I hope you guys are having fun!?!?
February 24, 2004
Rich�s Grammy had a cottage near Lake Erie in a town called Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio. It is about 45 miles northeast of Cleveland and right down the road from Ashtabula. Rich and I and others have taken several trips there before, but this time we were lone-travelers. It was a Saturday and we were kind of bored and looking something off-the-cuff to pass the day when it hit us to take an unannounced trip to Grammy�s cottage and see who was visiting at the time. We basically came up with the idea in a minute, and after we yelled �ROADTRIP!� like frat boys, we spent the next hour packing the music for this one night adventure�clothes were thought of as irrelevant and packed in a matter of minutes.
You see with us the music that we chose for any given expedition was more important than getting to the actual destination. They usually included some of my all time favorites. I�m not sure if my current admiration for them was equaled at that point in time or they now own most of the positions on my top ten list because of these trips with Rich. The CDs that stick out in my mind as the chosen few to make all of our many journeys are as follows: U2 � War, Matthew Sweet � Girlfriend, School of Fish � School of Fish, and The Police � Ghost in the Machine. I�m sure there were many others that made the cut as well as a typical Van Halen album with a song about girls and sand and parties (which could be any of them)�we always packed one good Van Halen CD for such an occasion to get us in the mood. Rich would frequently surprise me with an original �Jets� song or two that we could reminisce with on our travels as well. We always tended to overload on music during road trips�better to be the conservative side than to be stuck driving on the Ohio turnpike listening to a song that we just heard on the Pennsylvania turnpike.
Just imagine the two of us driving down the road in my 1982 Vette (Chevette that is) with both windows open singing, yelling really, at the top of our lungs every word to every song, which was playing on the personal CD player plugged into the cassette deck using one of those state-of-the-art adapters. The trip there was sometimes just as much fun as being there. First stop, the cottage to scan for any floor space. The place was deserted, but there were definite signs of life and lots of it. Next stop, Subway�it was a long drive and we were hungry. After we got done dining at one of Ashtabula�s finest establishments, it was time to drive to the strip to see the action there. In the middle of the town of Geneva-on-the-Lake, which I will call the strip, the locals drove their cars up and down the street. It was a small strip so you would often see the same people in the same cars 5 or 6 times in an hour. Needless to say that got very boring real fast and we were �of age�, we could make our own fun.
There were often bonfires on the beach near the cottage and we thought this would be cool prospect, so we grabbed a couple six-packs and proceeded to the beach. When we got there it was sort of quiet, but Rich saw a cousin or two. They insisted that there would be more arriving soon, so we should stay put to join in on the action�so we did. While we were waiting, we had a few cold beverages by the fire. As it got more crowded and more alcohol entered our blood streams, we got more relaxed with the awkwardness of being the only foreigners. We began to greet each new-comer as if we had known them for years, but much to their revelation when we got closer to the glow of the fire, they found out the truth and had a puzzled look on their collective faces. Rich and I would routinely play these types of games with people for our own amusement. Some would laugh, but most would question our sanity. As we welcomed a group in this manner, the astonishment was reversed as they knew Rich from years ago and remembered his name. We reacquainted ourselves with this group as we intermingled and talked for hours about the years when the entire Rust clan would embark on the town and take it over. As the night grew, the casualness increased with these old friends and so did the history. When the tales turned to yawns and the regulars started to diminish, they left and the next shift of blasts-from-the-past made a late entrance to what was turning into our party. We went through more beers and more anecdotes of days gone by. After a few more hours, everyone had gone to their place of lodging and Rich and I were left homeless on the beach listening to the waves and reliving the encounters of the evening until the sun started to reveal that we never made it back to the cottage.
The next thing I remember is the sound of someone waking me up with the thunderous announcement of, �I hope you guys are having fun!?!?� It startled us like a bugle playing �First Call�. With that, I perked up and answered with the only thing that I could think in my lethargic state, �Yep, you want a beer?� I then looked over at Rich and he had the same senseless look on his face as I�m sure I had on mine. He also had some smart remark for this rude awakening, �We sure are!� The rhetorical question that woke both of us from a sound sleep was just an interruption for some much needed sleep. We laid our heads back down on our folded arms until we both realized it was Rich�s Uncle Glen. We then started to put the pieces of the puzzle together as we cleaned up the beer bottles from around the smothered fire (Woodsy and Smokey would both be proud of us). After discussing the intrusion under our breathes for a while and being the sleuths we were, a light bulb suddenly appeared above our heads�someone caught on that we were in town and never returned to the already over-crowded cottage and now we were in hot water (ahhhh�warmth) for staying out all night. We were too tired and we were too young to empathize. Yes, we returned to the cottage, but we remained in the car, reclined the seats, and revisited sleepy land. Like an alarm clock that you are too tired to pull from the wall outlet after the first buzz, the snooze timer went off again and we were abruptly awakened by Grammy lecturing us about respect and other adult words that I now find myself saying to my kids when they get out of line. This time we were up for good.
We went inside and got an earful from Grammy and an eyeful from everyone else. We honestly didn�t think that we were being disrespectful or uncouth for not using the over-populated cottage. We didn�t want to be a nuisance by coming in at all hours of the night or not following proper squatters� procedures. This is why we choose to stay on the beach; it certainly wasn�t for the four star treatment of the staff at the Sand-on-the-Beach Resort and Hotel. During the morning coffee, we progressed with all apologies. Oh well, you live and you learn. Now that I am a father, I can see the points made by the parents, but we meant no harm. We just wished that maybe we could have gotten out of Dodge faster to avoid the last part of the trip.
Rich and I had a laugh about it on the way home and had fun during that all-nighter. I think we laughed more about how confused we were by the wake-up call that we never ordered than the rest of the visit. What was so funny was the revelation of the question and the disappearing act that followed. While in our stupor, we debated who the super hero was that saved us from the hunched-over sleeping positions and left without even a thank you. Once we realized that Glen was COMFORT-MAN, we joked about it for years. |
