When we turned around Jim was gone, but one of the mechanics was there prepared to crank up Hoe-Nay and put her in the operating room. I advised him he needed to warm her up for a good five minutes before transportation, in recognition of her seasoned frailty, but he must not have heard me because he hopped right on in. Ignoring the guy who ignored me, we went inside to find Jim.
“One question for ya buddy. Do you mind if we walk up the street to Einstein’s Bagel, and just have you call us when you have a quote?”
Jim’s gregarious smile surfaced again.
“Enjoy yourselves...”
It came from his tongue like he was offering his harem to us. Perfection were his words, coupled with an alleviating delivery to soothe the stress of our situation.
As the fresh outside air met our senses we spotted Hoe-Nay half way down the parking lot stalled. Realizing that some people just don’t want to listen, we decided to alleviate the confusion spread all over the once inattentive mechanic’s face. I climbed into the beast to sweet talk her awake. A few minutes of tenderness allowed me to ease her into the shop. The professionals were now back in charge, and we were reminded of the importance of knowing the idiosyncrasies of both human and machine.
While in Einstein’s, the Lovely Georgia was a state away missing me:
“How many more wake ups till i see you again”, read the text.
I hoped zero, but knew this was not the case. Even though I wanted her in my arms ten days ago, a response of positivity was my best course to help fuel her to in turn fuel me. The inspiration:
“Not as many as there were yesterday”
“Good, just checking”
A rendered my response a complete success! I missed her dearly, but we both knew we had to go through this physical separation to learn that separation between us did not exist, and that we would never ever really be apart.
Minutes later Jim called to let us know it would be $200 to fix the oil leak.
“Sounds great! Go for it!”
I was excited to hear such a low figure, but my excitement must have distracted me from the drum roll that ensued...
“There is one other thing we found. The water pump is leaking.”
There was silence on my end.
“Do you remember that the tow truck guy had mentioned the water pump?”
I did, but was trying to forget all about it.
“Well, luckily we have the parts to fix it. With labor and tax it will be $600, making your bill a total of $800”
Yikes! A pivotal internal question rang out. ‘Would this train be stopped in Glendale Arizona?’ The demons of hell could have had full grips on our ankles, pulling us down into the depths of their dwelling, and we would have emerged victorious because our journey was our destiny, and being in America, we happened to possess America’s most prized possession, a credit card.
With that obstacle out of the way, we pressed forward to the next immediate order of business. Tom Duong was on the other end of the horn, and I put forth my best negotiation.
“Tom, I just got the bid from the full service shop, that is after we had the RV towed across town. It is going to cost $200 to fix the leak you guys perpetuated. If you also add the four days we lost on our trip to the opportunity cost from the time and effort we have spent to fix this problem, you arrive at a number well above $363 bill from your shop. So I am declining your final offer.”
He raised his voice in frustration.
“Then I will be charging you the entire bill!”
In my best respectful ‘i have you backed up against the wall’ tone I said,
“Well it is funny you mention that Tom because before we first talked yesterday I decided to call my credit card company to cancel the payment. So good luck with that.”
“I am sending you to...”
“Have a good day” I hung up the phone before his threat could materialize.
At the beginning of this story I wrote that Tom was my “third” phone call for a reason. The first was to my dad who advised me to make the second one to Chase Credit Cards. The ace was up my sleeve before the cards were dealt. That’s what experience gives us, wisdom. One cool thing our elders can do for the youth is to pass down the lessons learned over the years. The more we can share, the further along we can all get, together. The same holds true for the youth sharing with their elders, or anyone for that matter. An open mind and willingness to change is all that is required of the learner and teacher within. What it comes down to is we are all teachers, just as we are students. Unfortunately the human race often hinders its own growth by hoarding all their wisdom and opting not to grow. This form of greed is counterproductive to the advancement of the collective. Nonetheless we repeatedly do it to each other, as if we were all part of an intensely competitive game. In the end it doesn’t make a difference.
The ducks were making their way into a row, and we had newfound time available. Who might we know in Glendale? Let me ask you a question. Do you happen to know anyone in Glendale? Our lucky stars landed one Patrick “patmycrotch” Eichen to reside in town. I put in a call, but only got a voicemail.
