Category: road trip

Thisaway and Thataway

I have chronic wanderlust. Got it from my dad. He would wake up in the morning and just decide he needed to go see Wyoming and off he’d go for a week or two. I’m not retired so I can’t do that but if you get off the major highways in this country you can find some wonderful roads to travel.

 

Folks living in an Arizona retirement community undoubtedly get a thousand laughs a day from living, as they do, at the corner of Stroke and Acoma Streets.

 

If you’re bored and depressed in Albany, Georgia, you can always go hang out at the corner of Lonesome and Hardup.

 

 

In fact, that’s why the merchants of Amador City, California, years ago began selling copies of their iconic Pig Turd Alley sign, hoping that tourists would stop stealing the actual sign. That must have worked. Carolann and I bought one.

Wherever your travels take you, keep smiling. We live in a very funny country.

The Dumas Kid

Driving northwest from Dallas into the desolate Texas panhandle we finally came upon a sign announcing our entrance into a place called Dumas.

The boy read it aloud.

“DOO-mahs,” he said correctly.

“That’s not quite right,” I told him seriously. “You’re mispronouncing it but it’s not your fault.  The name of the town used to have a ‘B’ in the middle.  This is the town of Dumbass.”

Well, being eleven years old our grandson, Isaiah, thought that was very funny and he giggled for a long time. We all did.

Then, for the rest of the trip to Wyoming and back to Dallas, Isaiah, CarolAnn and I called each other “Dumas” from time to time and then we all giggled and snorted for a few more miles.

Shared laughs of our own creation are moments we enshrine in our hearts.

It’s the stuff a boy will remember his entire life.

Today is the Dumas Kid’s 15th birthday. We’re going to phone him and tickle his memory.