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I shower and pack the truck, now almost unconsciously. Everything has it's
place and knows where to go. As I travel, radio stations gradually return.
The next large town after Quesnel is 100 Mile House. What you don't see
on the map is that every little podunk little gas station, restaurant and
lollipop shop is named in the same fashion. There is 99 Mile Restaurant,
101 Mile Motel, 102 Mile Store, etc. For about 100 miles I see this kind
of thing, and at 45 mph it lasts quite a while and can get on your nerves
just a little bit.
I stop to call Chris Lott, a friend of a friend in Vancouver. Unfortunately,
Chris is busy at work, and also has an interview that night, so I decide
to make the long stretch to Kristin's house just north of Seattle. I call
Kristin to ask if it would be OK, and she says she will leave the door open.
Around 11:30 PM I call her again to let her know that it will probably be
very late (or early) by the time I arrive, but she still encourages me to
come along. I nap for a little while in the truck beside the phone booth,
and then drive on.
In Cache Creek I stop at a "Subway" shop for coffee. That's pretty
desperate. I wouldn't advise Subway coffee unless under survival conditions.
I drive until 2 AM and stop in a church parking lot for another nap. I have
found that church parking lots do pretty good as nap spots. If you park
in a store parking lot or just off the road, the police sometimes bother
you. But hardly anyone bothers you in a church parking lot. After a couple
of hours I awake and fish in the dark for a boxed juice drink in the slushy
melted ice of the cooler. I find it, but soon realize that the little plastic
straw than comes glued on the side has fallen off in the cooler, and I am
not about to soak my hand any further in that ice water, so I toss the box
back into the slush.
I arrive at Kristin's house around 5:30 AM and enter to find a very inviting
bed on the living room floor. It is light outside as I slump into the bed
with clothes on.
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Copyright
© 1995 by Patrick Malone