Returning back to Jim’s shop, he informed us that Hoe-Nay would be sea worthy by the next morning. We grabbed some essentials to last us the night, which mind you did not include any blankets, pillows, or warm clothing. Having confidence in Pat’s loyalty as a friend, I knew he would be getting back to me shortly, and that his cozy home would surely be available. Jim’s generosity gifted us a free shuttle ride from Elio, who dropped us, to my chagrin, at the only coffee house he knew, Starbucks. Upon arrival Giggles swiftly left my side and I set up shop at a table outside. Even though we were fortunate enough to have a portable cooler of beers, their warmth reminded me our newest challenge. Acquiring free ice from an employee without them questioning why one of us was stinking up the facilities and the other was plotting to drink beers on property, when neither had bought a thing, might pose some difficulties. Nonetheless, in ten minutes time the beers were losing temperature, and the sun couldn’t help but be shining on us. Poaching at Starbucks made up for being at Starbucks.
After writing, relaxing, and recharging all batteries, we got nourishment next door at the Chicago Pizzeria. As we waited for our food, the guy in charge reprimanded a young female worker, basically demonstrating his power over her inferiority, with a lesson of how smart he was. At that moment I turned to Giggles.
“You know, there should be a Karma Police who could carry big tazor guns. They would be allowed to shoot anyone who is misbehaving or treating others without love. For example...” I gathered an enthusiastic smile. “...if I were in the Karma Police, I would shoot that guy, watch him fall, and then leave a little note on his chest stating exactly what the incongruence was. That way when he woke up he could read the karmic law, and learn how to improve himself and his mean ways. And as he stood up to painfully walk, he could think about whether or not it would be worth it to exhibit that type of behavior in the future.” Although I was in love with my idea, Giggles failed to share my enthusiasm.
“Guava Wava” smoothies flavored our senses as we waited for the prize of the pizza. It arrived pipping hot, but Giggles’s face told me the hunger in him could not wait to be appeased. I was busy sucking down my smoothy, but surely noticed his reaction to burning the roof of his mouth. It looked awfully painful, but I still laughed. About two minutes later I was met with the same fate. I guess that is what I get. After all he was relaying vital information to me, and I chose to ignore it like it didn’t apply to me. The reality is that any available information applies to everyone at all times, regardless if the story seems to be about someone else. Our arrogance tricks us into thinking otherwise. A simple instance like this was enough to teach me this lesson. To the concept of sharing wisdom, one key element is for the receiver to actually pay attention, listen, and apply. All is applicable. Having to experience adversity ourselves, and not vicariously, is just another reason we as a race grow less than we could.
After a few hours as vagrants, Pat dropped some disappointment on us.
“Fritzy! Great to hear from you brother! Listen, bad news. This weekend is my anniversary weekend and I’ve already got plans with my wife, so it’s just not possible for you guys to stay here.”
My heart sank. “Oh...”
“Hey, on any other weekend, you know that you are more than welcome Fritz, but not on this one”.
“Oh, ok. That’s ok brother, we’ll figure our options out. Maybe we could meet up for a beer or something anyways?”
“I’ll check with the wife and get back to you guys”.
Maybe I had another friend in Glendale? Who has two friends in Glendale? I mean come on! We were forced to move on to Plan B: finding the nearest WAL-MART. The corporate smoothy was uncharacteristic, but in actuality, we were to make up for our folly in visiting Starbucks, by taking advantage of WAL-MART.
THE PLAN OF ATTACK: To purchase two sleeping bags and a tent, find a park, set up the tent, consume our beers and wake up to a new day. We then would return everything and graciously get our money back. It was WAL-MART and they take anything back if you have a receipt. Example: On Halloween three years ago, me and 10 of my closest buddies were destined to be Mormons. I strolled in to buy a bicycle helmet, short sleeve white collared shirt, black clip on tie, and black slacks to match the hymn book I got from a thrift store. After being a drunk mess on a pub crawl with my fellow Mormons in Virginia City, I visited WAL-MART the next day looking for my money back. My outfit, which was hobo filthy at this time, was gladly exchanged for my money after a simple explanation. “I don’t want these things anymore”. Thus, this new plan was foolproof! The funny part is that nestled away in the RV were the items we were purchasing, brought on the trip specifically for this very purpose. Obviously they were not “essentials” or we would have grabbed them. Like Luke to Leia, the corporation was our last hope. Travelers learn wisely to use the big guys like McDonalds, Starbucks, and WAL-MART as much as possible for free clean bathrooms, and for returnable items.
Leaving WAL-MART we walked down the streets of Glendale that visually reeked of Vegas. How could we get away from this fray with a quickness? We couldn’t because we had no control over this night, and were left only to adapt. Our hope was that tomorrow found us better light, with the city at our back in pursuit of the greatness of adventure.
Having still not heard anything from our potential savior, we started on a two mile hike towards his house, equipped with a tiny junior tent (5x6feet) and two new cheap sleeping bags. Not surveying solutions with an enormous amount of focus, a horrible idea struck us. “Let’s just pitch our tents right in his front yard. How funny would that be?”” Craziness becomes you when desperation approaches. Whatever were we thinking?
