THE NEXT CHAPTER
Red Rocket
Over 80,000 miles.
What started as a birthday gift from my brother - a new vehicle for safer transportation, with the suggestion that a road trip might be a nice way to travel during the height of the pandemic - turned into road trip after road trip, including Stage I of the Stage IV Tour: New York to Key West in January 2022.
Sleeping on the sand on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The Outer Banks.
Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Edisto Island.
The Florida Keys.
Some of the Great Lakes, including Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario.
Several trips to Chicago.
And ’21 to ’24 Paulie’s Push, as the official media support vehicle four years in a row.
More than 35+ nights spent under the stars in my little climate-controlled sleeping pod.
Sixteen different campgrounds: everything from privately-owned to municipal and state parks and federal lands.
I was in the early planning stages for ‘Stage II: Head West, Young Man!’ when a new driver with a lack of understanding of the need to take turns during a merge caused an accident that would send my ’21 Tesla Model 3 SR+ to the collission shop in October of 2024.
My insurance company’s adjuster would estimate the damage at under $3,000. The shop ballparked it at closer to $10K on first glance. And then, after weeks of insurance and the shop going back and forth - an apparent disagreement on paint appeared to be a sticking point - the vehicle was declared a total loss.
The resale market revealed that the check I would receive would cover the cost of a ’21 Model 3 SR+ with around 20K miles. Or a ’22 with 30-40K.
Or I could score a ’21 Model 3 LR - long range - with 40-50K miles.
But my insurance broker had suggested something called ‘Premier Model Year Replacement’ when I’d first insured the car. That little add-on probably cost me $300/year - and, in fact, I briefly considered dropping it this past year after my rates rose 38%, but kept it.
That rider states that, if your vehicle is totaled in the first five years of ownership, the insurance company will pay for a brand new vehicle.
It look more than an additional week for the insurance company’s third-party valuation company to calculate what that would mean. And me, with my distrust of insurance companies, spent that time thinking they were furiously working on a way to avoid providing that coverage, somehow.
But then I got their message, and it included a very fair valuation…
A week later my parents, dog, and I had headed down to Westbury, NY to pick up a brand new 2025 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Highland.
And, thanks in part to my ‘loyalty bonus’ after purchasing my second Tesla, I even upgraded the color!
INTRODUCING: RED ROCKET!
Stage IV Tour’ is meant as a light-hearted reference to the advanced stage of my illness.
It has a dual meaning, though, as it also refers to the fact that my road trip is being planned in a series of stages - four of them, to be exact.
That’s because these trips are expensive, and so is cancer. Thus, I just can’t afford to do them both all at once.
It’s also in four or more parts because I have to return home to the oncology center every 28 days, where I receive an injection intended to slow the metastasis of my disease. There’s no way a true All-American Drive could be accomplished in under 28 days, much less an across-the-country road trip.
Breaking it up into four parts - or more, really - seemed to be the way to go.
Thus, the Stage IV tour…
People often spot the license plate, STAGE IV, and approach me to ask what it means. I generally start with the positive aspects of my road trip and its four stages:
Stage I: Operation Snowbird: I went from NY to Key West, FL in 2022.
Stage II: Head West, Young Man!: I’ll head from the Florida Panhandle to the southwest.
Stage III: The Left Coast: I’ll drive from San Diego to Seattle.
Stage IV: Driveover Country: I’ll head back home, covering as much ground as I can in the middle of this country of ours.
My explanation often leads to stories shared of road trips past. Sometimes the conversation expands into suggested trip stops, or routes to take. I thoroughly enjoy these conversations, and I have gleaned a lot of good information from them.
Occasionally the person I’m speaking with expresses a sense of relief that the plate doesn’t refer to cancer. At that point I have a choice: expand on the reasons for the four-part cross-country trip, or just nod in agreeable silence and leave them thinking about the excitement of road trip adventuring.
I generally prefer to choose the latter.
The logo I developed for the Stage IV Tour includes a Tesla Model 3 fashioned as a rocket, in launch mode.
The reason for the rocket, like the tour moniker, is multi-fold.
In medical jargon, stage IV means that cancer has spread to distant locations of the body. The Stage IV Tour will, I hope, take me to distant locations of North America.
In a rocket launch, the fourth stage is often the final one…
Stage I: Pre-launch preparations…
Stage II: Launch and flight…
Stage III: Multi-stage rockets are jettisoned, going ever higher…
Stage IV: Launching into orbit and, finally, orbiting…
With the Stage IV Tour, all of the pre-launch preparations have been completed, and the launch is underway. All that’s left is my entry into orbit - criss-crossing the United States on a ‘bucket list trip’ to see as many of the sights America has to offer as I can fit in.
