Read the Zapfic serial #GHAWG on LeoThreads to follow the transformation of a courier into a Harley-riding tool of God.
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Cover image is a screen capture of LeoThreads edited with MS Paint
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TL;DR
What is GHAWG?
Zapfic Entries 22-28
2️⃣2️⃣ 2023-March-26 00:02:14
2️⃣3️⃣ 2023-March-27 01:01:24
2️⃣4️⃣ 2023-March-28 00:53:07
2️⃣5️⃣ 2023-March-29 02:21:17
2️⃣6️⃣ 2023-March-30 02:12:56
2️⃣7️⃣ 2023-March-31 00:30:03
2️⃣8️⃣ 2023-April-1 03:25:35
Story Arc So Far
Next Week
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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.
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Zapfic Entries 22-28
2️⃣2️⃣ 2023-March-26 00:02:14
With blog savings earning me 20%, and nothing left at home, I began my first-ever ride to Sturgis, South Dakota on my Harley-Davidson. I left Bayonne, New Jersey and headed into Pennsylvania. My first rest stop is in Allentown.
🏍️ Savings with an APR of 20%? That's Hive-Backed Dollar, baby!
🏍️ Sturgis, South Dakota, US is the site of the annual motorcycle rally. As many as 250K people attend the 10-day event.
🏍️ Bayonne, New Jersey, US is west of Staten Island, New York, US (one of the 5 boroughs of New York City). Bayonne is also directly south of Jersey City, NJ, US; JCNJ is also west of Manhattan and separated from NYC by the Hudson River.
🏍️ Usually it's people going from Allentown, Pennsylvania, US to go to the Jersey Shore coastline of New Jersey for summer fun. I chose Allentown as a reference to Billy Joel's song of the same name, from his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain.
2️⃣3️⃣ 2023-March-27 01:01:24
It takes more than 27 hours to go non-stop from Bayonne to Sturgis. I'm not setting any speed records, so I'll give myself a month to reach the Rally. I need time to unwind from a grueling 10 years which ended for me last year.
🏍️ 27 hours by motorcycle from Bayonne (which is a proxy for New York City) to Sturgis, SD is a figure derived from various driving direction apps.
🏍️ As much as he loved his father, helping him and caring for him during the decade which ended with his death was not an easy experience for David Guardia. David also needed time after his father's death to sort things out in his mind and for his business.
2️⃣4️⃣ 2023-March-28 00:53:07
Usually people go from Allentown to the Jersey Shore, as Billy Joel sings in "Allentown". I know the Shore; Allentown is new for me. Also new for me is riding a motorcycle without being on a clock or deadline. I can ride easy.
🏍️ The ride to Sturgis is David Guardia's first chance to ride his motorcycle without being under the gun or on a deadline imposed by a work order. It's as much a sight-seeing trip for him as it is a trip to the largest gathering of its kind worldwide.
2️⃣5️⃣ 2023-March-29 02:21:17
For a ride as long a mine to Sturgis, the trip from Bayonne to Allentown was relatively short. Next leg of my ride takes me along the Pennsylvania Turnpike for about 325 miles to East Palestine, Ohio (barely across state lines).
🏍️ At the time I wrote this entry, East Palestine, Ohio, US had been in the news due to the train derailment which ended with the deliberate burning of train cars filled with toxic chemicals. The town is contaminated as a result of that chemical burn, and it's down on its luck (as Allentown was during the 1980s). I just wanted to show some love for East Palestine.
2️⃣6️⃣ 2023-March-30 02:12:56
For the last 100 miles something felt off about the bike. I couldn't figure it out, so once I arrived in East Palestine, Ohio I went looking for a motorcycle mechanic. I really didn't want to abort my trip to Sturgis this early.
🏍️ This isn't on the same level as the "I have a very bad feeling about this" scenes from the Star Wars movies, but it's still a concern for David Guardia. It also a point which will be referred to later in the zapfic serial.
2️⃣7️⃣ 2023-March-31 00:30:03
"Solenoid Cascade Failure."
"Say again?" I asked the mechanic.
"You were 1 hour away from riding a brick."
"So the starter needed replacing."
She nodded. After the mechanic replaced
the starter, I tipped her her hourly wage.
🏍️ If the motorcycle doesn't start, then it's just an expensive paperweight. The solenoid, an inexpensive component (about the price of a big breakfast at a diner), is needed to keep this vehicle operational. I'm not sure if a problem by this name is real, but I liked the term.
2️⃣8️⃣ 2023-April-1 03:25:35
With East Palestine 30 minutes behind me, I was thinking how I dodged a bullet when I took the Harley to the mechanic. I don't mind leaving the mechanic a large tip, but the new starter means I'll be eating Spam for a few days.
🏍️ Good labor and good service need to be rewarded. If it means sacrificing some other purchase later, so be it. This mechanic helped David Guardia continue his trip to Sturgis, so she deserved to be rewarded.
🏍️ Cold cuts of any other variety could have been used here, but Spam seemed perfect for storytelling purposes.
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Story Arc So Far
David Guardia begins his trip to Sturgis. He passes from one town on the down swing (Allentown) to another (East Palestine). Along the way he encounters trouble with the Harley-Davidson motorcycle he had purchased with his blog earnings (most likely HBD).
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Next Week
The next post will feature GHAWG entries 29-35 and explanations for each entry. Act 2 for GHAWG continues.
GHAWG itself continues at LeoThreads, where Act 2 is done but Act 3 can't start yet. A flashback sequence had just finished; now comes a "behind-the-scenes" review of events from GHAWG.
Catch the latest zapfic entries for GHAWG at LeoThreads. Get caught up with GHAWG with these weekly summaries at LeoFinance and at the Scholar and Scribe community.
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GHAWG Navigation
To find other weekly summary posts such as this one-- or to read the serial without annotated commentary-- use the GHAWG Navigation threadstorm at LeoThreads. Within LeoThreads, hashtag #GHAWGnav brings up the navigation.