{"id":2178,"date":"2023-09-18T01:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T01:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2023-08-19T13:29:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T13:29:35","slug":"chap-8-on-the-road-stoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2178","title":{"rendered":"Chap. 8 – On the Road Stoned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Road Stoned <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Back in rainy Seattle, Steve, our lawyer, had finagled his way onto his friend\u2019s couch a second night, had said his good-byes to her, and was meeting us at the neighborhood Starbucks, alone.  His friend had absolutely no interest in being observed in the presence of such a motley crew as she perceived us to be, despite Steve\u2019s assertions that we were upstanding citizens consisting of one lawyer, one doctor, one politician, a musician, a movie maker, and a rich investment counselor (not mentioning our gambler).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Our next stop was supposed to be Sacramento, California, where Max had told us his ex-brother-in-law was looking forward to our visit.  Just minutes out of Seattle, Susie popped out of her seat in back, winked at Huck, and said, “Okay, time to get stoned. Who’s good at rolling joints?”  Huck, our musician, was quick with his hand up.  Susie gave him the rolling papers and the bag of marijuana she\u2019d gotten at the farm.  Huck rolled a fat one.  Not everyone took a hit.  Not Steve who was driving.  Not Sally, our businesswoman. Patty, our movie producer, pouted her lips around the lit<\/em> end of the joint and showed us how she used to give Huck \u201cshotgun kisses\u201d with Huck taking the unlit end in his mouth and Patty blowing softly.  \u201cYour turn next,\u201d Huck says to Susie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Rocky, our card-playing, what-is-fun guy, said the first time he got stoned he was listening to the Chambers Brothers singing \u201cTime,\u201d and asked Huck to get out his guitar, “I bet you don’t even know the first chord.”  Huck said he remembered the song but not the lyrics, this time breaking into Dylan\u2019s \u201cLike a Rolling Stone.<\/em>\u201d  This started a sing-a-long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Skip, our baseball playing politician, sang part of his all-time favorite song \u201cParadise by the Dashboard Light,\u201d a Meatloaf song: \u201cStop right now, I\u2019ve got to know right now.  Will you love me?  Will you love me forever?  Will you make me your wife?  I\u2019ve got to know right now! . . . and now I\u2019m praying for the end of time so I can eeennnddd my time with youuu,\u201d explaining that his favorite part was Yankee\u2019s announcer Phil Rizzuto describing how the guy got around the bases, the steal of second, sliding into third, and the play at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Steve seemed to be getting a contact high: \u201cDid you see that sign back there?  \u2018Welcome to Oregon \u2013 Where Everybody Is High\u2019?\u201d  And then, tugging at his moustache, \u201cCheck out that car next to us.  Is that a lion in the back seat?\u201d  [It was just a fat old guy snoozing with almost foot-wide whiskers.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Rocky said, \u201cThat\u2019s it.  You\u2019re done driving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After crossing into Oregon, on Interstate 5 with the rain abating, Skip suggested a stop in Portland.  \u201cEven though we don\u2019t know anyone in particular to visit, let\u2019s look up some local political types.  I\u2019ve heard the Yang Gang has started a chapter of the Forward Party here.\u201d  Susie seconded the notion.  Sally offered to pop for a room at the Sheraton, if anyone else (meaning just the females) wanted to take a breather from the bus, take an actually-hot shower, and get a good night\u2019s rest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The shower in the camper worked just fine, but you had to be quick before the hot water ran out.  And although the camper was advertised as sleeping seven comfortably, that was a stretch and privacy was out of the question.  But, amazingly, nobody, not even Sally, had grown irritable \u2013 and already we\u2019d been twelve days on the road.  In fact, smoking that pot together going down Interstate 5 had gotten everybody so laughing, so smiling, so joyous singing songs and telling stories.  So carefree.  We were enjoying the trip, feeling like we were all hygge in a wonderful, mixed-up world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 8 On the Road Stoned      Back in rainy Seattle, Steve, our lawyer, had finagled his way onto his friend\u2019s couch a second night, had said his good-byes to her, and was meeting us at the neighborhood Starbucks, alone.  … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2754,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions\/2754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}