One Last Journey

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After coming back to Chicago, I spent about 10 days in Racine with my parents before heading off on one last trip. I had decided to move to Seattle, Washington for the summer.

I was driving out in my '90 Honda Accord with a college friend, however, I don't think he knew what he was getting into. He was moving from Madison, so I met up with him there. The evening before we left, we were driving out to dinner with his family in my car, who were in town to help him pack, and he reached for the radio, I replied, "sorry, did I forget to mention? the radio doesn't work," then as he was warm from moving he tried to turn on the AC, which yielded a "whoops, did I forget that too? that also doesn't work," sighing in resignation he tried to roll down his window, and I had to beat him to the punch, "well, I'll be. I must have forgotten to tell you about tell you about that too, the front windows don't roll down either."

Fortunately for my physical well-being, my friend is good-humored and was able to laugh off these inconviences. However, the fun doesn't stop there. On Sunday morning, we left his old apartment one last time to head across town in order to meet up with his grandparents, who were driving with us in their pickup truck, pulling a trailor full of my friends stuff. As I was weaving through some construction on the main artery out of Madison, I was knocked out of my daydream by a WHAM, WHAM! of a monster pot-hole. Immediately, I heard a whump, whump, whump noise eminating from my vehicle and I pulled over. Got out, sure enough, a flat tire on the front right side. As I headed to the trunk to get the jack, I noticed the back tire was flat too. As I was driving solo in my car, following my compatriot and his girlfriend, I figured he would see me pull over to an abandoned parking lot and turn around, instead I watched his car make its way off into the horizon. I pulled a blanket out of the car and waited, about 20 minutes later he came back, I showed him the problem and he responded, "I thought you had stopped for breakfast." Eventually, his granparents headed on without us, we beat feet to a store and $150 and two new tires later, we were on the road, a mere 3.5 hours later than planned. We pushed faster and later than his grandparents and met up with them in Kadonka, South Dakota. Now this may suprise some, but there's not alot to do in old Kadonka, so we turned in at about 8:30 pm, priming ourselves for another early start.

The plan was two nights in hotels and three days on the road. With no radio, we soon found ways to amuse ourselves with a road atlas. For instance, does anybody know the five state capitols not connected to an interstate highway? Or, the five largest states by land? Or, population? How about the nickname of Alaska? Does anybody really care?

Anyways, I made it out to Seattle (Kirkland to be exact) safely and am currently looking for work. I have had my interest sparked by a position that would end up with me in Southeast Alaska for the summer - so who knows - there may be entries coming in the future . . .

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[Rhoads]

Real
Word, Wyant. Keep it real!