“Neven go on trips with anyone you do not love.” Ernest Hemingway
What it wuz, wuz a fam’ly emergency cuz Millyrose’s younger brother had a heart attack ‘n the Doc’s told him he should get his affairs in order...’n that created a sense of urgency in Millyrose so we hurried up some plans ‘n set out for southern Oregon...did not begin well as I will recount: We had scheduled service for the little Toyota which I took care of (entailed me driving to Folsom ‘n waiting for 2 hours) after which I proceeded to top off the gas tank ‘n return home to finish up some necessary chores while Millyrose ran a couple of last minute errands...son Dave came to house sit with da boyz ‘n we set the alarum for 3 in the AM so’s we c’d get an early start (the plan wuz t’be in Medford before noon)...all wuz going well, we arose, showered, made coffee, loaded the Matrix ‘n at 4 AM, proceeded to back out of our driveway..
The noise was fearful...tho’t the whole front end of the little car had fallen off ‘n wuzn’t gonna make the trip with us...seems the right-front spoiler dam had come unglued or unstuck or unwhatever it wuz that held it in place ‘n the noize as it scraped our gravel drive wuz, ‘specially in that wee hour before sunrise, daunting...’n you just can’t do anything about sumthing like that at 4 o’clock in the AM so I unloaded the car ‘n with nuthin’ else t’do, went back to bed...only to rise at the more respectable hour of 9 to return to Folsom Lake Toyota where they effected a temporary fix that allowed me to get back home ‘n on the highway by 11:30...following a quick stop at the bank ATM, we were on the freeway shortly before noon...And all went well, the road was dry, the traffic light ‘n I set the cruise control for 68 mph ‘n we proceeded north...a quick stop for a hot pastrami sandwich in Redding ‘n into the mountains that I hadn’t crossed in 30 years...(they didn’t look all that much different)...we ran into rain in Yreka ‘n paid $4.39 for petrol (OUCH) ‘n had rain all the way to Medford (which did look a little different from 30 years ago) but I found AAA in the same old spot where it’d been all that long ago ‘n got a map ‘n a motel ‘n directions to the hospital...very friendly folk in Medford (at least that hadn’t changed) where we found Milly’s brother looking somewhat like death eating a cracker (Millys comment, can’t imagine for the life of me where she picked up such a thing)...
He wuz surrounded by part of his fam’ly that Milly ‘n hadn’t seen for several years ‘n 2 new wives ‘n 2 new children ‘n after we all got acquainted (‘n reacquaintd) had a very nice mini-fam’ly reunion wherein Kit perked up considerably ‘n looked like he might make it thru the night if just for spite..
Ackshully, that first evening, he began to look a lot better, cracked a few jokes but he wudn’t get dressed ‘n have dinner with us which we did with the rest of the fam’ly at the Black Bear Diner that happily wuz sited right next door to our lodgings...
We spent a couple nights in rainy Medford, met with the Doc this morning when he told Kit he c’d prob’ly maybe go home tomorrow ‘n back over the mountain we came...rained all the way to California but I had my sunglasses hanging on the visor as we chased the sun back to our own little homestead in Ol Fair Oaks where I cudn’t hardly keep my eyes open until I went to bed ‘n they popped open automatically...ah well, a few saltines, a glass of milk ‘n a few games of solitaire....g’nite all
Buddha said, “It’s better to travel well than to arrive.”
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