A topic I want to throw out for discussion, which is related to the best drive thread a few days back (still awaiting Dr. Wilson's drives). Here goes: Best/ worst/most interesting places you ever had to sleep in your car whilst rambling 'round the far reaches of our great nation.
1. A few truly memorable stays in the "Ritz Ford Pickup"; usually, if not always, due to a distinct lack of funds needed for what our Brit friends would refer to as "proper lodgings".
a. The State Park on the West side of the Rio Grande Gorge outside of Taos, N.M. I pulled in there late one January night on my way home to Albuquerque. Didn't have enough $ for a motel, and the weather didn't seem so cold, so I parked there and covered up with a blanket and started to snooze. Well, I started to get cold. Like I said, when I got there the weather wasn't so rough that I didn't think I could handle it, but I would wake up every so often and have to turn the engine on to run the heater for a while. It was kind of embarrasing because I felt like I was a real cry baby who couldn't stand a little chilly weather. Anyway, when the sun came up I headed on into Taos for some gas and a b'fast snack. When I went in the gas station to pay, I heard the guy on the radio say, "and currently here in Taos, the tempurature at 7:30 this morning is -9 degrees." Nine degrees below zero...no wonder it felt a little nippy.
b. The other end of the dial was several nights in the parking lot of an RV transportation company I was contracted with in Elkhart, Indiana. Seems they were in the middle of a record heat wave that July, and since I didn't have any $ for "proper lodgings", again I was staying in the truck. It was not pleasant. Hot, humid, dusty, and did I mention the hot and humid part? Several other drivers and myself huddled in the parking lot there, waiting for work to come in like those people camping out by the roadside in "The Grapes of Wrath". I half-way expected Henry Fonda to show up and start rolling a cigarette while the rest of us whittled or played the harmonica. I knew I was really in the financial underclass when some of the guys there came back one afternoon and said they had found some work that we could do that paid cash, and would I be interested? I said, "yep, what is it?" Well, they explained, there's a carnival getting ready to leave town and they need someone to dismantle the stuff for them and put it on the trucks. I was about ready to go, when I realized that I was on my way to do some job that could possibly hurt my poor old guitar playing hands, not to mention the fact that it was a job that even the guys working for the carnival wouldn't do. So, I politely declined the offer, as generous as it was.
Life on the road my friends, ah yes: The adventures of the cross-country rambler.
be good
1. A few truly memorable stays in the "Ritz Ford Pickup"; usually, if not always, due to a distinct lack of funds needed for what our Brit friends would refer to as "proper lodgings".
a. The State Park on the West side of the Rio Grande Gorge outside of Taos, N.M. I pulled in there late one January night on my way home to Albuquerque. Didn't have enough $ for a motel, and the weather didn't seem so cold, so I parked there and covered up with a blanket and started to snooze. Well, I started to get cold. Like I said, when I got there the weather wasn't so rough that I didn't think I could handle it, but I would wake up every so often and have to turn the engine on to run the heater for a while. It was kind of embarrasing because I felt like I was a real cry baby who couldn't stand a little chilly weather. Anyway, when the sun came up I headed on into Taos for some gas and a b'fast snack. When I went in the gas station to pay, I heard the guy on the radio say, "and currently here in Taos, the tempurature at 7:30 this morning is -9 degrees." Nine degrees below zero...no wonder it felt a little nippy.
b. The other end of the dial was several nights in the parking lot of an RV transportation company I was contracted with in Elkhart, Indiana. Seems they were in the middle of a record heat wave that July, and since I didn't have any $ for "proper lodgings", again I was staying in the truck. It was not pleasant. Hot, humid, dusty, and did I mention the hot and humid part? Several other drivers and myself huddled in the parking lot there, waiting for work to come in like those people camping out by the roadside in "The Grapes of Wrath". I half-way expected Henry Fonda to show up and start rolling a cigarette while the rest of us whittled or played the harmonica. I knew I was really in the financial underclass when some of the guys there came back one afternoon and said they had found some work that we could do that paid cash, and would I be interested? I said, "yep, what is it?" Well, they explained, there's a carnival getting ready to leave town and they need someone to dismantle the stuff for them and put it on the trucks. I was about ready to go, when I realized that I was on my way to do some job that could possibly hurt my poor old guitar playing hands, not to mention the fact that it was a job that even the guys working for the carnival wouldn't do. So, I politely declined the offer, as generous as it was.
Life on the road my friends, ah yes: The adventures of the cross-country rambler.
be good
posted by mwc at 4:26 PM
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