{"id":1443,"date":"2017-08-25T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2017-08-23T19:41:09","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T02:41:09","slug":"a-rolling-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2017\/08\/25\/a-rolling-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rolling Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yes, we are wheels up and rolling down the road. \u00a0As I type these words we are southbound on 405, heading to our annual stay in Cannon Beach. \u00a0Last year we never made it. \u00a0Thirty miles north of Portland our car coasted to a stop, stranding us on the shoulder of I-5 for an hour and a half while we waited for a tow truck. \u00a0Once the car was dropped off at the dealership\u2014late on a Wednesday afternoon\u2014we checked in to the Riverplace Hotel to await the mechanic\u2019s judgment. \u00a0After two days of waiting, we discovered that the problem was a faulty sending unit. \u00a0While the gas gauge in the car said we had three quarters of a tank, the tank said we were stone cold empty.<\/p>\n

This year, we\u2019re heading to Oregon two days after all the eclipse craziness, but it\u2019s not the four day stroll on the beach we had anticipated. \u00a0This year, Cannon Beach is being cut short by a detour to Killer Nashville.<\/p>\n

In 30 plus years, Bill and I have driven the I-5 corridor many times, going back and forth to Arizona, going back and forth to Ashland, and doing book signings in the upper lefthand corner of the map. \u00a0So we have lots of familiar places along the road, and they all come with a few key identifying words. \u00a0There\u2019s the \u201cdrug bust\u201d Denny\u2019s in northern California; Boney\u2019s* cow pasture in southern Oregon; the spot where we were stranded last summer; the place north of Vancouver where a guy in BMW roared past us on the right hand shoulder in the middle of a snowstorm, veered off into the ditch, and then came to an abrupt halt when he hit some immovable object hidden in the snow. \u00a0(We did not stop to offer assistance!) \u00a0And speaking of snow, there\u2019s the place in Salem, again in a snowstorm, where a guy in a pickup went sailing off the highway and right through someone\u2019s backyard fence. And let\u2019s not forget the time we set our mattress on fire at the Americana in Redding, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n

When we drive past the Winlock exit, I remember the one time I went to Winlock Egg Days. \u00a0When I see the signs for Mt. St. Helens, I remember my daughter asking, as we rumbled north, dragging our loaded U-Haul behind us, \u201cMom, is Mt. St. Helens going to interrupt again?\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the \u201cjust throw it out\u201d exit in Kelso. \u00a0Bill and I were traveling in the Boxster which had no cup holders. \u00a0I was holding a soda cup half full of ice from a recent Burger King stop and had no place to set it down. \u00a0\u201cJust throw it out,\u201d Bill told me. \u00a0This is clearly a case of faulty pronoun reference. \u00a0By \u201cit” he meant, throw the ICE out. \u00a0I thought he meant throw the CUP out. \u00a0I could hardly believe that he wanted me to litter, but in the interest of marital harmony, that\u2019s exactly what I did. \u00a0I rolled down the window and flung the cup, ice and all, out of the car and into the ditch. \u00a0I was astonished when the next thing Bill said was, \u201cWhat did you do THAT for?\u201d \u00a0So yes, it\u2019s definitely the “throw it out” exit.<\/p>\n

Today, as we passed the Vader\/Ryderwood exit, Bill said, \u201ca particular class of third graders.\u201d \u00a0That statement actually predates Bill\u2019s and my history together. \u00a0In the mid seventies, I was living in Pe Ell, Washington. \u00a0I had worked as a teacher and librarian in Arizona, but when I applied for teaching jobs in Washington, there didn\u2019t seem to be any. \u00a0And then I got a call back from the principal at the elementary school in Ryderwood. \u00a0During the interview he told me with some disparagement, \u201cWe have this particular class of third graders …\u201d<\/p>\n

I never met that class, but my class at Bisbee’s Greenway Elementary School was probably referred to in much the same fashion. \u00a0We went through teachers like a dose of salts. \u00a0Several of them died, retired, or just plain quit after we finished\u00a0with them. \u00a0In other words, we were tough on teachers, and I figured the third graders in Ryderwood had probably mowed through their kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers in an singularly similar manner. \u00a0So when the principal got around to offering me a contract, I didn\u2019t accept it. \u00a0Instead, I went out and found a job in the life insurance business.<\/p>\n

In 1982, while I was still selling insurance, my company offered to pay the tuition for anyone who signed up for the Dale Carnegie course. Winning Friends and Influencing People is actually a course in public speaking with everyone required to do talks on some predetermined topic. One of the talks was supposed to be about an event that changed the course of the speaker\u2019s life. \u00a0I gave a talk about crossing paths with a serial killer in Tucson back in the early seventies. \u00a0When the talk was over, one of my classmates came up to me during the break and said, \u201cSomeone should write a book about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so I did. The resulting 1200 page manuscript was the first book I ever wrote. \u00a0Although that piece of fiction was never published, writing it nonetheless launched my career. \u00a0Since I hadn\u2019t been allowed in the creative writing class at the University of Arizona, By Reason of Insanity<\/i> became my on the job training for writing. \u00a0The first book wasn\u2019t ever published and won\u2019t be, but the second one, Until Proven Guilty, was and so have another fifty plus books since then..<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the interesting thing about life. \u00a0All steps are necessary; no steps may be missed. \u00a0I\u2019m a writer today\u2014and writing this blog\u2014because of that particular class of third graders that I never once laid eyes on. \u00a0Deciding to dodge that bullet sent me wandering into the world life insurance, and that ultimately propelled me into writing.<\/p>\n

So yes, whenever Bill and I motor past that Vader\/Ryderwood exit, I\u2019m always grateful to be passing it rather than taking it, and today was no exception.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m finishing this blog at the Inn in Cannon Beach. \u00a0Traffic was non-existent. \u00a0We had no car challenges. \u00a0Everything is in order, and I suspect we\u2019ll be having dinner at Mo\u2019s tonight.<\/p>\n

Clam strips anyone? \u00a0When you read Proof of Life, you\u2019ll discover that J.P. Beaumont has a soft spot for clam strips. That\u2019s hardly surprising. \u00a0It turns out I have one, too.<\/p>\n

* Boney was a rescue half German shepherd\/half Irish Wolfhound. \u00a0When traveling with dogs, Bill fills the gas tank while I walk dogs. \u00a0On the edge of the pavement for that filling station, there was a ditch followed by a pasture containing fifteen or twenty calves. \u00a0The calves were curious about the dog who was approximately the same size they were, and Boney was certainly curious about them. \u00a0I\u2019m fortunate that, on that occasion, I didn\u2019t get turned into a flying human dog sled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, we are wheels up and rolling down the road. \u00a0As I type these words we are southbound on 405, heading to our annual stay in Cannon Beach. \u00a0Last year we never made it. \u00a0Thirty miles north of Portland our car coasted to a stop, stranding us on the shoulder of I-5 for an hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-2","category-traveling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-nh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1445,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions\/1445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}