sigh.... by (un)popular demand...
after i woke up in a stupor and discovered i actually
did marry my (now) first ex, it took a few more months to even consider a honeymoon. she was a petite super-model type used to 'fineries' and i was a grizzled outdoors hippie type back then. somehow, it was decided (well, by me, i guess) we'd drive my old VW bus up north to Canada, then straight across canada til we met the east coast, then drop back down to the states and leisurely head back home, seeing all the great east coast landmarks that we are taught to love in grade school.
we head out, but i notice a tiny patch of oil on the driveway as we pull out.
what could possibly go wrong???
so, we drive north to vancouver. such a lovely area. started driving east along the main highway, but made sure to see Baanf and Lake Louise, which are some of the most beautiful places i've ever drawn breath at. (Actually, i could barely draw breath there-- it was the coldest i've ever been after taking the tram to the top of the mountain)
Keep heading east on the quest to the east coast. somewhere in Saskatchewan (or some other godawful place) i start to notice the VW van is running out of oil a tad frequently. then a tad more, and so on.
we arrive north of the dakotas, and i decide to tuck my east-coast-dream-tail in and drop down back to the states. by that time i was buying a quart of oil for roughly a gallon of gas. and i end up in...
i can barely say it...
i end up in...
Minot, North Dakota
arrive there i think late on a friday or saturday and take my van into the dealer. nobody works sunday, so it'll be monday at best. oh, just great.
it was hotter than hell and minot apparently had not yet discovered air conditioning, except for one place in town that we could walk to. the movie theater. cool, i thought...
but it was a single screen and all they were playing was 'mary poppins'' . i watched that damn movie a dozen times just to escape the heat that friggin weekend.
Chim, chim- yo Mama!!!
soo.... minot sorta/kinda fixed the oil leak and we continue the limp back west to home in san jose. we were pretty much out of cash and were getting by on a chevron cc that they used to give out to pretty much anyone (human or otherwise) back in those days. we rolled into Yellowstone shortly before midnight and found a totally isolated campsite. the ex finds a purse on the table. it has 20-50 in it. yay. we get to eat today.
we make it to Reno with maybe 5-10 left from the purse. the ex hits $100 on a slot machine. we make it home to San Jose.
days later, i finally look inside the purloined purse to determine who to send it to, along with the "borrowed" money.
it belonged to a woman in san jose, who lived maybe 1/2 mile from us.
sorry this was so long. i warned you i was boring
