1998 Chevy Tahoe and Bob and I pictured in Lake Crystal, MN. The start of the journy, at least for me!!!
South Bound and Down!
"Hey! Want to go on a road trip?"
"Yeah! Where too? Vegas, Cali, skiing in Utah?"
"No, I was thinking more like the southern tip of South America!!!!!!!!!!!!"
January 6th, 2010 -- Brownsville, TX
That's pretty much how it started. A simple idea, a traveler's mind, and a mixture of young and old, venturous and not so venturous, but at the very least, a group of folks interested in seeing something different both behind the wheel and face to face. Just like that, we where South Bound and DOWN!!!!!!!!!!
My uncle, Bob Cunningham, had driven from Minnesota to the northern point in Alaska a few years back and had always had the idea of driving the other half of what is called the Pan-American Highway. At it's simplest, a set of highways that will get you from the "northest" of North America to the "southest" of South America. We had both talked about it for a few years and for whatever reason, this became the year to do it. Throughout it's discussion, we were able to coax into the trip my Father Donn Cunningham and both his and my good friend Charlie Melberg. It wasn't the first time for this A-Team to be assembled, we had all spent two weeks road tripping around South Africa and having a grand ole time. Likely a reason it was easy to talk them into coming for a portion of this trip.
The plan is/was for me to drive the car, a 1998 Chevy Tahoe (to be named later), to Brownsville, Texas where I would pick up my Uncle Bob and then we would both drive to Oaxaca, Mexico to pick up Donn and Charlie where they would join us to Panama until the end of January.
So other than being ready to enter Mexico tommorrow, my 1500 mile drive from Minnesota did have some high points. I left Minnesota on the 4th, with plans to be in Brownsville on the 6th. The first day I left MN at about 5:00p.m. and drove to Middle of Nowhere, Kansas. Then next day on the 5th I had plans to drive from Kansas to Corpus Cristi, Texas where I could do some shopping and then head down to Brownsville. Little did Iknow the day would prove to be very exicting.
After driving for six hours I had finally hit Oklahoma City, OK and was starting to feel hungry. Before leaving on this drive, I had just returned from Utah a few days earlier and was starting to dread McDonalds, Subway, Arby's, and any other food that might come in a bag. When I drive I get very goal oriented and for some reason like to drive 12-18 hours at a time only stopping at places I can get gas, food, and a bathroom all within about 20 minutes. My body had taken it's toll and it was finally time to slow down the pace and find some food with some substance. I decided I was going to hit up some type of cafe or truck stop restuarant and that's when I saw the sign for "Ruby's Inn." It hit me like a bullet, I knew that was the place for me. I was in Purcell, OK, just south of Oklahoma City. It was the same town you could find all over the rest of rural U.S.A., with one difference, they had Ruby's.
As soon as I stepped in the door, I could smell all those great cafe smells. Breakfast being cooked in the afternoon, homeade soups, I saw the old school salad bar, it was perfect. I didn't even have to see a menu to know that I wanted, a BLT, salad bar, and some good and hot Potato soup. A woman greeted me at the door with a big smile, attractive southern drawl, and silver hair. I immediately liked her happiness and glow. After I had given her my order, I was listening to the people around me and hearing waitresses ask customers, "Oh, so how is the Stewart family?" or "We didn't see you folks in church the other morning," and it really got me smiling, reminding me of home and what I love so much about small towns. What a great thing this cafe experience was. It blew any form of fast food right out of the water!
A moment later I heard someone say, "RUBY!!" Sure enough my waitresses name was Ruby. She infact, was the owner of the 30 room motel and restaurant and had been for 30 years. Before that her family had owned it and she had been waitressing in that same place for almost 40 years. It seems like a pretty basic story, nothing too exciting, except for meeting this nice, older, southern woman.
After thanking Ruby for an amazing meal in between fast food bags and candy bars, I stepped out the door and smiled because I knew that this was the first in a long line of interpersonal experiences and I was traveling for that exact reason. Another very small and seemingly normal interaction that we have with people that make us smile later when we think about them.
Shortly after I pulled into the gas station for gas and as I was paying, I saw a tin of Skoal and it really caught my eye. I don't normally use tobacco, but every now and then I will so I bought the tin and headed south down I-39. I little while later I put in a pinch of the "chaw" as the folks down here might call it and a few moments later I had to really laugh as I crossed the state line into Texas and the first thing I saw was a HUGE Texas flag, a sign welcoming me to Texas, and then another sign that said "Don't Mess with Texas! (petewwww!! spitting sound!!!)!! It was pretty halarious and as I drove I saw the signs mentioning cowboy this, comanche that, ranch this and cow that, all the while having this pinch of chewing tobacco in, I found this very comical and perfectly fitting!!!
Needless to say, I made it to Brownsville, mostly without incident. If the drive down was a precurser to the events and memories to be made with Bob, Donn, and Charlie while headed "South Bound and Down," I'm terribly excited and can't wait to share the stories!