This tour is a metaphor for my life. By Stage IV, the astronauts have to let go - the initial lift and acceleration has already happened, and the rocket has made it past the atmosphere and, hopefully, into orbit. Now it’s a matter of doing as much as possible with the time they have.
Same with me…
0 to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds
My second Tesla was nicknamed Red Rocket because I ordered it in ultra-red, and because the 2025 Tesla Model 3 Long Range is capable of 0 to 60 mph acceleration in a mere 4.2 seconds. That’s pretty damn fast.
The moniker has a bit of irony to it, since I have a relaxed style of driving that irks my passengers to no end. We roll forward at the light ever-so-gently, and they point out that the GPS map on the display in front of us turns orange wherever we go, usually because traffic in the area slows considerably. They mean the traffic behind us…
A neighbor once admitted that he dreads finding himself behind me on the mile-long park road that leads out of our marina. “Clear your calendar,” he told me he says to himself, shaking his head wryly. On a road trip, a motorist once pulled up next to me at a stoplight and yelled “For someone with Stage IV cancer, you’d think you’d be in a bigger hurry to get to where you’re going!” before peeling off.
Just because the car is capable of white-hot speeds doesn’t mean the driver will drive it that way.
But the name Red Rocket certainly applies when I want it to…
I hit the gas once to get around a gentleman in a lifted truck I suspected was going to roll coal on me, and the view of dark soot filling the sky in my rear view mirror just milliseconds later made me glad I had the ability to launch. It felt like we hit 60 in far less than 4.2 seconds, too…
And every once in a while, when nobody else is around and the light turns green, I punch it and count the seconds to sixty.
Red Rocket… this thing is capable of flight…
When I informed friends that I’d given this vehicle the nickname ‘Red Rocket’ several immediately asked if it was a reference to “Fallout.” Because I’m not a gamer, I had to look up what that meant.
Fallout is a video game that is set decades after a global war lead by the United States and China. Fallout's protagonist, the Vault Dweller, inhabits an underground nuclear shelter, and must scour the surrounding wasteland for a computer chip that can fix the Vault's failed water supply system. They interact with other survivors, and engage in quests and combat.
In the game, Red Rocket Fuel Co. was a pre-war company that operated a nationwide chain of filling stations for automobiles. They were known for their logo, which contained - you guessed it - a red rocket. Their stations provided refueling services for fossil fuel and for nuclear engines. Customers could choose between full-service fueling by a station attendant, self-service, or automated service while robots provided car washes. Many also included diners that served, among other things, the Nuka-Cola soft drinks whose signs still dot the post-war landscape.
A friend who assumed that the nickname was in reference to the video game asked me why I chose it, since in the event of a nuclear war it would be unlikely that there would be any electrical grid left to power electric vehicles.
Once I got to thinking about it, I realized that the likelihood of nuclear war isn’t what it was in the 1990s when the Fallout game was created. But threats to our way of life exist, all the same.
WARNING: POLITICAL OPINION INCOMING.
I believe in the threat that climate change poses to our world.
And I believe that many of those who feign skepticism at the concept of global warming deep down believe it too, yet have simply chosen to disregard it in the name of short-term profits and accumulation of wealth.
Being stewards of the environment is expensive. Corporate CEOs and shareholders don’t like expensive.
It’s far cheaper and more profitable to burn jet fuel by the pound, to pollute our air and our waterways, and to trash our oceans. So companies do just that.
The biggest threat to our way of life, though, isn’t climate change, in my view - it’s a growing wealth disparity that is literally leaving all of those in the bottom of the hierarchy in a state of crisis.
And just think of what the top 1% have in the works for America’s future:
There is a race to the top in the artificial intelligence game. Companies are already using AI to provide research, handle customer service, and reject resumes and health insurance claims alike. CEOs have recently told their employees they should work harder and be thankful to have jobs at all, due to AI making them replaceable. AI will, eventually, take many of America’s jobs. Imagine when they don’t have to pay Americans, but instead simply pay billionaires for the latest and greatest in AI? That day is coming…
Companies are racing to take the lead in the autonomous driving space. Elon Musk’s Tesla, Waymo, Uber, and other companies all want to be the first to offer true ‘driverless’ driving. Yet these days Americans who once had careers in other fields are desperately trying to eke out a living as ‘subcontractors’ - lousy pay, no mileage pay, no benefits - driving for ‘ride-share’ companies like Uber. When the billionaires are the only ones making money for all the rides, what will today’s Uber drivers and DoorDash deliverers do for work?
There’s a race to make robots, as well. Tesla is hard at work on Optimus, and other companies are, as well. And make no mistake - those robots, which are said to learn from humans, will replace American workers one day. When Americans find themselves out of work because of robots, where will they work then?
With American jobs under attack by artificial intelligence, robots, and autonomous driving, what is next for them?
