where cider meets condensed milk: Montana: Come Hide Under Our Big Sky

where cider meets condensed milk

Monday, August 28, 2006

Montana: Come Hide Under Our Big Sky

Summer. The open road. Endless sky littered with cottonball clouds. Bob Marley on the stereo. Washington, Idaho, and Montana appearing on the horizon. This could only mean one thing...

ROAD TRIP!!

... or I should amend that before anyone from the MTV generation gets the wrong idea.

ROAD TRIP WITH MY PARENTS!!

The scenery was gorgeous, the drive itself (13 hours each way, 1 day spent in Bozeman visiting Sarah) was less so. This road trippin' was nothing at all like the movies. I read two books, teased my mom when things got dull, dug for family gossip, and whined for food breaks when all else failed. It's hard to stayed entertained when you're the only kid in the car, and nothing I did could compare to the great Vegetarian Debate of '98 on the drive across western Pennsylvania.

While at a rest stop (one outhouse, no sink) somewhere in Big Sky country, my dad rustled around in the back of the car before triumphantly handing me a moist towelette packet that he, for unknown reasons, has been saving for 20 years, transferring it from car to car until the proper moment arrives. As it was packaged in the Reagan era, was no longer moist, but the towelette had that soapy magic to it after being splashed with water. Its moment had arrived. In its arrival, so departed the chance for my father to use obscure lines about the passing of time and the possession of hand sanitizing products. I can imagine only one such scenario, and it would go something like this:

Sars: "I can't believe I'm 21!"
Dadster: "Old? 21 years? Ha!! I've had Moist Towelettes nearly as long!!" *shuffles back to garage, mentally applauding self for clever AND TRUE comment*

posted by Raychaa @ 4:44 PM

0 comments: