Eastbound and Down
That was the last I saw of Chicago.
My Mom's brother, Uncle Rusty, picked me up in his big rig to give me a ride back to my parents house in TX.
This was officially the most time I had ever spent with Uncle Rusty. My interactions with him were limited to holidays. He had a son that was my age, my cousin...however, he committed suicide a couple of years ago...Soooo, I knew that this ride might get a little weird.
Uncle Rusty had a lot to say. We talked pretty much the entire ride home. The only other entertainment I had were the road signs with silly names...
On the ride Rusty told me quite a bit about his life. He dropped out of school before high school. His dad was an alcoholic, and apparently not the best father...My moms is a few years older than he is. She left the house when he was 12.
Rusty told me about all the trouble he got in to as a kid. He told me about the time his dad was dropping off some propane at a gas station, and Rusty wandered around back behind the station. He found a car covered with a sheet, and started peaking under it to find some real nice car. An old man came out and asked what he was doing. Turns out that the old man's son had bought the car before going to vietnam, but had never returned. My uncle didn't have enough money to buy the car, but the old man let Rusty mow his yard for 2 summers to pay the difference...Rusty told me about all the trouble he got in to with that car growing up in Gun Barrel, TX.
The sun started going down and we pulled in to a rest stop for the night to sleep. It stormed hard during the night.
The next day it rained quite a bit, but we eventually made it to Baton Rouge to drop of his load of compressed gasses. By this time I was getting a little restless.
Several stories about 80's rock shows later we finally made it in to TX. The first thing we did was stop at whataburger for lunch.
I stayed the night at Rusty's house in Houston that night. His relationship with his old lady was kind of tense. I know quite well how that goes...Innocent questions get responses with irritated tones...it was a bit uncomfortable to be in the middle of.
The next morning we made the drive back to dfw from Houston. We stopped in Hunstville for lunch at a bbq restaurant.
Rusty used to live in hunstville with his wife and kids. He had shown some weakness during the ride when he talked about his dad being no good, and when he talked about how hard trucking had been on him over the years...but, when we got to that bbq place I could tell he was really bummed. I bet the last time he was there was with his son. It got a little hard for him to talk at some point, and we both just kind of ate our food and didn't say much. After lunch he drove me around the town and showed me Sam Houston university as well as the prison where they perform all of Texas' executions. The tour was probably for both of us.
We finally made it home, and I was glad to be there. However, I had a pretty good time on the trip. Rusty is a real sweet dude...I feel bad that things have been so tough for him.
So, now that I'm home it turns out we're getting a swimming pool...that's fun...It is nice to sleep in a real bed again. Although, I have yet to get a good night's sleep. Mama D has had plenty for me to do already. There have already been a few times when I was pretty irritated by her asking me to do things, but I'm in her home so its back to playing by her rules. Just more incentive for me to get to work I suppose.
I already have a show confirmed with Hard Times in September. I've got to learn the songs pretty quick...
Not a lot else has changed. I caught the cats making out while sitting on the dryer.
Our oldest dog had to have surgery to remove some fatty mass, and they left a tube in his chest that is to be removed next week. He is wearing a t-shirt to catch the bloody discharge that flows from it periodically.
home sweet home