approaching 90F. Jim thought wistfully about his decision to get the
super economy package and not have AC with his new Chevy, but then he
reminded himself he just didn't have money for those kinds of luxuries.
The eastbound lanes were absolutely clear of traffic, and Jim thought
that was a really ominous sign. He searched the radio again for a
traffic report, but all he could find were country & western music
stations and the ubiquitous news reports on Iraq. Looking down from the
elevated Interstate, he tried to remember whether he had crossed into
Nebraska yet or if he were still in Iowa. But then he remembered driving
across the bridge over the Missouri River in the pre-dawn light,
shortly before hitting a solid wall of unmoving cars and trucks.
"So this must be beautiful Omaha," he thought to himself, looking
around. "It's not bad actually... Thank goodness I built so much extra
time into the schedule. I don't have to be in San Francisco for another
eleven days..." He scanned his radio to another country song. "Damn...
Come on, come on... There's got to be a traffic report here somewhere...
How can they not report on this?!"
As Jim continued scanning, he shook his head at the delays he was
having this morning. When he broke camp before daybreak, he noticed one
of his tires was flat. A close inspection revealed a very fluke
accident. The value stem-cap was missing, and a tiny pebble had bounced
in and wedged against the pin, slowly releasing the air. There was no
permanent damage, but it took twenty minutes to get out the bicycle pump
and inflate the tire. And now this, a major-league traffic jam, his
second delay of the morning...
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