Life on the Road (Part 3)

California!

I left Salt Lake City in late morning and was getting pretty drowsy around the California line.  Let me just say that, in my mind, California has always had this evil shroud of obscene legalities and stipulations on objects from as small as toothpicks to as large as redwoods.  As I headed North out of Reno, I saw a large California sign proclaiming the imminent cavity search of my box truck.....and possibly me if I so much as blinked.  My trembling headlights made their way under a dimly lit canopy where an older lady ordered the immediate removal of my keys.  As I rolled down my window, she asked me where I was from and where I was headed.  I figured now wouldn't be a good time to slur my speech, but when I attempted to explain that I was headed to Whitmore, I completely forgot the name of the town...  This started a large slippery slope of mutterings and stutterings and fumblings and such like.  She asked me to get out of the truck and make my way to the back where she could inspect my collection of heat lamps and illegals.  She may have been shocked to see a young man with a truck full of dusty antiques, but, in a timely manner, I had remembered all of the information she required.  Her countenance changed like the colors on a chameleon and tears filled her eyes.  As the cars began to pile up behind us, she began to unload her childhood years and the deep hurt that she experienced growing up.  Without hesitation, we both burst into prayer for each other, and I left as quickly as I had arrived.  The next sixty miles were silent.  No radio.  Just the sound of high speed rubber on asphalt.  I tried to hold in the well of tears, but it was impossible.  I wept like a child.  I cried "I miss my family" tears, "I'm scared" tears, but most of my tears poured from excitement and praise.  I have felt this trip for as long as I can remember and it was happening....now.  That dark stretch of highway was by far the most beautiful of the entire trip, and the profoundness of beauty being a feeling and not an object of sight had never been so clear and concise.  As I slipped into Susanville, I booked a room and drifted off to sleep.  Tomorrow I would arrive in Whitmore.