Happy Father's Day With My Dad & Paisano Pete

Father's Day is Sunday.

That's my dad in the picture. This morning I was hunting for a picture I knew I had of my nephews in the pool at Excalibur in Las Vegas, when I came across this picture of my dad.

When my mom and dad retired they took off in their RV for a Roadtrip all over America and parts of Canada, like New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

At the tail end of mom and dad's long Roadtrip I met up with them in Las Vegas, where my mom loaded me down with a box of Christmas presents I was somehow supposed to schlep back to Washington on the plane. However, UPS handled that chore.

In the picture my dad is in Texas, in Fort Stockton, standing in front of Paisano Pete, Pete being the World's Largest Roadrunner.

Yesterday, or the day before, I suggested to Gar the Texan that he take a long solo Roadtrip, rather than one more sterile cruise. Gar the Texan said the idea of a Roadtrip made him anxious. This struck me as very sad.

I have a lot of things I am grateful for, due to my dad. Number 1 may be my love of a Roadtrip. My dad made all our family vacations totally stress-free.

I'll give you an example. The first Roadtrip to California and Disneyland. My siblings and I were looking forward to this like you would not believe. I think us kids being so gungho made mom and dad happy.

We were barely 30 miles into the trip when our trailer had a serious malfunction. An axle had broken. My dad calmly took it apart. We then drove into Everett, found a mechanic to fix it. A couple hours later we were back on the road, with mom making us potato rolls with ham and cheese.

Mom and dad made the little mishap just part of the adventure.

Later that same trip, our station wagon had another woe. This time it happened in Hollywood. The repair took several hours. Me and my brother were in heaven as we took off to explore Hollywood.

Years later I was to have a clutch go out, in Hollywood. I'd long ago learned, from my dad, not to get upset, that's it's just part of the fun.

I have never had any anxiety about driving in traffic or in a new town. I remember when we made our way into the Los Angeles zone for the first time, I paid attention to my dad driving, my mom helping with directions, checking a map.

About 5 years after this first family trip to Los Angeles and Disneyland, I drove myself there for the first time, in my now antique 65 Fastback Mustang. It did not even cross my mind to be anxious about driving in Los Angeles or worry about getting lost.

This is thanks to my dad.

I've known others who were not so blessed in the parental unit department. Who, when a little calamity occurs, it causes them to get all wigged out. Like, I remember a sudden flat in Death Valley, 5 miles from our Stovepipe Wells destination. Two of the members of my traveling party got totally wigged out and turned into major drama queens. Over a flat tire.

While I was thinking to myself, this is cool, a flat in Death Valley. What's the worst that happens? We walk to Stovepipe Wells and call for help. What actually happened is the flat was easily replaced with the spare, with the flat easily fixed the next day in Bishop, California, which turned out to be a really fun place to stay awhile.

Another thing about my dad. I have never, ever, absolutely never seen my dad lose his temper. Ever.

This is why I have such an aversion to people losing their temper. It seems like such a sign of weakness and stupidity to me.

Anyone who knows me has never seen me lose my temper. Something may aggravate me, but I do not deal with it by acting overtly angry to someone. There are far better, effective ways to deal with that type stress.

One thing I know for sure, if all the world was as blessed as me in the dad department, this would be a far far better world.

Happy Father's Day, dad.