Wherein our hero, Davy, continues his vagabond RV adventure on the road through America and ventures into scenes and scenery one only dreams about.
This chapter is more expository than then first two. There's is some sex but it occurs toward the end. Hey, I'm just relating what happened on my trip!
A correction: In Part 2, I should not have written "In Ohio, well south of Cincinnati." I should have said, "In Kentucky,..." I stand corrected. Sorry Cincinnatians, Ohioans and Kentuckyites.
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"Into The Great Wide Open
Under them skies of blue
Out in the great wide open
A rebel without a clue"
Yup, that was me, alright. Here I was, on the road, and singing at the top of my lungs. I think you could say that I felt free.
While always a middling Tom Petty fan, I love his live stuff. It's great driving music. As I headed west from Jefferson City, the music added an extra couple of miles to the gallon. I'd stopped a couple of times to let Santo do his business but now, after a steady rocking two hours, I was getting hungry. I saw a sign along the road touting "the best bbq this side of Kansas City" - 10 miles ahead" and I knew I had to have some.
In no time, I pulled in to scarfe down some ribs and yes, they were mighty fine. The brisket was also super and I shared that with Santo, who was mighty happy about that. Now when it comes to barbeque, I prefer Memphis. I'd say that the Rendezvous is about the best there is but there was no denying the fact that this chow was mighty tasty.
Just up the road from the barbeque joint was an Indian casino and on this day, in fact throughout this trip, I was feeling lucky so I pulled in to see just how lucky I was. Walking up to the first old-fashioned slot machine I saw, I fed it a twenty dollar bill and pulled the arm. Nothing. I maxxed out the three lines and pulled again. Again nothing. I did the same thing again but this time, three "super bars" came up and bells and lights began to flash. The machine credited me with $3600.00. I quickly closed the machine out, walked to the cashier, took my cash and walked out the door. In my head, a voice said, "Feelin' lucky, punk?" and I smiled wide.
Santo and I drove away giddy and slaphappy. I was shaking at the wheel. I saw a sign for a state park campgrounds located near the town of Goodlands and headed that way. Sure, I could have added more miles to my day but I felt weary (probably from the past few days) and I was tired of the flatlands and the prairie. It would be good to pull over and sleep.
I gassed up in Goodlands and pulled into the campgrounds. After walking Santo again, I set up the RV and plugged in my laptop to check my email and surf the web for a while. I had a bunch of emails from friends. I'd told some of them of my travel plans and now had a fistful of invitations to visit. Colorado was on my itinerary, I figured I'd visit Fort Collins and Aspen where some family and some old friends lived. Then I figured I might travel down to Grand Canyon which I'd never seen.
Another email was from Shelley and Linda. It was a sweet note telling me how much they enjoyed riding with me, how much fun they had, and how I had to see them on my return trip. Hmmm, not a bad idea, at all.
I pulled out my stash and lit a bowl savoring the smoke that stunk up my traveling metal shoe box of a trailer. I felt my first rush within a couple of minutes. And, since I was on a lucky roll with a fat wad of benjamins in my pocket, I decided to check my finances and investments.
I think a little background is in order here. I'd always made a good buck and lived pretty well but all that changed after my divorce. My wife of 28 years literally took my for my last dime. During the Discovery part of the divorce, I learned that she'd been having an affair with my estate lawyer. They'd forged my name on a Power of Attorney and all my assets had disappeared. Then, for reasons I never could comprehend, the judge issued a summary judgement granting the divorce and leaving me nearly impoverished. She walked away with several million dollars and I was left with barely my pride. There was little I could do about it because I didn't even have enough money to pay my lawyer to appeal, which in divorce proceedings is usually a lose/lose anyway. The next seven years were dreadful for me and I barely made enough to survive. My business fell apart after 9/11 and I floundered. From living by the ocean to living in a small rented house in a seedy part of town, I became very depressed. So when I won the lottery, I felt a sense of redemption. I took some of the money and bought stock in Apple and Ford. I also invested in precious metals. I was never going to allow myself to crash and burn again.
Much to my joy, Apple and Ford were zooming. I sent an email to my broker authorizing him to buy some stock in Google and Facebook. Then I looked at my metals investment and it was literally exploding. The gold market had earned me a five figure profit. I moved a good bit of it into my bank account. I took a long hit from my pipe...I earned it. Today was indeed a lucky day. I lay down on my bed and began to dream of the house by the water that I would buy when I returned and then I fell asleep for a few hours.
I woke up hungry. Santo was hungry, too. I fixed us some dinner and smoked some more pot. I began to read the brochure that Tammy gave me and was very surprised to see that there were so many nudist resorts, especially along the road I was on. While I had never really considered myself a nudist, I began to realize how often I enjoy being naked out of doors whether it be on a beach or in the backyard. I've always loved to skinny dip and there were several places in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico I knew I'd have to dip into. The thought of dipping into a hot springs took on a widescreen image in my brain. There were also two adult sex resorts, one near Aspen and one near Palm Springs that looked inviting. Both were expensive but I suddenly had plenty of money and lots of time so, what the hell, right?
Santo needed a walk so I grabbed the leash and we took off. I was very dark out with no moon but lots of stars. I made sure I had a flashlight, a poop bag and allowed Santo to lead the way after I locked the camper. The campgrounds appeared to be empty as we strolled. At one point, the trail opened onto a meadow and the silence within the bowl of stars was humbling. I think that Santo felt the same as he sat down and gazed, too.
I heard some voices drifting in the air from behind us and while it broke the mood, my curiosity took over as I had seen no other campers around. Santo heard them, too, and the two of us began to head back but toward the voices. As we approached the area where our trailer was parked, I saw some people struggling to set up a tent. We must have frightened them as we approached.
"Don't come any closer! I have a gun."
We froze. "It's ok, don't be frightened. I'm from the trailer off to your right."
"We didn't see anyone in that camper. It was all locked up."
"Yes. I've been walking my dog. Do you need any help? Can we approach?"
"Ok, you can come...come into the light."
I waved my flashlight as we approached their campsite. There were two women in a Ford 150 huddled together as the watched me. Two burly young guys (I estimated them in their mid-twenties) were standing around a crumpled up tent. It was obvious from the state of things that they were having problems putting it up and they seemed frustrated.
"No weapons," I said as I showed my hands. One of the boys held a rifle.
"Put the rifle away," I said, "I'm no threat. I'm here to help you if you need any."
The boy put the gun into the rack on the back window of the truck and the girls came out to see me.
"Now what seems to be the problem? The tent?"
"Were having trouble setting it up. We've never done this before," said the blond-haired, muscular guy.
"And we have to go the bathroom. Is there another bathroom around here? That one stinks!" one of the girls whined.
"Yeah, it really stinks. It's disgusting!" the other whined in.
The guys witheringly looked at me. I could see that nobody was happy here.
"Ok. Here's what we are going to do. All of you come with me to my trailer. Ladies, you can use my bathroom. Gentleman, we're going to look up directions for this tent. Take the cover with the model number and follow me. And you...you grab some beer."
The trailer was about 20 yards away and as they trudged behind me, they griped and complained.
"I knew I shouldn't have taken this tent from my brother. It sucks." "Why did we agree to this?" and blah blah blah.
