Stories from the Road (10 years later)

It started out as a mere idea. My father was offered the chance to drive the country when he was 18, and turned it down to work for his father. He has regretted it ever since. I had the same opportunity when I was 23. I had money saved in the bank, a new truck, and a great best friend. I decided I was gonna go with or without him, but it would be much more fun to share it with. So i called him up and asked him what he had that was tying him down that he couldn't walk away from. Neither of us had anything holding us back, so we started our trip on Sept 22nd back in 2000. We started our trip in New England, because we didn't want to get caught in some bad snow, and cause we wanted to see some color in the leaves. Our first night we stayed at my Great Aunt and Uncle's house in Rhode Island. The house was so big, it has a name! So we stayed there, then went to Gloucester MA. This is the infamous site of the movie "The Perfect Storm", and the town where thousands of fishermen have gone to their deaths. We ate lunch at the restaurant "The Crow's Nest", the one seen in the movie, and was still owned by Bobby Shatford's mother. She was actually there while we ate our "chow-da", and shared stories of the movie being filmed there, and stories of her son Bobby. We also met the family of Murph, the man portrayed by John C Reilly in the movie. We met his lovely wife and their very nice son. We also got to look through a photo album Mrs Shatford had of the backlot basketball games. Every night after filming, Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney would take on the locals in a two on two tourney. Apparently, Mark actually lived with Mrs Shatford in order to learn the nuances of Bobby, and got the info straight from his mom. I have never seen a woman so proud of her son, and the amazing portrayal of him by an actor. Anyway the reason all these people were in Gloucester that day we were was the "sister ship" of the 'Andreaa Gail' was retiring that night. If you ever saw the movie "The Perfect Storm" then you remember the red boat, the 'Hannah Bowden'. They were holding a benefit that night, and all the movie stars were coming back to the town for the event. One minor problem- it was $100 a plate. This was the first thing we were able to do on our trip, and we had no idea how long we were gonna be on our trip, so we didn't want to spend that kind of money on one event. (Looking back we obviously SHOULD have done it, but hindsight is always 20/20). Instead, we drove up to Maine, and camped out in a small town called Saco. But the story of Maine will wait until another day, as I have a huge day ahead of me today. It is the first home game for the Philadelphia Union, and I am working Security at the new stadium. Go Union!!!