Chapter 10

Mikee looked nervously at the guard rail as she eased the van off the ferry. I grinned, said nothing, and sent good vibes her way. She hadn't wanted to drive on and off the ferry, but some mean guy made her.

Wait. That would be me.

At least we chose a good time. It was just after ten. The early birds had left hours ago, and most of the rest of the campers were just starting to stir.

Mikee let out a sigh of relief and parked.

"That wasn't so bad," I said with a big smile.

The look she gave me wasn't friendly.

We switched places. A quick look showed the others had all nodded off. In the middle seat Kelly was leaning against the side of the van, and Tami had her head on Kelly's shoulder. Traci was lying down, her head in Tami's lap.

It made a pretty picture. Which reminded me that I still hadn't used my camera. I put the van in gear and headed out into San Francisco traffic. At least it was Sunday. That should help.

Tami must have enjoyed her night, because she was downright forthcoming. Mikee asked if we were staying or going, and Tami told her right away that we were packing up right after breakfast.

When Robbie asked where, Tami even answered. "East." Which at least narrowed it down.

So, I packed up the tents. Again! And we were, in the words of Willie Nelson, "On the road again."

"We're heading east. Maybe we can get out of California," I said as I stopped for another red light. They seemed to like me.

"You don't like California? I thought you used to live here," Mikee said, glancing down at the driving directions Tami had printed off the internet for me.

"I did, though further south. It's just, campers here get up too early."

"Too early? What difference does... Oh, poor baby. You've had to shower alone."

"Worse. With a bunch of hairy guys."

Mikee laughed, and I guessed I was forgiven for making her drive onto the ferry.

We started out going west on the Embarcadero, turned left onto Powell, then another left onto North Point Street, then right onto the Embarcadero again. And people wonder why I hate cities. I mean, why not just drive on Embarcadero?

Howard Street, First Street, then I-80. Now we were getting somewhere. A few minutes later I merged on 580 heading towards Oakland. Oakland? Wasn't Oakland north of San Francisco? I mean we'd driven through it coming down from Mendocino. Why was I going north when I wanted to go east?

I decided that I didn't want to live in San Francisco.

I turned off the interstate at the next exit and turned into a gas station. While I was filling the tank I checked the directions. Mikee had gotten everything right. Now I was supposed to stay on 580 for sixty miles. I folded the directions and handed them back to Mikee.

"Hey, check it out," she said. I followed her pointing finger. It was a record store. But it was bigger than a supermarket back home. "Can we?"

I thought about it. I had about a hundred miles of directions, but I didn't know if there were more after that or if we were staying there. But most days, Tami didn't have us on the road more than six hours or so. What the hell?

"What the hell?" I said and went to the kiosk to pay for the gas.

Getting across the intersection was easier than I'd thought it would be, though I wouldn't want to try it in weekday traffic. Even though it was Sunday, the parking lot was over half-full.

"Should we wake them?" Mikee asked as I parked.

I was tempted to say no, but the temporary satisfaction of letting them sleep through this was outweighed by the sure knowledge of Robbie's retribution. They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but a woman denied shopping... I didn't even want to think about it.

"Ladies!" I yelled.

Slowly eyes popped open.

"Are we here already?" Tami asked, lifting her head off Kelly's shoulder.

"I don't know where 'here' is supposed to be, but we're somewhere. I made a detour." I pointed.

"Holy... nirvana!" Robbie yelped and was out of her seat and pulling open the van door.

I started wondering if this was such a good idea. Robbie was a music junkie. We might have to cancel our reservations wherever and spend the next week sleeping in this parking lot. At least there was an In-n-Out Burger next door. We wouldn't starve.

While I mused, Robbie was halfway to the store, the other girls not far behind her.

"This was a great idea," Tami said as she got out. "How'd you find it?"

I buffed my fingernails on the front of my t-shirt. "I used to live in California. I know my way around. Mikee cocked her head and looked at me but didn't blow my cover.

The record store took three hours, and that was only because Darlene and I each grabbed one of Robbie's arms and pulled her up to the check-out stand, then out the door. We had lunch at the In-n-Out next door, then hit the road again with Darlene driving this time.

Everybody had new CDs they wanted to play, so I let the expedition leader decide. She did the only fair and equitable thing: she played hers.

An hour-and-a-half later we arrived. San Luis Reservoir State Park. I was really beginning to appreciate the time that Tami must have put into planning this thing. She'd found all these great parks, made the reservations, and printed out driving instructions, even breaking them down into chunks to keep her surprises. And she knew about the karaoke contest in Lincoln City. Now I knew what she was doing during my baseball practices.

Tami went in to the ranger station to check us in, and then we drove to the North Beach campground on O'Neill Forebay. Mental note: find out what a forebay is. It looked like a lake to me. We should have set up camp, but instead we changed into swimming suits in the van and hit the water running. The temperature was parked midway between ninety and a hundred, and damn, that water felt good.

We'd gotten here about three-thirty, but it was after six before I had the tents up. At first I thought we had this camping area to ourselves, and thoughts of skinny dipping and other activities danced in my head, but shortly after I got the tents up, people started showing up. Just a couple at a time, but nobody went to any of the other camping sites, they kind of milled around the front of ours.

"Tami!" I yelled into her tent. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"What?" she said, then stuck her head out and saw the crowd. "Shit! What time is it?" Apparently it was a rhetorical question, 'cause a few seconds later she announced, "We're late."

"Late for what?" I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"The concert. I told them at the ranger station to pass the word that we'd be performing about six-thirty." Tami came out of the tent carrying the huge boom box.

I stopped her and cupped her face in my hands. "Oh love of my life, did you ever consider asking us if we wanted to do a concert?"

She grinned. "Like you and Robbie would ever pass up a chance to play to a crowd."

She had me there. Robbie and I were both USDA Grade A Prime ham.

"Besides, you have to practice," she added.

Practice? Why did we have to practice? I had a feeling there was another karaoke contest or talent show in our future.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Unrehearsed!" Tami announced a couple minutes later. We had a crowd of about a twenty campers and another dozen rangers. Robbie and I started things off with Elton John's Don't Go Breakin' My Heart. Then Traci did a heart-pumping version of the King's Jailhouse Rock. Damn, my little sister can rock the house. Tami had found a karaoke disk for it at the record store.

Almost an hour-and-a-half later Tami took the microphone again. "Hope you liked our practice session. Have a good..."

"Just a minute!" I interrupted. I slipped a disk I'd bought that afternoon into the boom box and took the mike away. "Folks, our tour director is the girl I've asked to marry me, and though her mom says she can't answer me until we graduate, every now and then, I like to remind her just how I feel."

I took Tami's hand and nodded to Traci to hit the play button.

"When your body's had enough of me,

And I'm lying flat out on the floor,

When you think I've loved you all I can,

I'm going to love you a little bit more."