Friday: On the Road Only 10 Hours Past EDT

Well, we finally leave town at the bright and early hour of 6:00 p.m. A new record for Romoser TIme.

I suspect Michael left halfway through prep to get a massage. He is a madly intelligent man.

When we finally hit the road, we stop – many times — for these reasons:

Pick up take-out, because it’s dinner time.

Drop off Mikey’s SAAB at our friend Norm’s garage (to add pads to the metal-on-metal brakes, which we hear actually make cars stop, but in a silent way).

Fill up the tank. About $180 worth of liquid summer adventure!

On the Road: Four hours into the trip

Mikey and I are already eating MacDonald’s shakes, fish sandwiches, fries , Almond Joys, and Heath Bars. We’re superheroes, hopped up on fast-food crack.  I fear a sugar crash is eminent.

We start singing patriotic songs but make up the words or we combine the lyrics and melodies. At this point, I’m just following Mikey a fraction of a second behind his lead. He makes up a lyric, I harmonize, and it’s all slightly off.  Then, without the benefit of a radio, Mikey starts singing Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” but we don’t know the words, all we remember is “I’ve become, comfortably numb.” That line we sing in a “numb way.” It’s really quite funny.

One Hour Later:

I’m falling asleep and Mikey is quietly singing “Green Acres is the Place to Be.” So I rally and raise him the Beverly Hillbillies “Jed Move AWAY From Thar!”

That keeps us going for about 15 minutes. And then Mikey goes back to quietly singing Hogan’s Heroes.

It’s then, when I realize Hogan’s Heroes has no lyrics but only whistling, that I make the call to pull over. Things have gone too far.