South Africa’s apartheid system has been in the news a lot as of late, especially in light of Elon Musk’s refusal to honor his native country’s laws regarding race in operating his SpaceX business there.
Those on the right are fond of asking the question “just how did such a small number of whites gain all of the land, and all of the power, in South Africa in the first place?” This question seems designed to make those who don’t know any better conclude that whites were meant to have power over blacks - otherwise why so easy for them to take all of that land in the first place?!
The truth, though, is that America is in the very same situation that South Africa was - we just don’t see it. Our country has handed almost all of the political power we have to a small number of billionaires, who are making moves to consolidate their power even more. We’ve allowed our nation’s wealth to be funneled to a smaller and smaller percentage of people, as well. Meanwhile, land in the US is being bought up at an alarming rate by hedge funds headed by billionaires - they’re buying office buildings downtown, they’re buying scores of private homes, they’re buying family farms, and they’ll soon be buying up our national parks. At this rate, billionaires will eventually own most of America.
Even as billionaire-lead companies make these power moves, monopolizing everything from driving to space flight, our government - also currently being lead by many of the same billionaires - makes moves to put more Americans out of work… to strip Americans of their healthcare… and to increase the taxes of the poorest Americans exponentially.
Meanwhile, safety net programs - social security, medicare, medicaid, and food stamps - are all under attack, with programs being reduced so that taxes for the wealthiest Americans can be cut. They’re not even making a secret of it… wealth is being pushed upwards at an alarming pace.
What will happen when Americans are out of work… unable to find affordable housing… and have fewer and fewer ‘safety net’ programs to rely on?
The good news is, the wealthy do seem to be thinking ahead - for themselves, at least…
A Bush-era housing official recently claimed that the government set aside trillions of dollars to build a network of underground bunkers for the rich and powerful to use in the event of a “near-extinction event.”
Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter, which he and his wife refer to as a "little shelter" or "basement". This is part of a larger, self-sufficient compound on his 1,400-acre property on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, known as Koolau Ranch. The compound includes two mansions and other buildings, and the underground shelter is connected to the mansions via a tunnel.
Jeff Bezos recently acquired his third mansion on an island in Florida known as the ‘Billionaire Bunker’. “This is the hottest spot in the country right now. If there is one thing wealthy elites want, it is a slice of exclusivity,” a source familiar with the areas real estate confided in the article linked here. The exclusive 300-acre island only holds 41 residential homes and the Indian Creek Country Club, and is said to be home to Bezos, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Carl Icahn, and others. It boasts a private drawbridge as its only way in, and its own police force.
If an underground city, an underground bunker, or an exclusive island enclave literally nicknamed ‘the billionaire bunker’ isn’t far enough from the commoners for you, there’s also a race to Mars, with Elon Musks’s stated goal being to have people inhabit a colony on the planet in the next 30 years.
Note that Mark Zuckerberg’s compound is referred to as a “little shelter”. The Billionaire Bunker only holds 41 residential homes - less, probably, now that Bezos is tearing two down. And even Musk admits his Mars colony will hold only a million.
Meanwhile, America has more than 300 million people.
In other words, they’re not taking all of us.
One million is one-third of 1%.
Many say that it’s the top one-third of the 1% who hold much of America’s wealth, and nearly all of its power.
That’s probably not a coincidence.
It shouldn’t be hard to imagine who’s likely going to be abandoning earth and taking up residence on another planet the first chance they get.
When our jobs have all been given to AI… and robots… and self-driving vehicles… and more and more industries have been monopolized by the extremely wealthy… and our water supply and air have been poisoned by corporations in the name of shareholder dividends… the top one-third of the 1% will jettison off on a rocketship for Mars - courtesy of our tax dollars - leaving the rest of us to fend for the scraps of what’s left.
Those of us who can’t afford to reserve a spot in these underground bunkers… or to buy an island home on the ‘Billionaire Bunker’… or to build a bunker all our own… we’ll be all that’s left.
When you think of it in those terms, some of the scenarios described in the Fallout video game begin to feel like a not-so-far-off possibility.
As someone with a stage IV cancer diagnosis, I don’t expect to be on this planet, or any planet, in 30 years.
But to those who are, my hope is that you’ll be able to find a good gasoline-diesel fusion blend at a Red Rocket Fuel Company near you, when the time comes.
And maybe, if you’re lucky enough to own a Tesla - or whatever electric vehicle is driving the world by then - you’ll be able to harness the power of the sun to use some sort of solar apparatus to get a few miles out of your EV every once in a while.
The sun’s energy is probably the only thing we can count on. Here’s hoping we’ve figured out how to make it work for us by then…
Just try to steer around all of the trash. And don’t drive too close to the coast…
