One Old Dude's Guide to Growing Up Gracefully
  • Blog
  • Published Articles
  • Welcome
    • Dudeism
    • Contact
  • Grate Recipes
  • Ask Wali
  • The Artwork of Brianna Torre
  • MBI Coaches' Summit
  • A Celebration of the Life of Sylvia Schmitt

Hitchhikers' Guide

1/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Back in the day, some of my adventurous friends and I banded together to enjoy a holiday weekend on the mighty Kern river. We set out on our journey in two old hand-me-down vehicles, one of which never made it out of Orange County. However, we didn’t allow that little setback to weaken our resolve. We all piled into the second vehicle, an old Ford Country Squire station wagon with genuine imitation wood paneling, and continued our odyssey.  That station wagon made it all the way to a little truck stop just outside of Bakersfield before giving out. So there we were.  Nine young travelers stuck at a Flying J in the middle of nowhere.
My buddies decided to continue the quest by hitting the northbound on ramp and hitchin’ a ride the rest of the way to Lake Isabella. At this point, I was pretty much over it and told them I figured that they would have a better chance of catching a ride with eight hitchers as opposed to nine and that I was going to head back south to L.A.  I sat on that ramp for quite a while, watching one redneck truck driver after the next pass by this long-haired-hippy-type without much more than a disgusted glance. After a few hours, this old tanker truck finally pulled over. I jumped up on the step, opened the door and was greeted by a young Native American dude who said, “Where you headed pal?” and I replied, “L.A. sir.”  He just smiled and said, “I’m going right past there, jump on in”.
Right off the bat, he warned me, “That door handle on your side doesn’t work, so if you need to get out, just roll down the window and use the outside handle”. As we headed down the highway, I asked him what he was hauling in the tank and he told me it was crude oil. I said, “Well, at least it’s not something flammable like gasoline.” to which he replied, “Not true my friend.  If this truck were to catch on fire, you and I would be nothing more than a wet spot in the road.” With that revelation, I offered to smoke a joint I had with him. He said, “I’d like to, but I’ve been driving for over 72 hours now and that would just put me to sleep.” He then showed me the two log books he was running to keep from getting caught and offered me a couple of bennies.  
Between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, there is a portion of I-5 known as the Grapevine. The Grapevine is a treacherous 40-mile stretch of winding road with one of the steepest grades in the interstate highway system. So there we were; chugging up the incline in the far right lane at about 5 MPH in low gear when another truck pulled up on our left hand side and the driver screamed out his passenger window, “YOU’RE ON FIRE!”
Luckily, we were right next to a “watering hole”, a place to pull off the highway and refill the radiator. The truck driver pulled over as quickly as possible and jumped out of the truck. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, I completely forgot what the truck driver had told me about the door handle. In what probably was only a minute or two but seemed like forever, I pulled vigorously on the handle while my short life flashed before my eyes. As I watched other truck drivers heroically running with buckets of water towards the truck, I finally remembered what the truck driver had told me, rolled down the window, pulled the handle and jumped out.
It turned out that a mop used to wipe down the stainless steel tank was stored too close to the smoke stack and the heat generated by driving up that steep incline in low gear had set it on fire.  What I learned that day is that sometimes it is better to stay the course and follow through with your original plan. It’s like I always say,
​“Just Dance in the Rain, Dude”
0 Comments

    Subscribe to The Dudesletter Monthly Newsletter

    * indicates required
    Picture

    About Wali,
    The Grateful Dude

    In my formative years, I was lucky enough to attend an amazing high school modeled after the freedom school from the Billie Jack films. The curriculum included outdoor education, pottery and organic farming and emphasized values like creativity, self awareness and a strong sense of community. I spent several summers traveling from show to show with The Grateful Dead and found that not only could I beat the crap out of a plastic bucket in a drum circle, I was also quite the imported beer salesman. My early career started off in the eighties driving limousine for posers, drug dealers and wannabe rock stars in Los Angeles. In the late eighties, I was introduced to the former owner of Paradise Lakes Nudist Resort who had just seduced and proposed to my roommate while she was on vacation in Florida. Fred took me aside one afternoon  and told me, “I like you, kid and since I’m taking your roommate and I’m pretty sure you can’t afford this beach rental on your own, why not come on out to Florida? I’ll find you a place to stay, give you a job and you’ll be surrounded by naked women”. So I loaded up my truck and moved to Paradise. Lakes, that is. Swimmin’ pools. Porno stars. (insert banjo solo here).

    I wake up every morning (well almost every morning) knowing that today is a wonderful gift to be unwrapped and explored. I believe that every day is filled with limitless possibilities and endless abundance. I’m convinced that our true purpose in life is to interact with our fellow beings and give witness to this amazing universe that surrounds us.

    If you are searching for miracles in life, you need go no farther than your backyard to realize that we are living in the midst of the greatest miracle of all.

    Archives

    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed