The impromptu basketball games mentioned in this one came to mind when considering the current NCAA tournament. I'm not sure when I wrote or posted this one to the old site...
Traveling across the country with dad as a young man was quite a treat. I’ve spoken to some much later in their lives who have seen less of the country and fewer states than I had before I reached junior high. Living life as a part-time trucker’s sidekick was indeed a treat. It was mostly seasonal, as school took priority until the summer months. When school was in session, it was quite unique to sit through second grade social studies having been to all the areas of the country we were discussing.
Life on the open road was very exciting from the eyes of one needing help to see over the dashboard. And no one trip was more exciting than the long journey west in seventh grade. It was the grandest of all trucking adventures when the three of us (dad, Ryan and me) headed to Washington state on a journey that would last a week and a half. Most significant was the fact that we were able to miss a half week of school! The first week of the journey would take place during a school wide break, the last few days were a parent allowed and teacher approved absence. I remember Ryan, in fifth grade at the time, was required to write a report on his experience. I wonder if he included the most vital details as I recall them…
Lesson one; always check a young man’s bags. It must have been one of those he checked, she checked situations. Mom assumed dad had checked the contents of Ryan’s luggage and dad assumed it was mom. Ryan, it turns out had packed and checked his own bags. As a young man not overly concerned with his wardrobe, Ryan had decided two changes of clothes would be more than enough to carry him to the journey’s end. After wearing each set of his clothes twice, we were forced to stop at the local laundromat. It was there that we observed culture at its finest. Never before had I watched drunken locals play Pac Man with such enthusiasm. An oversight in sufficient clothing had exposed us to some of the most interesting arcade visuals we would ever see. With Ryan now ready for another few days of looking exactly the same we trekked on.
Lesson two; tumble weed is real. I’ve never known anyone who lived in the Old West, but I had thought tumble weed might be purely Hollywood until that trip. As we scooted across the open roads of Wyoming and inched further and further west, we saw the scraggly balls of weeds wrapped loosely as they tumbled across the narrow western roads. No longer cinematic figments of imagination, we had seen them with our own eyes. Accompanying the rustic scene were tiny tornadoes of dust dancing in the open fields on either side of the road. We were three sophisticated cowboys traveling on a very large horse.
Lesson three; no women equals no manners. So maybe we weren’t that sophisticated. Mom, knowing we would need traveling snacks, and dad, not wanting to stop every half hour satisfy our tiny stomachs, had included beverages in the travel rations. Not wanting to dwell on any unflattering details, let’s just say burps take on a whole new level of reverberation when the Coke is warm and the rules stipulate that no one may belch until the full can has been consumed.
Lesson four; ingenuity breeds the most fun. It goes without saying that a pair of grade school boys will grow restless when cooped up in limited space for extended periods of time. That’s when dad, in a moment of pure brilliance, decided to cut the bottom of out of a five-gallon bucket. That bucket became the source of infinitely more entertainment than one could ever imagine. It was hung in the empty half of the trailer and when coupled with a miniature basketball it became, as one dock worker proclaimed, “better than March Madness.” Not only were we entertaining ourselves, we had an audience.
It was just one of many trips out into places we’d never seen, but certainly the most memorable. From remote docks to big inner city stops we traveled the world (the world reachable by land) from coast to coast. More often than not with sufficient clothing.
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