(I decided for each post I would put a little blurb or joke about "what I learned" so here we go)
WHAT I LEARNED: Good things really can come from Oklahoma!!
"Yeah! Where too? Vegas, Cali, skiing in Utah?""No, I was thinking more like the southern tip of South America!!!!!!!!!!!!"
January 6th, 2010 -- Brownsville, TX
That's pretty much how it started. A simple idea, a traveler's mind, and a mixture of young and old, venturous and not so venturous, but at the very least, a group of folks interested in seeing something different both behind the wheel and face to face. Just like that, we where South Bound and DOWN!!!!!!!!!!
My uncle, Bob Cunningham, had driven from Minnesota to the northern point in Alaska a few years back and had always had the idea of driving the other half of what is called the Pan-American Highway. At it's simplest, a set of highways that will get you from the "northest" of North America to the "southest" of South America. We had both talked about it for a few years and for whatever reason, this became the year to do it. Throughout it's discussion, we were able to coax into the trip my Father Donn Cunningham and both his and my good friend Charlie Melberg. It wasn't the first time for this A-Team to be assembled, we had all spent two weeks road tripping around South Africa and having a grand ole time. Likely a reason it was easy to talk them into coming for a portion of this trip.
The plan is/was for me to drive the car, a 1998 Chevy Tahoe (to be named later), to Brownsville, Texas where I would pick up my Uncle Bob and then we would both drive to Oaxaca, Mexico to pick up Donn and Charlie where they would join us to Panama until the end of January.
So other than being ready to enter Mexico tommorrow, my 1500 mile drive from Minnesota did have some high points. I left Minnesota on the 4th, with plans to be in Brownsville on the 6th. The first day I left MN at about 5:00p.m. and drove to Middle of Nowhere, Kansas. Then next day on the 5th I had plans to drive from Kansas to Corpus Cristi, Texas where I could do some shopping and then head down to Brownsville. Little did Iknow the day would prove to be very exicting.
After driving for six hours I had finally hit Oklahoma City, OK and was starting to feel hungry. Before leaving on this drive, I had just returned from Utah a few days earlier and was starting to dread McDonalds, Subway, Arby's, and any other food that might come in a bag. When I drive I get very goal oriented and for some reason like to drive 12-18 hours at a time only stopping at places I can get gas, food, and a bathroom all within about 20 minutes. My body had taken it's toll and it was finally time to slow down the pace and find some food with some substance. I decided I was going to hit up some type of cafe or truck stop restuarant and that's when I saw the sign for "Ruby's Inn." It hit me like a bullet, I knew that was the place for me. I was in Purcell, OK, just south of Oklahoma City. It was the same town you could find all over the rest of rural U.S.A., with one difference, they had Ruby's.
As soon as I stepped in the door, I could smell all those great cafe smells. Breakfast being cooked in the afternoon, homeade soups, I saw the old school salad bar, it was perfect. I didn't even have to see a menu to know that I wanted, a BLT, salad bar, and some good and hot Potato soup. A woman greeted me at the door with a big smile, attractive southern drawl, and silver hair. I immediately liked her happiness and glow. After I had given her my order, I was listening to the people around me and hearing waitresses ask customers, "Oh, so how is the Stewart family?" or "We didn't see you folks in church the other morning," and it really got me smiling, reminding me of home and what I love so much about small towns. What a great thing this cafe experience was. It blew any form of fast food right out of the water!
A moment later I heard someone say, "RUBY!!" Sure enough my waitresses name was Ruby. She infact, was the owner of the 30 room motel and restaurant and had been for 30 years. Before that her family had owned it and she had been waitressing in that same place for almost 40 years. It seems like a pretty basic story, nothing too exciting, except for meeting this nice, older, southern woman.
After thanking Ruby for an amazing meal in between fast food bags and candy bars, I stepped out the door and smiled because I knew that this was the first in a long line of interpersonal experiences and I was traveling for that exact reason. Another very small and seemingly normal interaction that we have with people that make us smile later when we think about them.
Shortly after I pulled into the gas station for gas and as I was paying, I saw a tin of Skoal and it really caught my eye. I don't normally use tobacco, but every now and then I will so I bought the tin and headed south down I-39. I little while later I put in a pinch of the "chaw" as the folks down here might call it and a few moments later I had to really laugh as I crossed the state line into Texas and the first thing I saw was a HUGE Texas flag, a sign welcoming me to Texas, and then another sign that said "Don't Mess with Texas! (petewwww!! spitting sound!!!)!! It was pretty halarious and as I drove I saw the signs mentioning cowboy this, comanche that, ranch this and cow that, all the while having this pinch of chewing tobacco in, I found this very comical and perfectly fitting!!!
Needless to say, I made it to Brownsville, mostly without incident. If the drive down was a precurser to the events and memories to be made with Bob, Donn, and Charlie while headed "South Bound and Down," I'm terribly excited and can't wait to share the stories!
(I decided for each post I would put a little blurb or joke about "what I learned" so here we go)
WHAT I LEARNED: Good things really can come from Oklahoma!!
nik call charles at 320 833 6825
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