Part 39: Quinto and beyond

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I hooked onto those two trailers at Quito. I crossed the continent at the equator going east. It was sure pretty. One thing you gotta say about South America…it’s got some gorgeous country side. The Bifrost Bridge made it easy to be a rubberneck. At a great distance, the Burning Bridge looked no more substantial than a strand of shiny spider webs covered with dew. The shiny webs were strung between crystal towers and the strands soared across vast canyons, gorges, and plains. In many places it followed the path of rivers, in other places it crossed over jungles and deserts. The Bridge has almost zero environmental impact, less than trees.

From a distance the strands looked too insubstantial to carry any weight. Looks were deceptive. DiamondSmoke, sometimes called DiamondFog and other terms, was amazing stuff. My SmokePole was made from it and so was a large part of Trog. It was incredible.

I drove on.

I crossed the South American continent from west to east at the wide spot. It seemed rather fitting. I’d just finished crossing the larger part of it from South to North.

Upon reaching the shoreline the architectural strategy of the bridge changed. The bridge designers had faced two choices...either go over the water...or under it. There’s this inconvenient thing about large bodies of water...often times they have IceBergs in them. IceBergs crashing into bridge pylons are annoying. Underwater tubes are sometimes necessary.

IceBergs in the Caribbean…who’d a thunk.

Across a chain of islands including those formerly named Trinidad-Tobago, Barbados, Dominica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic/Haiti and finally to Cuba...we were sometimes above the water and sometimes under it. It depended. I’m not sure WHAT it depended on ..but it depended on something.

Near Havana we had a choice...either keep going north to Florida or go back West to the Yucatan. A little ways past the split I took a get-off ramp. It was but a short ways to the swap-yard.

I dropped those two trailers. The local guy would deliver them to their final destination. I hooked up to the train of six trailers waiting for me. I was just getting ready to go when I got a call.

It was my broker again.

“Have you left yet?” he asked.

“Getting ready to.” I told him.

“I have such a deal” he gushed “ If you can wait until tomorrow to leave you can drag two more trailers to Seattle. They pay triple the going rate.”

“Hmmmmm” I made a show of playing hard to get “I dunno…”

“Ok...you got me. I was holding out on you.” he said. “it pays four times the normal rate.”

It probably paid more than that...but why be too greedy?

“Ok...I’ll take em. But if they ain’t here tomorrow before Noon I’m outa here” I said.

“They will be” he promised “If I have to tube down there and crack a whip. They’ll be there before noon tomorrow.”

Yup...they paid a LOT more than what I was getting. But like I said...why be greedy?

To Be Continued
The Next Episode is
Part 40: LayOver in Cuba…
The Previous episode was
Part 38: I follow the Wild Geese
the first episode was
Part 1 : Winter Storm

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I'm

@everittdmickey
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I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
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Sometimes I also comment on the news

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