GHAWG-- God's Hog: A Watchful Guardian-- LeoThreads Zapfic Entries 576-582

🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️

^{Cover image is a screen capture of LeoThreads edited with MS Paint}

🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️

TL;DR

● What is GHAWG?

● Zapfic Entries 576-582

    5️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ 2024-September-15 00:07:42

    5️⃣7️⃣7️⃣ 2024-September-16 22:42:03

    5️⃣7️⃣8️⃣ 2024-September-17 00:30:39

    5️⃣7️⃣9️⃣ 2024-September-18 20:35:54

    5️⃣8️⃣0️⃣ 2024-September-19 15:28:30

    5️⃣8️⃣1️⃣ 2024-September-20 16:14:51

    5️⃣8️⃣2️⃣ 2024-September-21 13:55:48

0️⃣ 1️⃣ 2️⃣ 3️⃣ 4️⃣ 5️⃣ 6️⃣ 7️⃣ 8️⃣ 9️⃣

What Is GHAWG?

#GHAWG is short for "God's Hog: A Watchful Guardian." This fictional story tells how David Guardia, a courier and business owner from Bayonne, New Jersey, US moved into the next phase of his life after spending the final ten years of his ailing father's life helping him.

More details can be found in the first post of this weekly recap.

🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️

Zapfic Entries 576-582

5️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ 2024-September-15 00:07:42

Once Felix Legion reunited in St. Louis, we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, the final state on our ride east along Old Route 66. Springfield's our final destination for today; our first town of note is Granite City.

🏍️ The rest of the ride along Old Route 66-- all within the state of Illinois-- will take place in urban and suburban settings. Springfield, Illinois, US is roughly 120 miles away from St. Louis, Missouri, US. Although Springfield is between 200 miles and 220 miles from the major league city of Chicago, Illinois, US, that distance will be covered in one day. Unbeknownst to Felix Legion, this will be a long day for reasons having nothing to do with the distance from Springfield to Chicago.

5️⃣7️⃣7️⃣ 2024-September-16 22:42:03

Although it wasn't obvious from the maps we consulted, we rode Old Route 66 into Granite City. It's inside Madison County, but not the one where The Bridges of Madison County took place; that one was set in Iowa, my new home.

🏍️ The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 romantic drama starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. Known to most people for his roles in international "spaghetti westerns" from the 1960s and his iconic role as San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan in the "Dirty Harry" movies of the 1970s and 1980s, his leading man role as traveling photographer Robert Kincaid went against type; this is what made the movie memorable for me.

🏍️ As for Clint Eastwood himself, this would be the second time I refer to him in Rat Bike. My first mention of Clint Eastwood took place as Our Heroes-- the combined group of David Guardia's people and The Mongols led by Harry Hoqualogue-- were riding through Northern California near San Francisco.

5️⃣7️⃣8️⃣ 2024-September-17 00:30:39

Collinsville was the next town of note for us. Even though we were riding north, we needed to ride south for a bit in order to document our visit to the World's Largest Catsup Bottle. Then we resumed our ride north on State 159.

🏍️ Although oddball landmarks and attractions aren't as common on Old Route 66 east of Texas, they can still be found on the eastern segment of this legendary road. The World's Largest Catsup Bottle is one such oddball landmark.

5️⃣7️⃣9️⃣ 2024-September-18 20:35:54

From Edwardsville we rode State Rte 157, which was also known as Old US Rte 66, to Hamel. From Hamel, it tracked alongside I-55. We stopped in Livingston to have lunch at the Hard Dog Cafe. That's when Lindsay noticed something.

🏍️ This travel entry shows how the old road known by older generations as Route 66 had been replaced by various roads under various networks of roads. It's also a transition to a series of character-based zapfic entries.

5️⃣8️⃣0️⃣ 2024-September-19 15:28:30

"You're looking radiant."

"I am?" asked Rhonda.

"You know what? She is," said Frank.

"David, you busy, busy man, you!" exclaimed Hank; The Kids were laughing.

"You're all projecting into the future. It's something else."

