Lightening flashed as he sat under the tree munchingly.
Torrential rain was pouring, and came filtered through the branches to drench Elvis.
Reluctantly he rose and returned to the bus, where he found the driver and crew irritable and anxious to resume their journey although he himself was still ambivalent -- after all, their destination was Las Vegas, a place of good times for many, but the scene was sure to bring back painful remembrances for the aging singer.
Suddenly, Elvis began to think: 'surely, they wouldn' care if I hijacked this bus and took us all to Oklahoma city, would they?'
Suddenly, without warning, God struck down the bus with a mighty lightning strike and the bus had to pull over on the side of the road, next to a dusty old petrol station in the middle of nowhere.
So Elvis started singing about being a hound dog.
This attracted the attention of hound dogs and coyotes for miles around, and they began to gather around the broken-down bus, howling along with the chorus.
By now with the whole area smelling of wet dogs and burnt bus paint there was no place to go but into the run-down gas station.
Pathetic, isn't it that there stands this cast of characters, outside a run-down gas station:
--omuchabi wanasakanani, megawati sukarnputri, yoko ono, elvis, gary coleman, janet and suzy, britney spears, a small chinese man, the greyhound bus driver and billy hero.
And they were all just starving for a good southern cooked meal.
Fried chicken, corn on the cob and sweet potato pie would have hit the spot, but all they could find in the gas station's vending machines was the usual assortment of chips and candy bars and one dusty, overlooked Moon Pie.
Mmmmm, said Elvis, a mooooooon pieeeeeeee!
um...trying to get this started again:
An old bus, a very old bus, pulled into the run-down gas station, spewing fumes and a couple of dozen kids appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and raced towards it shouting, almost in unison: "We're going to the County Fair!" -rjb-
The rain was letting up a little.
The bus was now full to overflowing; two dozen farm kids added to the previous passengers (Omuchabi Wanasakanani, Megawati Sukarnputri, Yoko Ono, Elvis, Gary Coleman, Janet and Suzy, Britney Spears, a small Chinese man and Billy Hero) caused so much noise that it was difficult for the bus driver to concentrate...and consequently, he took a wrong turn.
Oh, no...not another bus wreck. We've done that.
(no, not a wreck...they were headed to Las Vegas, remember?)
A few hours later, the bus driver realized he must have taken a wrong turn when he passed a sign that read, "Salt Lake City, 175 miles."
Did that mean that they were near Vernal, Utah, the place with the motel, back in '59, that had the giant dinosaur out front?
They had a driver who noticed that kind of thing; he knew every 'biggest _____' on the road, and, as he was going to be fired in a few days' time, he thought that-- now that they were lost-- they may as well take a 'scenic detour.'
aside - This isn't the exact dinosaur I remember, but gives something of the flavor of the other one I saw as a child -
http://www.desertusa.com/Cities/ut/ut_vernal.html
There was indeed a coffee shop attached to the hotel, or should I call it a restaurant: they don't drink coffee much in Utah, do they?
