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	CLUE NUMBER EIGHTEEN (from Cholame): For the Hidden Journey: Nonconformity is both burden and reward. For the Puzzle: Here is the eighteenth clue for the puzzle/cryptogram: The solution's key is a grid of 32 letters by 6 letters. This is clue 18. The remaining clue (and bonus clues, if you can find them) will help you solve the puzzle/cryptogram. Bonus clue: What coffee company did Daz fear had taken over Old man Ching's property? The answer lies within Chapter Six and the Web.                                     The Story: Alex takes over driving again and we reach King City in early afternoon. Suddenly I remember that the James Dean Memorial is somewhere just to the east. I yank out the map and my notebook to confirm this, and getting all excited, ask Alex if he minds going there. He just shrugs and a few minutes later we're on Highway 46, heading into low hills of golden grass. We drop into a blistering hot valley of drying hay with a dusty haze that hangs above the fields after pickup trucks have hauled derriere along the bakebrain dirt roads that crisscross the valley floor. The town turns out to be just a wide spot in the road with a small store and a gravel parking area around the Dean's memorial, which is under the only tree within fifty miles. Some rich Japanese guy popped the gitas, and whatever it cost, it was worth it. It's simple, just a couple of big shiny chrome ells stuck in the ground, but it's the most tropo-electric sculpture I've ever seen. I dig our camera out of the trunk and get Alex to take some pictures of me posing Joe Cool, shades and all, in front of the memorial. I spock the dates and realize he was only 24 when he went down. I think, griff, that's just four more years for me. Right then it really hits me that I can't afford to just cruise through fantasyland anymore, I've got to make it happen just like I did with the Lancer, and I make up my mind to get Nikki to come with us to Hawaii, even if she's as stubborn as Old Man Ching. I go in the store to buy us two overpriced sodas and then we vector back toward King City. For the first time in days I feel like my old self. I'm riffing on what we can do in Hawaii, about what it would cost to ship the Cruiser there, asking Alex what places he thinks are the most strat on Oahu, and everything else that's spinning through my mind. In no time at all we're in Pismo Beach by the deep blue Pacific, the cool breeze blowing that tangy smell of rotting kelp and salt air over the pink stucco motels. It all makes me I feel like I'm finally getting close to home. (continued in Chapter Twenty-Nine of I-State Lines) All content and coding copyright © 2006 by Charles Hugh Smith, all rights reserved
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