The year was 2004. June, a rather nice one if my memory serves me correctly. I was in California, and times were different for me. They were different for all of us. At the age of 17 I was soon to be a senior in high school, and was courting a young lady by the name of Deja Escalante. A fair Mexican woman who was still having problems being accepted into society. The Boston Red Sox were playing grade A baseball and were part of a hot summer baseball craze across the country. My brother and I had been following them and with much delight been trying out best Boston accents to allege such players names as; Millar, and Nomar.
A few months prior I had received a telegram from my first cousin in Des Moines, Iowa. Half way cross country and near the Mighty Mississippi. The telegram enclosed the most delightful news that he was to be married at the end of June. He being a veteran of the great Iraq War, my family and I felt the owe of some gratitude, and with little to no discussion decided a visit for the grand occasion was more than warranted.
We began the preparations. On June 21st we departed from the City of Angels. The caravan included; Elbert and Barbara Wright, my grandparents. Dennis, my father. My twin sister Jeri, and my elder brother Glenn. We went by way of the desert and planned for our first stop to be in the Nevada city of Las Vegas. The only thing standing in our way to there was the Rocky Mountains. Just our luck that we reached them midsummer. The passes were clear and it was smooth sailing.
We reached Las Vegas at night and were awestruck by the flashing lights, gamblers, scantily clad show girls, and the amount of people dressed as if there clothes were out on the line to dry. Most of these people also were sporting the most peculiar haircuts. It appeared the haircuts were business in the front, and party in the back.
We stayed a night in Vegas and then continued on. I had caught a film on the silver screen with the talented actor Christopher Walken. I had already been doing some impressions of a Boston accent, and was even off handily crude with a comment to a young lady, "Hey Big Tits Millar!", and decided that I would try and capture the irregular speech pattern of this Christopher Walken. That is where my legacy began. To this day some of my friends refer to me as one of the best impersonators of Chris Walken.
As we furthered away from Vegas and out of Nevada, we found ourselves in such gorgeous states as Utah and Colorado. We even passed through Nebraska. After no more than 3 days we found ourselves arriving in the little town of Sheldahl, Iowa. Only minutes away from the capital of Iowa, Des Moines. Sheldahl was a lovely town, and despite having only one road through the center of town, and a population of less than 350, it was a city divided into three separate counties. And so the towns sign read, "Sheldahl Biggest Little Town In Three Counties."
The wedding was on June the 26th, and it was held at the United Methodist Church of Slater. It was a lovely ceremony. My cousin Mike wed Brooke, and now they have two sons. Luke and Levi.
-The long trip across the country was one of many that my family had been on together. And it was also the last which involved my grandparents. It created a lot of memories. Like when the sewer line on the RV busted and covered my dad, grandpa, brother and myself in sewage. When my brother was behind the wheel, and everyone was sleeping, and he drifted slightly off the road into where they have cut out asphalt so that your car rumbles. And as everyone started to see what happened, my brother make a quick recovery by saying, "no one sleeps on my watch!" My family also overdid the Boston accent and the Chris Walken. I'm pretty sure everyone was sick of each other because we didn't use our real voices for the majority of the trip. I also remember going through 48 mountain dews in less than two days. It was a very fun trip, and I'm glad I could make it out for my cousin Mike's wedding. On a side note when I flew in for my cousin Michelle's wedding, it wasn't quite as fun as the RV trip, but the wedding was still a
blast."Chewy here tells me, you're looking for a ship...." and the rest is as they say history.
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