I got a call from Mikey at 4:45 on my last day of work.  We were done, packed and ready to go as soon as I rolled into the driveway.

“Hey. So. . .we’re not going anywhere.”

A pause.

“Camper is stuck in the mud. Your dads on his way back from McGregor. He’s gunna try to pull us out with his Crawler.”

It had been raining hard all day and as the sun fell it had turned into a snowy muck. Our hope all along was to leave before the snow flies; but here we were, the day of departure, stuck in the yard, snow racing down as if to taunt us.

When I got home there was a train of vehicles slowly making their way through the yard. Camper, truck and crawler, bucking their way back up the driveway. Everything was covered in mud.

We said our goodbyes to the folks, and (carefully) drove off down our dirt road one last time.

I waited for some grand emotion to take over, an end-of-a-chapter feeling like you see in the movies.  I took inventory of my body. I was calm, I was ready. Years ago when we left San Diego for the last time we had the same non-emotion, feeling as though this was the only option, this was right in our core. This is how it felt that day. Mikey and I shared a knowing look and shrugged as if to say, ‘well. . . here goes nothin’.

—

Mom had given us some chicken bacon cheese dish, and, realizing we had forgotten to feed Bubba, I gave her a few chunks.

“Hey, we have a long ride, I wouldn’t give her too much of that. . .”

“Aw, she’s fine.”

I scratched her head, and looked back in the rearview as our little life disappeared around the bend.

About thirty seconds later she emptied her stomach all over the cab.

Picture this: a camper pulled over on the side of the road, a girl pitching barf-soaked paper towels into the woods, a boy stuffing them in a plastic bag, and then a dog barfing AGAIN all over the seat.

With everything cleaned as best we could we were off – not looking back.

We drove into the wind the entire way to Fargo, averaging about 10 miles per gallon, snowing the entire way. Here we would rest up, visit family and pack up some meals for the Real Thing.