🏍️ In the vast majority of instances, the observation that a woman "looks radiant" suggests that the woman is pregnant. I have to think there are situations where a woman can "look radiant" without being pregnant, but usually when I've encountered this expression a pregnancy was implied. If you know of any situations not involving pregnancy, please let me know in the comments.

🏍️ Throughout Rat Bike I have written zapfic entries featuring both The Twins, Hank Marchenko and Frank Marchenko. In these threads I've used styles and speech patterns which distinguish Hank from Frank. Hank tends to speak very informally, almost as if he says whatever pops in his head. Meanwhile, Frank speaks in a more measured and intellectual way. This zapfic entry is the best example yet of the contrasting speaking styles Hank & Frank.

5️⃣8️⃣1️⃣ 2024-September-20 16:14:51

"A couple of dear old friends ran into me at the Ritz-Carlton," began Rhonda. "I thought I would never see them again after they moved for work, so that's when I ended up in Alaska. It took me years to get over their departure."

🏍️ Back when Our Heroes were riding through the Pacific Northwest, south of Portland, Oregon, US after picking up Lindsay Etxeberria, David Guardia discovered that Rhonda Bella was an ice road trucker based on what she had mentioned as they were buying supplies. Until this point, we simply took it for granted that she was an ice road trucker. This is the first time we learn how she became an ice road trucker in the first place.

🏍️ How important are these old friends to Rhonda? Given that it took her years to get over their departure, and given that it was enough to driver her to take her long haul truck to Alaska of all places, it's not out of the realm of possibility to suggest that they were "more than friends" before they had to separate. Due to the winter conditions which make it possible to ride an 18-wheel truck over a frozen body of water, Rhonda would not have had time to think about the big hit her personal life took when her old friends departed Iowa. Even the ride on the asphalt road during ice road trucking season was demanding enough to require extreme focus from Rhonda.

5️⃣8️⃣2️⃣ 2024-September-21 13:55:48

"It was as if her friends returned from a long odyssey, like in Homer's epic poem," I said. "You'd be excited that way too if you got a new chance to see dear old friends. Besides, she'll be radiant for the right reasons later."

🏍️ David Guardia was trying to put into perspective {his wife}'s reaction on seeing long lost friends who may as well have been left for dead for all she knew.

🏍️ In my mind, Rhonda Bella Guardia was never bitter about losing her friends to distance and duties; she was just sad that a major part of her life had come to an abrupt end. Rather than deal with her emotions-- because who wants to deal with the end of a special relationship?-- she decided to throw herself into her work to the point where she would have literally no free time to think about this major loss in her adult life.

🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️

Story Arc So Far

Felix Legion rides out of the major league city of St. Louis, Missouri, US into Illinois, the 8th state (going east) on Old Route 66. In Livingston, Illinois, US the riders take a meal break. This is where the rest of Felix Legion notices something different in how Rhonda Bella Guardia looks.

NOW AVAILABLE! -- GHAWG, Uninterrupted for those who want to binge-read the daily zapfic serial one Act (or Interlude) at a time. Act 7 is in progress, so GHAWG-U proceeds through Interlude 3.

ALSO AVAILABLE! -- The GHAWG Diaries for those who want to witness the formation of The GHAWG Universe and how it's taking place. Published on Mondays when there is no GHAWG, Uninterrupted post (or, for that matter, any other post).

PLUS! -- GHAWG Behind the Scenes to see how elements of The GHAWG Universe take shape, from graphics to spreadsheets and other research. Included is a subseries called "Fun with Maps" showing the interesting things I find as I map out the David Guardia's ride. "Fun with Maps" is at South Bend, Indiana, US.

Catch the latest zapfic entries for GHAWG at LeoThreads. Get caught up with GHAWG with these weekly summaries at InLeo.

🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️

GHAWG Navigation

To find other weekly summary posts such as this one-- or to read the serial without annotated commentary-- use the post GHAWGnav: Navigating The GHAWG Universe.

🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️🏍️

That's it for this Weekly Summary. I'm ^[!!]
Thanks for your time and for reading #GHAWG, LeoThreads at InLeo's first daily zapfic serial. Give the post an upvote or a reblog if you liked it. Feedback is welcome. Until next time!

[!!] -- signature graphic was made by @ahmadmanga

Posted Using InLeo Alpha