I think you're not getting the distances correct. At 1:42 they're about a quarter mile off, look at the buildings to the right and the telephone poles. When you can finally see the heavy equipment trailer blocking the road, again, at least a quarter mile.

Prairies are difficult to guess distance at the best of times, let alone through video, and that twister is so out of the ordinary as to be completely useless for distance measurement. At one point it almost looks like it's hovering 10ft off the road, but it's illusory and much farther away.

Why are they standing in the middle of the road again?

I was going to comment on your inclusion of a lot of action movies. Your clarification to bareboards is helpful. Do you draw distinctions around what is believable in action movies? I've found myself get a bit jaded over the years with how everything has to be bigger and now with 17% more explosions. A good example is how the James Bond movies have evolved. Part of it was how technology evolved in the movie industry. I think that the old Bond movies that included high tech gadgets were so much cooler and the newer ones became unrealistic. I appreciated the reboot of that series because they went back to the old ways, but it seems that they are already going down the bigger and bigger road again.

Besides the last ten years here in Texas and a few months here and there to work, I pretty much lived like a nomad from 88'- 2001-San Francisco, Portland, back to San Fran, Austin, Pagosa Springs, Co.,Durango, Co. then back to Texas-Short stints in-between cities in smaller towns for weeks or months at a time-Now that I have been pretty static for the last decade I kinna got the gypsy bug again....Been thinking about buying another bus and decking it out for living. Had a school bus me and my ex and kid lived in for about a year-and-a-half prior to our divorce....Now that I am a confirmed bachelor and likely to remain so, I have a hankering for the road again.....Kids live in Seattle wit the ex and they've legalized the drug that would make a livelihood for me there palpable....

Your video, Canned Heat - On the Road Again (live), has made it into your personal Highest Rated Videos listing. Congratulations on a job well done. For you contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Pushy stupid cops!? Never! The Police Academy have such high standards - or so the documentary series of Police Academy would have me believe.

Seriously though, I would think that the sidewalk is public and thus not privately owned, which means the hotel have no right to say anything - much like in this http://www.videosift.com/video/Busted-for-Interbulating-a-scientology-party where the cultist babykillers (aka Scientologists) have no real jurisdiction on the road. Again a stupid cop that enforces that.

knowing the way dodge trucks are built, put a new cab/bed and it'll prolly be ready for the road again.

I too can debate this till my fingers go numb and I agree that in aikido and mma fighting the techniques and counters are insane and almost never ending. I've practiced aikido where my partner and I have gone for what seemed like an hour (ok probably less) just countering one technique into another. Kote gaeshi (or mawashi) is one example of this never ending countering technique. If someone really wanted to spar I would advise cross training with jiu-jitsu, judo or some other art if you really wanted to fight people. That really isn't what true aikido is about. Since we are basically on the same page about this I'll skip to my main point.

I believe that aikido is all about the style and way in which it is taught. It all boils down to philosophy. I personally think there is no point in sparring with aikido, especially this kind of "hard" aikido. It goes against the main philosophy of aikido, "the way of peace and harmony." It teaches focus, centering, physical awareness and the use of minimal resistance to let yourself escape from an attack and stay calm. I always liked the teaching that the true aikidoka will never let himself get into a corner in which he would have to defend himself. Another states "If you have to resort to aikido you've already lost the battle."

While this isn't always practical it is a code to live up to and hopefully live by. I believe that yes, if you're going to battle someone picking a fight and beat him up, aikido is not the right sport for you. However for most people that I have seen in my aikido class they are not the ones wanting to try to fight at all. In fact in my dojo if you come in with the attitude of "I'll use this as soon as I leave these doors" you won't be staying very long. This traditional aikido training teaches one to be able to break away from an attacker (maybe immobilize him for awhile), not stay in a prolonged fight or spar, and run to get help. Of course some people argue (and this isn't towards rembar) "well that's a sissy way to fight" and you can think that, I feel it's taking a high road.

Again I just want to emphasize I think that if one was to take this style as a way of life it may impact on the effectiveness of the art in a physical fight, but that is not what this art was meant for. There is the bridge between aikido and jiujitsu which takes jiujitsu aspects into a form to not hurt the attacker. Some sections encourage the more violent follow through, but I don't think it is the majority. I still do think however that in a street confrontation (not two martial arts specialists sparring) against someone like a common drunk at a bar, traditional aikido could be very effective to get away from an initial attack.