“You gotta be friggin’ kidding me ” And a few more moments passed, when he continued,

..hey, this guy’s actually slowing down.. Woo-hooo,” he yelled. Larry and I turned around and saw the headlights..

Sure enough, coming over the hill was a huge Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Baily’s Circus semi-tractor/trailer. The colorful, festively decorated truck added to our glee as it slowed to a halt. The long-haired, somewhat sleazy-looking driver poked his head out the passenger side window and drawled,

“..Looks like ya’ll in a heap a truh-bul. Wa’s goin’ on?”

“Hey, man ..you missed the SHOW We just fended off a bunch of blood-thirsty coyotes while waiting for someone like yourself to come along to see if we could get some help.. Oh, and we have a busted transmission line, too, I told him, continuing, “..outside of that, it’s been a dull & uneventful but lovely evening, you know? Just kind of an average chillin’ evening, you know..checking out all the stars and all..”

Ya’ll gotta be shuckin’ me, he laughed, Com’on, you schukin’ me?”

So we told him our story.. He then surprised us with the fact that an unchartered motel & rest stop lie just over the hill and not only was there an all-night gas station but a mechanic on duty until 8-am. That’s when my glee was punctuated with a victorious, Tiger Woods-esk, imaginary uppercut “punch,” amidst a sigh of relief.

Upon hearing the good news, the guys yelled out a few expletives. A quick hook up & tow behind the circus truck found us being removed from our scary scenario and ill-gotten fate. 10-miles later down the highway, it took the technician only a half-hour to replace our busted transmission line.

After a sincere & heartfelt “thank you” to the trucker who came to our rescue, the adrenalin present within all of us provided the motivation to continue our journey into the wee hours, pushing further once again across the magnificent Arizona desert.

We had an experience we would never, ever forget, but when all is said and done, we were never so happy as when the circus came to THIS town..

As I hopped into the driver’s seat, with Dave climbing into the passenger side, we both happened to notice Larry had this weird, blank look on his face. Then, he suddenly blurted out,

“Jim… after we got back to the car and the pack left, we forgot to go back and get the flashlight… So, guys ..what do ya think?”

Dave and I looked at each other in disbelief.

I said, “…What do we THINK? .. what do we THINK?”

“WE don’t THINK so,” we said in unison, as we shook our heads in disbelief that he would even remotely think about going back for the flashlight.

                                                  The End

@ COPYRIGHT MASSEY PUBLISHING 2009