Along the way we passed many potential parks and plots of land, but they all lacked a viable appeal. An hour of journeying brought us to Walgreens, sucking down propels in attempts to alleviate our thirst, while resting our bones on a bench out front. A stranger told us of a lovely patch of grass right up the street, but with our feet throbbing to the tune of our backs’ ache, we feared our own commitment to continue.
The decision to increase our hurt brought us half a mile up the road to be welcomed by very soft grass surrounded by a row of grape fruit trees. The office buildings all around did nothing to stop us from cracking beers and plopping on the land. Our anguished bodies fed into our fondness of the spot. Being tired and dehydrated, with no further energy to press on, it became the perfect place to wait. While tossing fruits at each other our graceful hope rang through my phone, but faithfully departed when he spoke.
“Bro you know you are more than welcome any time, but just not on this weekend”
Those were tough words to hear.
“Well are you up to meet us for a drink?” The answer was not too reassuring, and it was easy to sense that he was searching for an out.
“Where abouts you guys at?” he asked.
“Such and such hospital”
I heard commotion as he relayed our coordinates to his woman Ginelle. We happened to be close to their home! It completely appeared like we were camping out, just waiting for them to get home. Well, some things look one way because they are... I could pretend it was just a coincidence, but then that would go against my character, and in the absence of your character, you lead an absent life. The conversation came to a close in confusion as to our chances of salvation.
We made an executive decision to keep our pained feet a going towards the bar at which he had mentioned possibly meeting us. Twenty minutes up the road we hit the mother load: a private plot of healthy green grass outlined by trees. Passing a sign reading “no trespassing”, we marched towards the back half of the lot, a mystery to the eye, consumed with the black of the night.
Arriving where the darkness met the light we dropped the tent to set it up before entering the abyss. The operation was interrupted by Pat calling us back.
“Hey where you at? We’re on our way!”
Mission suspension. In five minutes he pulled up to the corner in his black Denali with rims bigger than the skydome of Randal “Pink” Stephen’s head!
“What are you guys doing?”
We had no words to better describe what he knew we were doing, and it mattered not because he didn’t give us the chance to conjure up a witty response.
“Your not sleeping in the park. I’m not letting you get ass pounded by some 300lb gorilla!”
Even though the fear was all his, we didn’t hesitate to jump on in. Over a few local IPAs our catch up conversation included Pat showing no shyness to inform me of how utterly weird I was. That made me smile because everyone can be the same, but only a few can be different and enjoy it.
Once we landed back at his plush abode, words from my father rang through my mind, “I love it when a plan comes together!” Being upgraded from the comforts of the park was certainly rough on us=) We fought back our regret of a cold night crammed too manly close in a kid’s tent, and focused on the enjoyment received from the luxuries of individual rooms, hot showers, clean towels, and great hospitality. Even though I thrive off the adventure of the roughing unknown, where we ended up spoke of kindness, faith, and luck. I am a firm believer that things will always work out if you but give them the chance, a chance born from belief. Our experience with Pat and Ginelle taught us just how fortunate we were to be invited into their home and taken care of on such a special weekend. What more can you ask for than the love of others? Like my other cherished friends around the Earth, demonstrated in our Glendale instance by this loving couple, I too extend my most heartfelt love back to all in the bonds of reciprocity. Love takes many forms, but is always universal...
The next morning we had a delicious breakfast and then visited the pound to pick up a new puppy for Pat and Ginelle. After which we exchanged hugs in front of Jim’s Purcell Tire Shop.
“She’s good to go” Jim informed us with his gracious smile as we walked in the clean shop.
An urge to ask Jim for a discount on the big bill was subdued by my heart because he didn’t need me to prompt his benevolence.
“I know you guys are going cross country and need extra money, so I took $100 off your bill”.
“No way!” I yelled as I lept forward. “Give me a hug!”
Our elation took to a note that we left him and Elio attached to a fine bottle of Three Philosophers beer. It read:
jim and elio,
our friends...
this life is about connections and treating each other with kindness and love.. you have exhibited these beautiful concepts exceptionally well! For this and for your friendship we thank you... with love and respect...fritz “sam” and aaron
They were beaming back the brilliance we felt from such generosity. We departed with a reminder that humanity is quite admirable if you seek out and connect with the right folks. Pulling Hoe-Nay out of the parking lot, our heads were held high in hopes of exploration, and our hearts were singing the fondness of new friendships forged. Sedona was on our minds, and we were now properly prefaced to enter the magic awaiting us...
