Early morning in the car, traveling to Vancouver for a work obligation.   Can’t say that I mind the solitude of a three-hour drive, and the space that it provides.

I toggle through the radio stations until something sticks: Tom Petty, “Free Fallin”. And then comes the same memory that it always conjures up for me: road trip to an early 90’s Apple Cup in Pullman, in a rented RV. Most of us are busy with keg cups and Tom Petty in the back of the RV, while one lonely friend has drawn the unenviable task of driving our sorry drunk asses across the state. In the snow. (Also musically relevant to that trip: “Radar Love”). In all fairness, however, there were two Apple Cup road trips, and the two have mostly merged in my brain as one memory, with the exception of the game outcomes.

Thankful that I am not in a beer-soaked RV on this morning, these things now come to mind:

1. I can’t believe there was a rental company who would rent an RV to a bunch of kids in their early 20’s;
2. Thank you Karl, for driving, which had to have sucked almost as much as whatever damage deposit you probably didn’t get back;
3. Damn, I really should have gone to see Tom Petty in concert at some point before it was too late.