Day 110: Sept 22 2009, Claypool to Superior (10mi)

Lazy, late start. I slept until about 8ish not wanting to rush. Even decided I'd rather walk so I walked 2 miles to Miami, the copper capital of the world and got there at about 9. Had a couple of donuts, rested, being lazy, and then kept going. The road after Miami consisted of nice hills witha good tailwind for about 4 miles. Then there was some serious road construction for the next 4 miles. Tight shoulders, rough roads, and loose gravel everywhere made for a stressing skate. So I walked and came up to a flagger.
"Where are you walking to?"

"San Diego"

"Are you serious?!"

If he only knew how far I'd come. San Diego doesn't even seem that far to me anymore. Its only the next state, but it's all a mtter of relativity. The road work was serious. They were widening it, which meant that they were scraping the sides off the mountain. It ended at Top of the World. I made it safely there at about 11. I intended to keep skating to the Oak Flats Campground about 5 miles further but a man in his 40s with a limp called me over as I was trying to figure out if Top of the World Trading Post (the little shop in town) was open.

"Hey, you need a drink?" asked the old man from a distance

"Yeah, is this place open?"

"No, I got some water if you want" waving for me to come over

"Cool" So I walked over

"I used to skate"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah a long time ago. T" extending his hand to introduce himself (I'm not going to mention his real name out of respect)

"Omar, nice to meet you. And thank you" Shaking his hand

"Have a seat here while I get you a drink" He pointed to some chairs outside his duplex

He brought me a cold Pepsi, offered beer and a cigarette but I thanked him and declined. I kept asking him questions, he didn't seem too interested in my journey. I guess he was originally from Chicago and had been living in Palm Beach for a while. He had a girl who inhereted millions from her parents and they threw it away on crack. They broke up and he moved to Phoenix. There he got involved with meth and one day got a DUI and aggravated assualt for spitting on the cop and got four years in prison. In prison, he claimed to have started receiving messages from aliens, "the grays" and "the greens". He couldn't explain it to me, the messages, that is. The only thing was that the "grays" didn't like the "greens" and something was going to go down in the future, that's all he wanted to say.

Besides the crack and the alien stuff which really didn't bother me, there wa something about his manner I felt sketched out about. He kept saying how the town of 30 people all feared the police because they thought they were spying on them. His dad found him this place after jail. He got a $600 check from the government every month after convincing them that his knee got hurt getting abducted from by aliens. With that money he paid his rent here and lived. After our conversation he asked if I wanted to walk around town to check it out. Of course. I also wanted to see how his community reacted to this guy, because I knew there was something loose.

First he took me to Top of the World Sidewinders where I met Tommy and Tammy. They were a badass couple who put car engines on motorcycles, to drag race. The engines only fit sideways, hence the name. Tommy was working on a bike that was fitted with an old V8 Corvette engine. A beast it was. They acted ok around T, but I still wasn't sure. Next he took me to the drug house as he called it. The door was slightly open and he just walked in.

"Party house" he said "doesn't seem like anyone is here"

I walked inside and it looked like a dirty college party house. I saw bags of dried pinto beans laying around everywhere. Pillos and covers on the floor told me somebody, probably more than one, were sleeping here not too long agao. Why the fuck is he showing me this nasty ass spot, I thought. We left after finding nobody and he walked with his stick and limp with the dumbest smirk on his face.

Something is up with this guy. I knew it and now I had to stick around to find out. We went back to his house and sat. He offered another Pepsi.

"So where do you sleep?"

"I find a place to camp. Im headed to Oak Flats"

"Well, aaaahh, I ain't no fag or no killer or nothing but you can sleep here"

"Cool man, we'll see what happens"

"Im gonna go see if somebody is going to town. You watch the house for me?"

"Yeah, sure"

"Alright, I'll be back"

How could this guy just leave me here in his house. I went and grabbed my book, "The Hot Zone", about Ebola and read. It was now about 430 and T had been gone for more than an hour. I had finished the last few chapters of my book and was at a loss of what to do. I thought about just leaving but didn't want to be disrespectful after his kindness. He came back 10 minutes later with a baby handle of whisky in his hand already half gone. He seemed pretty tipsy, came and sat, then lifter his hands up

"Oh the dope! I gotta go get something" as if I didn't hear what he just said.

"Yeah go ahead man"

He headed to the right where some trailers were. Again he dissappeared for a while. When I saw him coming back he was walking from the opposite direction on the highway, the same route we had taken to the drug trailer. But it was empty, why did he head over there. And why did he start off at the opposite side? Just questions. He comes and sits then about 1o minutes later I notice smoke from the eastside of town. I make nothing of it, then the smoke gets darker and darker, thicker and thicker. I get up to get a closer look.

"Man this smoke looks bad, it might be coming from Tommy's. Should we go check to see if he's alright?"

"Huh? It looks ok"

I guessed I must have been overreacting. Maybe Tommy was smoking one of his bikes or something. But the smoke only intensified. Now I saw Tommy and Tammy running out of their shop looking east.

"Man I really think we should see whatsup. Someone might need help"

He looked at me like I was hallucinating. "Uhhhh, yeah...."

"Well Im gonna go see"

I ran towards the smoke. And there is was the drug trailer was burning intensly. Like the Olympic Torch was burning.

"Son of a bitch, motherfucking druggies" Tommy was now really worried that the strong westerly wind would blow the fire right into his shop. Everything was pretty dry and the fire was spreading quick.

"Where's the fire department? Did anybody call 9-1-1?" I frantically asked

"We called them. They transferred us to Miami FD. Miami then transferred us to Superior FD. We just have to wait" a bearded man replied

"Well is there a water source?"

"That place has been abandoned for months. Junkies come and go every once in a while. It's got nothing, not even a spetic system"

The fire had now been burning for a half hour. The whole trailer was toast. It's deck was now catching on fire including a propane grill. It was so hot, you couldn'y even stand on the opposite end of the street. I took some pictures from that angle but couldn't stand for long. On hour, getting dark and still no fire truck. The fire now caught on the electric lines until they ripped and started sparking. little explosions kept goign off. The sheriff just arrived when just about the frame was left. It was still burning strong. The smoke was so thick, with the wind blowing hard towards where we stood we couldn't see. It was now dark. It stung your eyes standing 500 feet away like you were putting your head close to a campfire. The fire truck from Superior arrived 10 minutes after the sheriff followed by another from Miami in the opposite directions. People were standing everywhere on the road except for T. I looked around again for him but instead I heard an old woman talk.

"Its that crazy guy that lives down there" pointing to the direction of T's house. "I've seen him try to light things on fire before. I saw him walking past it 10 minutes before"

Oh shit I thought. I asked her what the guys name was, she didn't know but she described T. I went back to the house where he was sitting casually drinking a beer.

"How you doin man?" I asked him

"I feel great"

"Yeah? Man did you start that fire?"

"Me? No. Why would I do something like that?" I looked into his eyes. The eyes don't lie. He couldn't look me back. I knew he acted way too cool and too passive about this. I know I saw him walking from that direction 10 minuted before the smoke. He had gone into that house earlier. I walked back to where people were watching. He walks up later and asks how was it. When the sheriff walks over he goes up to him

"This guy's a dealer" poiting to a bald older man with a mustache

"T, this is not the time or place fore this" the sheriff replied

"He told me he was going to get his gun and shoot me" now replied the bald man

"Guys, please take this somewhere else"

The sheriff knew T's name. He must have done something. I had to let them know what I thought and saw. Tammy told me I should let the sheriff know too. When I said what I knew and how I met him, the sheriff told me T was bipolar. And just because he acted cool about it didn't prove anything. He wasn't all there. Either way, I wasn't about to spend the night there. The sheriff offered me a ride 8 miles to Superior and I didn't hesitate to accept. I waite until 10PM until everything was over and the sheriff was ready. I'm still pretty sure T set that place on fire.

It was a cold windy night and I couldn't wait to get into my sleeping bag. Beneath some mesquite trees I lay again.