by Tina Anne
“Mom, are you crazy?” he said.
“No, dear, but thank you.”
“You can’t move by yourself. Who’s going to load and unload your stuff for you?”
“I’ve already hired someone at both locations.”
“OK, but you can’t do all the driving by yourself.”
“Yes, I can. In fact, I’m looking forward to it.” I wasn’t. I hated driving, but I didn’t want him tagging along bugging me about the divorce either.
“No. no, no, no. You are not going by yourself.”
“Really? Why not?”
“Because there are psychos out there just waiting for single women who are traveling alone. You need someone there to protect you.”
“And that would be you?” I laughed.
“I could do it.”
“Frankie, I could do it. Your father taught me self defense. In fact if I wanted to I could take you.”
“I’m still going. I can’t let you travel alone. Not on the highway.”
I realized there was no arguing with him. He was as stubborn as his father. So, I gave in.
“Ok, fine you can go. But, I’m still in charge.”
“Yes, Mommy, you’re in charge.” That didn’t sound patronizing, did it?
We made arrangements as to when to meet so we could leave when I planned. I hung up the phone wondering what I had agreed to. I loved my son, but we really don’t spend time together anymore. I wasn’t even sure we’d have anything to talk about.
I was sure that this trip was either going to be a good bonding experience or it was going to be a migraine waiting to happen. Well, at least if it turned out to be a migraine I had someone else to drive.
Chapter 2: Trapped in a Moving truck with a Stranger: My Son
So far the road trip was leaning more toward migraine than it was bonding time. Frankie and I had been on the road for the better part of a day. We’d left Pennsylvania around six in the morning. We watched as the landscape changed from mountainous to flat. We talked about his work, not that I really understood anything about the finance world. I told him about my bonding with Minerva. He found it strange, but said it was nice that I had made a friend. And that was about it, the conversation had ended.
There were other issues. Frankie’s taste in music was not even remotely similar to mine. And since we had he family rule that the driver picks the music and Frankie insisted on doing most of the driving, I hated the music most of the time. Then there was the driving itself. We drove at different speeds. I chose sensible, he chose manic. I used turn signals; he seemed to think they were optional. In fact, I got so nervous when he drove that I tended to close my eyes when it was his turn. I got a lot of sleep that way. Of course, I’d had years of experience sleeping in a moving vehicle.
“Mom. Mom.”
Someone was calling me. It was Frankie. I could hear his voice, but it took me a moment to realize where I was. I must have nodded off again. I turned my head and looked at him.
“Yes, honey.”
“I want to pull in to the next truck stop and get something to eat. Ok.”
“Yeah. Ok.” I said trying to wake myself up.
We pulled in to the brightly lit truck stop. I climbed out of the cab of the rental truck and stretched a bit. All these hours of sitting made me feel more then my age. I hated feeling old. I mean I wasn’t quite fifty yet, but I usually felt much younger than that. Right now, however that wasn’t so.
We used the bathroom. They were cleaner than I thought they’d be to be honest. Then we entered the fast food restaurant together. Frankie walked over to the counter to order dinner for us. I found a clean booth and waited for him. As I sat I questioned once again why I let him come along with me.
Frankie walked over to the table carrying a tray with two fried chicken meals on it. “Sorry, Mom, I hope you like it. It occurred to me up there that I don’t really know what you like to eat,” he said as he deposited the tray on the table.
The only thing I could think was that I didn’t know what he liked either. In fact, I was pretty sure I knew very little about my son. We talked once a week. He came to visit us at the holidays. But, we never went to see him. We never did anything together that didn’t involve my house. He had become a man after all; maybe I should take advantage of this time together and get to know him better.
Then he ruined the spell by whining like a small boy. “Why, Mom?” he asked for about the hundredth time on this trip.
“Frankie, I told you why. Your father told you why. I know you’re having a hard time with this, but honey, you’ve got to accept it.”
“I don’t want to accept it,” he pouted.
“Baby, you’re not ten years old anymore. You’re an adult. Your father and I made a decision about our lives. We talked about it and decided it was the best thing to do. We are happy about it.”
“I’m not,” he said, still pouting.
“Why does it bother you so much?”
“Because, you and Dad were proof that a marriage can last.” Oh, now we were getting somewhere. “And you always seemed happy.”
“Honey, marriage can last. Look at your grandparents, both sets. They’ve been married for over fifty years. They could not live without each other.”
“But you could live without Dad?”
“Yes.”
His face fell.
“You’re father is a good man. He was a good husband, a good provider, and a good father.”
“Then why did you divorce him?”
“Because he was only good. He was in charge. He knew what was best. He was not someone you argued with.”
“True. But you did argue with him. You might have been the only one who stood up to him.”
“Yeah, but it got harder and harder over the years. Toward the end I just gave in because it was easier. I lost my fire.”
“I think I understand.” And he looked like he did understand. That made me feel better, but I was sick of talking about it.
“Let’s change the subject,” I said. “Where are we?”
