Unmasters – The Trips

Ruth and I traveled to our first Unmasters in 1979.  We had three children, David (four), Elizabeth (2), and Michael (nine months).  We took David with us, left Michael with Ruth’s parents, and Elizabeth split the week between our friends, the Klumps and the Figels.  We didn’t believe that a two-year old and a nine month old would remember the trip so we left them behind.  (We avoided changing diapers as well.)

The second big decision was what vehicle to take.  We owned two.  We had a big gas eating Suburban and an economical Fiat.  In the end we chose economy over comfort.

We spent one night on the road in Ripley, West Virginia and arrived at The Breakers in Myrtle Beach the following afternoon.

Subsequent trips offered a series of wonderful memories.

We skipped 1980 but rejoined the group in 1981.   This time we brought a babysitter.   We continued to take a babysitter for several years until we believed that the kids could be left alone for dinner  while we joined our friends for an evening out.  (David (18), Elizabeth (16) and Michael (15) thought that we were a bit overprotective.)

On our final babysitting trip, our Suburban (our second one) broke down on a country road outside of Lancaster, North Carolina.  I tried to seek help at a nearby house but was unsuccessful.  After about a thirty-minute wait, I flagged down a county sheriff’s car.   The officer loaded the six of us into his patrol car.   I sat in the front with him and the other five piled into the back.

He radioed ahead to help us locate a tow truck.  The truck was waiting for us when we arrived in Lancaster.   The officer took Ruth, our three kids, and the babysitter to a nearby restaurant for dinner.   I road with the tow truck driver and his son on the fifty-mile round trip to retrieve the Suburban.  As we traveled I learned that the tow truck driver owned a local crayfish farm and was on the county school board.  We discussed crayfish, school issues, and taxes throughout the journey.

He dropped the Suburban and me off at a local repair shop to await a repairman who was home eating his Saturday night dinner.  He charged me fifty dollars for the tow and gave me the keys to his new Ford Ranger so I’d “have a way to move my family around town while we waited.”   He told me to “Put the keys on top of the driver’s side tire when you’re done.  I hope you and your family have better luck.”  And then he left.

The repairman arrived about twenty-minutes later.  After a quick inspection he discovered my “cracked distributor cap”.   He had a new one in stock, replaced the old, and presented me a bill for $5.00.  I offered him more money, but he wouldn’t take it.  “Wouldn’t be right to take advantage of a traveler’s misery.”

When I got home, I wrote a letter to the mayor of Lancaster and retold my tale of the helpful Sheriff’s deputy, generous tow truck driver, and trip saving repairman. (I also had my vehicles carefully inspected before all future trips.)

A few years later we were heading south towards another Unmasters when we made  another unscheduled stop.   We were driving straight through the night and were on one of the many back roads to MB when headlights clicked on from the median directly ahead.

We met our second North Carolina deputy sheriff that night.  I pulled to a stop, got out of our van and walked toward a young deputy with arms as large as my thighs.  He was ripped.

He asked “Do you know why I stopped you?”

“No sir.”

“I clocked you at 65 miles per hour.  The limit is 50.”

I offered an apology and explained that we were on our way to Myrtle Beach.  “I must have let the open road get the best of me.”

“That’s no excuse for speeding and breaking the law.”

He pulled out a chart that outlined the fact that North Carolina and Michigan did not have a reciprocity agreement.  He went on to explain.

“Sir, since North Carolina and Michigan do not have a reciprocity agreement we have to collect your fine before we can send you on your way.  There’s no way to collect your fine once we let you go.   We can drive to the next town, and meet with the justice of the peace when he arrives in the morning, or you can pay your fine to me right now.”

“No disrespect officer, but if I did that in Michigan I could be charged with offering a bribe.”

“Doesn’t work that way in North Carolina.”

“How much is the fine?”

“Sixty-five dollars.”

“I don’t believe that I have that much cash on me.”

“How much do you have?”

I opened my wallet and found fifty-five dollars.

“Fifty-five will be just fine.”

He wrote out a ticket, gave me my copy and a warning, then sent us on our way.

Ruth and I drove to and from Myrtle Beach at total of twenty-five times so I could play in the Unmasters.  There were no cell phones, or google, or Siri.   We used an oversized atlas to plan each trip.   We took notes in its  margins and scotch taped alternative trip suggestions to the pages that offered options through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the Carolinas.  We sought advice from our fellow traveling families and, sometimes got a “friend suggestion” while sharing time at the pool.  After each trip we returned the atlas to its home under our living room couch cushion where it still resides today.

We took babysitters, sister-in-laws, and several of the kids friends with us.  Some of our travelers saw the ocean for the first time.  For others it was an opportunity to take a road trip without stopping at every “historical site” along the way.  Still others exhibited bladder control that I still marvel at today.  (One friend of Elizabeth made the entire thirteen hour over night ride without ever getting out of our Suburban.)

As the kids each reached their graduation year, they drove to Myrtle Beach with their friends.  We thought that being in the same vacation town on a “senior spring break”, offered us a bit of comfort.   They did their own thing and checked in a time or two.  Elizabeth and her two car crew, even followed us to and from MB.

After Michael made his senior year “spring break trip”, and graduated,  we made the remainder of our trips kidless.

If you told me that I had to make all those trips again today,  I’d do it in a New York minute.

TBC