LONGEST MONDAY EVER
5/15/95. (An Excerpt.)

Our first real stop in the morning is a couple hours out, at a rest area... I don't remember if we were into Illinois yet or not. We got some snacks (the remains of Mark's sunflower seeds are still in my apartment a week later).

And some guy approached us. Nice looking double-breasted suit, dark grey; baseball cap, high-top sneakers, carrying a large, colorful gym bag. He was also wearing some gold jewelry -- bracelets, I guess -- and just had that something's-not-quite-right-here vibe about him.

He wanted to know if he could get to St. Louis on one tank of gas. We really didn't know... other than via plane, this was as far west as I'd been as an adult... so Mark asked what kind of car. He said an IROC. We said, sure, I guess, whatever.

He peeled out of there, top down on the IROC, radio blasting. We waited a few minutes and creeped out, slowly... slowly...

Sometimes you're the star of the show, and sometimes you're just a walk-on.