“We’re only in North Carolina. We could have been a lot further if you had let me do all the driving.”
“I wanted to live through the trip.”
Frankie just scowled at me. “Oh, ha ha. At least I’m not scared to pass anyone and afraid every car on the road is out to get me. Somehow you think your odds of living are better if you’d have done all the driving?” He gave me a yeah right look.
“At least, I’ve never had an accident.”
“Neither have I, Mother. Look, you hate driving. It makes you so nervous. Why don’t you just let me do it all? It’ll be easier.”
“Ok, I guess you have a point.”
“Of course I do, I’m a genius remember?” he smiled at me.
“Technically, that’s true; you’re smarter than the average bear. But I don’t think it applies to driving.”
“It applies to everything,” he said giving me that little boy smile. “We also could have been a lot further if you didn’t insist on stopping everywhere that looked interesting,” he almost whined again.
“Let me tell you something young man, in my entire lifetime I have only left Pennsylvania a few times. I never got to travel like this.”
“I know you went to New Mexico to visit Angela for various occasions. Other than that, you’ve been stuck in good old PA.”
“That’s right, I have. And I have no one to please right now but me,” I said pointing to myself for emphasis.
“And me,” he whined again.
“No, my darling, not really.”
“Why not?” he said looking surprised and offended.
“Because you insisted on coming on this trip with me. In fact, you pretty much forced yourself upon me as my guardian and protector. Therefore, I have no obligation to entertain you.”
“Ok fair enough. But if we pass a sign for something I want to see, can we stop?”
“Sure. Is there a bank nearby you�
�d like to visit?”
“First of all, I work in finance, not at a bank.”
“There’s a difference?” I joked. Really I didn’t understand what he did. I’ve had two finance classes in my college career. Still, I understood nothing.
“There’s a big difference. For instance…”
“Don’t start that again. Let’s talk about what types of things you’d like to see?”
“Well, I don’t know. I only travel for business. I never travel for fun.”
“That helps, Frankie, thank you.”
“I have an idea though. We’re going to stop at a hotel soon, right?”
“Very soon, preferably. I’m tired and I’m sooo sick of sitting in that truck.” I felt my legs stiffen at the mention of sitting in the truck again.
“And hotels usually have travel brochures in there lobby, right?”
“I wouldn’t know, do they?”
“What do you mean you wouldn’t know?” Frankie asked looking confused.
“I’ve only stayed in a few hotels in my entire life, honey. And never on a vacation.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” I started ticking off my hotel stays on my fingers, “The night I got married, the night before your graduation, the night before your sister’s three graduations…”
“Three?”
“Bachelor, Master, Doctorate. One, two, three.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot she’s Dr Angie.”
“That’s Mrs. Dr. Angie.”
“Yeah, she keeps reminding me that she puts that whole wife and mother thing first,” Frankie said, sounding just like an annoyed older brother.
“As did I. Anyway, that’s how many times, five? Less than one for each decade in my life.”
“You’re not fifty yet.”
“The first decade counts. You know age zero to ten?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“But you and Dad took vacations.”
“Yes and do you not remember what vacations were like when you were a kid?”
“Yeah, way too many hours in the car. Camping. You mean he still did that when it was just the two of you?”
“It never changed. And he always insisted on driving straight through, sleeping in the car, taking that damn camper, and/or staying with friends or family. I don’t know what a real vacation is like. I always had to cook and clean.”
“Even if you were staying at someone’s house?” he asked.
“Especially then. Otherwise I’d feel guilty.”
“And Dad never helped out,” he said, “because he worked hard and deserved a break.”
Frankie’s brain was churning. I could practically see the wheels turning. He let this information penetrate his brain. He looked at me and said, “I think I understand. And no wonder you wanted to go so far south. You wanted to get as far away from that type of life as possible.”
“Maybe, but it wasn’t that bad.”
“Ok, I tell you what. I have plenty of vacation time, because I never use it. Let’s, you and me, have a real vacation. Let’s stop and see everything that interests us even if it takes longer to finish the trip.” He was smiling for the first time since we started this trip.
“Honey. We’re driving a moving truck. That could cost a lot in gas.”
“So what, if you can’t afford it I can. When do we have to return the truck?”
“I rented it for a week, just in case. And we are hauling my car so; we could always unhitch it and drive it if we wanted to go somewhere. That could work.”
“That’s the spirit, Mom. Let’s have an adventure.”
Frankie pulled out his phone and started to tap at the screen. I waited. I didn’t really understand or like smart phones. They were way too sensitive for my taste. Either my tap would do nothing, or it would cause the phone to do things I didn’t want it to. I never swore so much as when I owned a so-called smart phone. I was back to using a flip phone. Frankie teased me about it, but I didn’t care, it served its purpose and I was happy with it.
“Ok,” he said when he was finished, “we have a hotel reservation about fifty miles away. We’ll spend the night there. Tonight you and I will go over every brochure they have in their lobby. Then using the brochures and the internet, we’ll plan the rest of our trip according to what we want to see, all the way down to Orlando.”
