Road trip adventures
I’ve always been a huge fan of road stories. In the TV series Route 66, the two protagonists encounter and become involved in interesting situations where in the end everyone is left changed, for the better. In the movie Easy Rider, the two main characters have a destination, but what they are finding on the way is what they were looking for, but don’t realize it, and it ends badly for them.
There is a healthy spontaneity in stepping outside your bubble to explore and adventure on the road. To plan a trip with a destination is one thing, but sometimes the road becomes so winding you forget about where you were going and just enjoy what happens on the ride.
I was a young marine stationed in North Carolina. It was a Friday night out in town with a long weekend at hand. I was having a beer with my main running mate “Lamb,” and we thought that going to Baltimore, where he was from, was a great idea, and it was only about 400 miles away. We hopped on my Kawasaki 500 motorcycle, that I had named Thunder, and we blasted off northbound.
About 50 miles out I pulled off the dark two-lane to fuel up at a single gas pump in front of a café. When I went in to pay, Lamb was including himself with a small group of three girls and an older fellow. Curious, I pulled up a chair to the table and pointed to Lamb with a “I’m with him,” and I gained admission into the conversation.
They had stopped at the cafe on the way to a party. The guy was with one of the girls, one of the other two had made eyes at Lamb and he obliged, and the third girl was asking me where I was from, which I took as a gesture of approval. The party was at a house several miles away. Lamb rode in the car and I followed them with the girl that wanted a ride on Thunder.
Aye, it was a detour worth the distraction. At daybreak the belles Lamb and I had been listening to records with both needed a ride home, in different directions. I didn’t trust anyone else with Thunder, so I took Lamb’s date home first. It was a few miles and when I dropped her off it still wasn’t full light yet. She told me the cops there don’t like strangers and they might stop me while leaving town, “So tell them you just dropped me off and they probably won’t arrest you.”
“Well bless your heart, darlin,” I told her, and assured her I was certain if they did stop me they would quickly size me up for the gentleman I was.
When I got back to the house my date told me her house was only a mile or so away down in the hollow, and she wanted me to drop her off a bit before there, because her mama would be up by now and would want an explanation. When she dismounted I said, “Miss Scarlet, I bid you adieu.” She seemed a little confused but gave me a smile and a peck before she turned away.
Lamb, Thunder, and I got back on the road and we saw Chesapeake Bay by late afternoon Lamb’s dad took us to his neighborhood bar and we partied with him and his longshoreman buddies. The mom was nice and she fed us throughout the weekend. We made it back to base in one piece early on Tuesday. We were tired.
Mike Ralph lives in Benkelman and is an occasional stringer for
High Plains News. He has been Chief of Detectives in the U.S.
Marine Corps; has worked with Denver Public Schools, and was
in transportation management in Denver, Colorado.