Sunday, September 04, 2005

Rolling bugs

If there were blogs 25 years ago mine would have a picture of an inverted VW beetle.

I had this problem with driving.
I was not very good at it.
Nor did I care to analyze this defect in my life and remedy it.
Bug buster event number one was on the way to Arcata, CA.
My friend Ernie and I were taking a road trip,
my brother Rick told me,
"No way you should go to Mexico, long haired brother who smokes dope like he breathes."
I had one if those cool Indian names that tells who you are and what you do.
I shortened it to "Dave's not here"*
so Dave's not here and "Ernie who has no clue" are diverted from Mexico to 'the river' which is a mythical place to us since neither of us has been there or knows how to get there.
We are driving to the freeway that will take us east to "the river"
and Ernie who has no clue says to me, "I have friends in Humbolt, wanna go there?"
Cool! let us go to Humbolt. Never mind that it is 637 miles away, this place is cool cause Ernie who has no clue "knows someone there".

Ten hours later we are not there.
but we have a speeding ticket and a matched set of brand new
California version, decriminalized marijuana tickets.
We are bummed, and the guy who wrote us the tickets
also took our stash. I am tired, and a bit ticked off that Ernie who clearly has no clue
drove us into a speed trap and got us in this bind.
I am more that tired, but Ernie who is a fool is not driving again,
I am asleep, and Ernie is asleep next to me in the passenger seat.
Hey that means I am in the drivers seat, and the car must be on auto pilot.
Nay, you say, there was no auto pilot function on the 1966 Beetle!
and so right you are! but that does not keep it from flying.....


later I will tell you that we did NOT fly all the way to Arcata,
that the landing is clearly something I had not mastered, and that
somehow dave's not here or there made it safely home in the flying bug.

5 comments:

Bar L. said...

"The river"...wow...did you ever make it there? I've been to the river and it is a wild place to be, sounds like you and Ernie would have fit right in.

I'm glad you lived to tell this story...I know you have lots more to tell.

Nettie said...

Was that your first ticket, or just a really memorable one?

Anonymous said...

I remember the wild ride at the David Bowie concert. Apparently a few years didn't help your driving much.....lol

David Edward said...

WW - I never went to the river until 5 years ago, and then only to Laughlin.
Nettie, I've had more tickets than you have had birthdays. and another dozen that I talked my way out of. The record was a hour and a half while a Highway patrol Officer had too look up all the stuff he was writing me for.
Anon - You are so lucky. So am I. David Bowie was as weird as we were normal. (Back then)

Jenny said...

What is the river? 'Round these parts, it's the Shiawassee, and it's full of chemical run-off from fields. Nothing fun about it unless you go to Geeck Road Park... and "park."