I smiled at this. It sounded like a lot of fun. Suddenly I was looking forward to the rest of the trip.
“Sounds great,” I told him. “You really are a good son.”
He smiled at me, “I know, I’m wonderful. Let’s go.”
The hotel he booked for us was not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be some rinky dink place that would charge maybe sixty dollars a night. No, instead my son booked a suite at the nearest five star hotel. It looked really expensive. I was wondering how much he paid. However, I didn’t really feel guilty because I knew that he made good money and could afford it.
He was true to his word. We grabbed every brochure they had in the lobby. Frankie also had the concierge print up an itinerary for the rest of our trip. We stopped at every location on that itinerary all the way from North Carolina to the Florida border. So far it was the best trip of my life. Too bad I couldn’t predict the real adventure that would be waiting for me in Florida. Then again, if I had, maybe I wouldn’t have gone.
Chapter 3: Arriving in Sunny Florida
When we crossed the Georgia/Florida border and I saw that sign that said “Welcome to Florida” for the first time I cried. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of belonging.
When we pulled in to the official welcome center my mouth dropped open. There were palm trees, lots of palm trees. In the field over to the left there were these big grey birds walking around. I mean they had tall legs and were probably taller than my five foot six. Ok, maybe not, but they sure looked that way to me. At the table out front of the visitor’s center people were handing oranges to everyone.
Frankie shut off the truck and turned toward me. “Mom, what’s wrong? Are you ok? Did you change your mind; do you want to go back?”
“No, honey, I don’t. I just got this overwhelming feeling that this was where I belonged. That something wonderful was going to happen to me here. I mean, look at this place.”
“Yeah, it’s cool. Wait a minute. You mean nothing wonderful happened to you in Pennsylvania?”
“Of course it did. I met and married your father, I had you, and I had your sister. All wonderful things. But this is different somehow. I can’t explain it. I’m overwhelmed.”
I also felt free for the first time in my life. But I didn’t want to tell him that. He’d probably take it the wrong way.
“Do you want to go inside, or do you need a few minutes?” he said.
“Son, I have to pee like a race horse. I want to go inside.”
As soon as I emptied my bladder of the several cups of coffee I’d had this morning, I went to look for Frankie. He was holding something in his hand. “Here, I got you a gift from the vending machine,” he said.
I took it and looked at it. “Toll booth pass. What’s that?”
“It’s for the toll roads. You open an account on line and add money to it. Then you put the little sticker on your windshield, on the inside, and no more going through the tool booths.”
“Oh, cool,” I said. It really was cool. And it was sweet of him to get it for me. I put it in the pocket of my jean shorts.
“Mom, why don’t you carry a purse?”
“I didn’t think it was a good idea on the road.”
“No, I mean why don’t you ever carry a purse? You never really did?”
I just laughed. “Frankly I don’t understand what other women put in them. I just don’t need to carry that much stuff. Besides, they’re a pain. I’m always leaving it somewhere when I do carry one.”
Frankie laughed this time. “You never were like the other mothers.”
There were aisles of brochures. There must have been hundreds of them. In fact, they even had bags there to hold all of your brochures for you. It looked as if there was more to do in the state of Florida than someone could possibly do in their entire life time. I loved this.
Frankie took the left side and I took the right side. When I finished filling my bag, I went to find him. I saw him in one of the aisles crouched down by the bottom row. I went over to where he was.
“Can you believe all the things there are to do in Florida?” I asked him.
He didn’t respond, he was staring at a pamphlet in his hand.
“Frankie, are you there?”
“What? Oh, sorry, Mom. Hey do you remember anything on our itinerary called Adventure Planet?”
I though back through all the discussions he and I had and the papers we had looked at.
“No, I don’t think the name is familiar. Why, what is it?” I asked.
“According to this brochure, it’s a theme park. But it’s not in Orlando, its further north. It looks kind of interesting,” he said.
“It could be our very first theme park experience together. Where is it?”
“Looks like it’s about an hour or two south of here. We could get a hotel, stay the night, and then check it out in the morning.”
“Ok. Where did you find the pamphlet? I don’t see it in this aisle?”
“Actually, it’s funny you ask, when I bent down to look at the brochures on the bottom row I saw this one sticking out from under the dividing wall. There don’t seem to be any more anywhere, though.”
“Maybe Adventure Planet’s not open anymore.”
He looked up at me, “Well, there’s one way to find out. Let’s go check at the desk, they’ll know,” he said.
The lady at the desk looked confused when we showed her the brochure. “I’ve never heard of the place,” she said. “Excuse me one moment; I’ll see if I can find out anything about it.” First she showed the brochure to a man behind the desk. He’d never heard of it. She then went to her computer to look it up.
“Well,” she said finally, “it still exists. Adventure Planet is open seven days a week from nine to six. And admission is only…I’m sorry this must be an error. It says here that admission is only thirty dollars per adult and twenty dollars per child. That sounds way too low so I am going to guess that they haven’t updated their website in years.”