We were late setting out. By the time we did, the back seat of the car was heaped with instruments, clothes and the various things I had brought with me to keep myself busy (knitting, books, editing in need of doing, etc.) while Dan reminisced with old friends. It was slow going at first, and the traffic on 55 reminded me of an aspect of California I was glad to leave behind. By the time we hit I-40, we were moving again, and we had plenty of time to contemplate the coming weekend from our own perspectives.
I will be the first to tell you that I really don't do road trips well -- even short ones. In fact, I really, really dislike them. I love seeing more of the world, but I seldom enjoy the getting there as much as I enjoy the being there. I think this dislike must stem from a combination of my inability to sleep in a car for more than about 10 minutes at a stretch, the sheer boredom that comes from not being able to do anything but talk or sing without getting very sick and the fact that no traveling companion ever wants to sing or talk as much as I do to keep pass the time I spend wide awake, bored and queasy. Among his other fine qualities, Dan's patience with me on road trips is amazing. Almost without fail, he must face irritability and car-fever wackiness resulting from the combustible combination of me, a car and a long stretch of road, and he usually does it without losing his own sanity.
At the end of this stretch of road was a beautiful cabin in the woods, at which several of Dan's classmates had gathered for a pre-reunion reunion. We got there at around 10 pm, after most of the evening's festivities had finished, but there was time enough for hugs, chatter and a beer before we hopped in the car and followed Peter, Dan's sophomore-year best friend, to his house in a suburb of Asheville. Peter and his younger daughter were lovely hosts; we didn't get to meet his wife and older daughter until later on Saturday. The evening culminated with three out of the four of us present trying to coax all 3 of the family cats out from under the bed where Dan and I were to sleep. The fourth of us (that would be me), rather enjoyed watching the spectacle!
Dan and Peter pulled out memorabilia that they shared over breakfast, including old pictures and yearbook messages. I confess it was somewhat enlightening. Hahaha! In some of our more quiet moments, I taught Sabrina to knit. By noon, it was time to pick Paco up from the airport. So, off we went to the Asheville airport, after a quick stop to gather sound equipment from Peter's church. From the airport, we were off to the McDonalds near lake Junaluska, where several more classmates had gathered. Around 3, we were off again, this time to the actual reunion.
Wherever we happened to be -- at the cabin, Peter's house, McDonalds, the airport and at the lake -- It was fun to watch Dan reconnect. Some of the people there were still local, others had driven or flown from rather distant places. All of them seemed to have fun getting back in touch. For my part, I did my best to keep track of names and faces, and I spent plenty of time sharing how we met and agreeing that Dan is, indeed, very talented (and handsome)!
More to come, but, in the meantime, I can't resist: more 80s music for context. The inimitable Michael W. Smith.
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4 comments:
I always liked to sing and talk durring our car time :D
Yes... and I sure miss that about you!
Dan is pretty good about it himself. He said something like, "I won't enjoy this if you aren't enjoying it, so what do you want me to sing?" lol. Maybe that's part of why I love him so much!
N
Car trips. While I don't mind them now, I have some not so fond memories of long car rides. I remember sitting between my two carsick sisters ;), both with barf bags in hand. I wasn't cursed with carsickness, but in those moments I wouldn't have known the difference.
Haha. Yes. Poor you. Then again, I have memories of hearing someone yell, "Mommy, Nikki's hitting me..." when I was doing nothing of the sort.
My favorite car trip memory has to be when we drove non-stop from some terrifically far away place (Colorado?) rather than stopping to stay at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, because Dad was through listening to us bicker. (At least that was the official line). I wonder if he realized that grumpy kids deprived of beds were MORE likely to bicker for the rest of the trip. Oh well... somehow we all made it home alive.
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