You never know what you’ll see on Thunder Road

By Ron Kantowski

Saturday, April 4, 2009 | 11:12 a.m.

NOW

So we're doing this crazy down and back thing to catch Springsteen in Phoenix last night, and on a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah -- er, Arizona -- desert, between Wikieup and Wickenberg, our amazing progress is slowed by this olive green Javelin, riding on the back of a flatbed trailer.

And then right in front of the trailer and the chained-down Javelin, there's another Javelin, a white one, only this one's rollin' pretty good.

My buddy Patrick and I look at one another, amazed. Two AMC Javelins occupying nearly the same piece of asphalt about 18 miles from the Waynesboro County Line, or wherever the heck we were? What are the chances of that happening?

The first thought that pops into mind is that Bruce would dig this.

He and his partner, Sonny, would have wanted to build one of those Javelins straight out of scratch.

THEN

During a respite in the 24-song encore (actually, it was "only" six) The Boss chatted up Phoenix, saying he sort of fell in love with the area the first time through, in 1974 -- so much so that when that tour was over, in the fall, he and some of the E-Street Band members dropped back in on their way home to the Jersey Shore. They got a room at the old Holiday Inn by the airport, Bruce said, where they sat around the little kidney-shaped pool, soaking up the sun, while they listened to the World Series on the radio.

I don't know if it was a true story but it probably was. Because even though you don't know Springsteen, you think you do. And that just sounded like something he might enjoy.