Okay, this has gone beyond suspicious. I can believe the phone lines might be down. I can even accept that there was an accidental chemical spill outside of town.

But this is one coincidence too many. Now I’m just getting pissed off.

As promised, my friend called me to fill me in on what happened. Apparently he and his friends made it to within about 25 miles of Piedmont, only to get stopped by armed officials in military vehicles. When he pushed the soldiers for some explanation, they said that it was a standard procedure, but that he wouldn’t be allowed to pass under any conditions.

Apparently he tried to call and tell me what was going on, but wasn’t able to get a signal on his cell phone. (No surprise there, really. No one in Piedmont has a cell phone, because the mountains in the area make it impossible to get reception.) He tried to get a close-up picture of the officials, who threatened to confiscate his phone, or worse, if he didn’t turn around and leave.

At that point, he detoured through a number of back roads, figuring he could just hit Piedmont from another access junction… only to find that similar vehicles were stationed there too. But at least this time, he was able to grab a picture with his phone:

I don’t know what to make of this, but it now looks like some of you are right… the military is involved in this somehow. But what the hell could be going on that results in a military blockade around a nowhere town like Piedmont?

The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that there were so few of them. If it was really serious, wouldn’t there be a larger group of them…?