Traveler

Traveler

Thursday, September 8, 2011

8 August - Jeep unwittingly stopped upon the passageway

Leaving San Dimas in the territory of California, Jean Baptise was eager to reunite with his friend and fellow explorer, Juan Bautista.  Lamar, one of the waitstaff at Denny's, had told us we could find Juan Bautista in the township of Riverside.  So our band pressed forward.

Only a mile or two along the passageway to the village aside the River, Jeep began fighting Clark's acceleration until she came to a halt.  Trumpets blared about us.  Clark continued attempting to encourage Jeep's movement to no avail.  Other wagons veered past us at great velocity accompanied with shouts of irritation and further trumpeting.  As only inquisitive young minds can discover, Little Pomp pulled his mother's attention to a yellow light behind the guiding wheel.  The picture was unidentifiable,  the glowing image novel to our band.

We spent a great deal of time unmoving upon the passageway, all the while Clark demanding Jeep move forward and barking at Sacagawea for her insistence that a Cherokee built machine would be superior to all others.  Of course he said this in his frustration, and would later beg forgiveness of her.

Amidst the horns and anger, a large white wagon arrived behind us.  It possessed a crane not unlike the ones used along the New England coastline for launching ships into the sea.  A man of robust stature approached me at my window and wanted to know if we required assistance.  Clark's pride wished to lash out a contradictory statement, but the rest of us held Clark's tongue, accepting this man (Rueben's) aid.

We departed the wagon.  Rueben moved his own transport before ours, lifting Jeep from the roadway.  Little Pomp was so intrigued by the crane that it was all Sacagawea could do to keep the boy from stepping before the rapidly traveling wagons.  It came to my attention at this time that the trumpets had stopped upon Rueben's arrival.

We were escorted into Rueben's wagon.  Although its size was impressive, we found our band, along with Rueben at the guiding wheel, tight fitting in the single seat.  Nevertheless, Rueben set us on our way off of the main passageway, detouring our journey.  Rueben gave snicker to our predicament, insisting we were foolish to ignore the "gas gage."  Little Pomp spoke up with the question all of us had upon our confused minds.  He solicited Rueben what he meant referring to a "gas gage."  Rueben reacted to the boy in a childlike voice, telling him that perhaps Little Pomp should be in charge of watching the "gage" as the adults (referring to us) were obviously naive to it, thusly causing Jeep to "run out of gas."

Bewildered faces upon us all, our band sat back in silence as Rueben carried the five of us, and Jeep, forward.  To where, we had yet to discover.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

1 September - The Unusual Map

We had completed our feast at the eatery, Denny's.  I must report my meal by, the name of "Grand Slam," was quite satisfying.  Although more food than what I would normally consume in a full day, the preparation of eggs, pancakes, bacon (and sausage!) was quite delectable.  I was most impressed by their English Muffin.  It was a luxury we enjoyed in the cities, but had not since we embarked upon our journey.  Certainly we had not seen a Muffin Man in years!

Jean Baptise enquired of Jeff, our server, regarding the possible whereabouts of Juan Bautista De Anza, a fellow explorer commissioned by the Spanish of which Jean Baptise had known some years prior.  Jeff pondered for some time.  The name did ring a bell to the boy, but he could not express any answer with certainty.  Overhearing, the dark skinned server (named Lamar as was sported upon his shirt) stopped and chimed in.  He knew Juan Bautista could be found in the township of Riverside.  Clark was prepared to explore the Spanish Territory right then and there.  I must say here that Clark has, throughout our journey, refused any offered maps, pigheadedly determined to forge his way with no assistance.  At more than one time, Sacagawea's efforts to find passages from local Indian nations were not heeded by Clark, much to the frustration of the rest of our band.  (which I believe is the reason our other journeymen did depart from us in Santa Monica)

Jean Baptise, anxious to reunite with his old companion, was eager to receive the directions despite Clark's insistence.  Lamar retrieved a small metallic device from his pocket.  He tapped upon it and then handed it to Jean Baptise to view.  Little Pomp eagerly knelt upon his seat to peer over his father's shoulder.  A fascination with us all, the image upon which we spied was indeed a map, but none like I had ever seen in all my days of exploring.  Jean Baptise touched the image and suddenly something changed.  Lamar took his device back, tapped it again, and returned it to Jean Baptise, this time explaining the map we looked upon.  Lamar swept his finger upon the surface and the map image followed his finger, laying out our path.  Jean Baptise turned to his wife who examined the device.  An amazing map reader, Sacagawea absorbed the information on a level none of us men could comprehend.   She gratefully returned the device to Lamar.

We settled our bill, was thanked by the lovely brunette who had originally greeted us, and returned to Jeep.  Now our quest to find Juan Bautista weighed solely upon the shoulders of Sacagawea.

Until Later, My Friends