LEWIS AND CLARK

Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho set out to head west. We could be like Lewis and Clark except we went by ourselves. We did not find any Native Americans. We did not cross any rivers or creeks. We did not chart any unknown territory. We did not encounter a single wild beast.

Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho knew exactly where they were going. They were heading west in search of adventure. All of Grandpa Sancho’s grandkids like to go on adventures of one kind or another.

Not only did Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho know exactly where they were going, they even had a road to follow. It was a very special road. We all in our little community thought it had disappeared. It was all grown up with tumbleweeds about 5 or 6 feet tall. Well, they looked that tall. Actually, which incidentally is Don Andrew’s favorite word, Grandpa Sancho had intended to run an ad in the local newspaper seeking folks to adopt a tumbleweed and either paint it with spray paint or decorate it. Coming down one of the widest streets in town it appeared as though there was a jungle of those weeds at the end of the street.

Grandpa Sancho did not get to run that ad in the newspaper because all of a sudden we had one of those 60 mile per hour winds, which is not abnormal for West Texas, and all the tumbleweeds blew over into our yards. This saved the railroad company a fortune because each of us had to put our own tumbleweed in the dipsy dumpster. We surely did miss out on what could have been a colorful Christmas.

Yes, you guessed it. Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho headed west on the railroad. His Mom used to go with Grandpa Sancho when she was about his age. We had many adventures and found so many treasures. These we hid so we could come back later and get them. We did this nearly every day so we never really ever returned to collect the treasures, but we had lot’s of fun together. Not so with Don Andrew.

As we traveled west, Don Andrew found so many old, used railroad spikes he had to put them in Grandpa Sancho’s pockets. We found two bridges to go over, although they are just for drains (or draws) and not for rivers or creeks. By the time we got to the last bridge Grandpa Sancho had to confess to our young knight that the railroad spikes had become too heavy for Grandpa Sancho’s britches and if we were going to take them to his dump pile (where he keeps valuable rocks and other findings), we would need to turn around quickly and return home.

Don Andrew looked back to how far we had come and told his old squire that it would take so long to get home that the family would be eating breakfast when we ate dinner (Don Andrew’s Dad is from California so he calls it dinner). As we proceeded in an easterly direction Grandpa Sancho began to agree with his brave young grandson.

Lewis and Clark had many good things for their trip west. Grandpa Sancho knows this because he just read a little about their trip on a website by the title Lewis and Clark. Of course they did not have the web nor did Lewis and Clark have a cell phone. About a third of the way home, Grandpa Sancho got a call from Don Andrew’s Mom who immediately came to our rescue in that magnificent adventure machine, their Suburban. Guess what? Grandpa Sancho and Don Andrew made it home for a fine dinner of Grandma Sancha’s finest venison. What a treat! We were nearly starved to death.

WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE & P. F. FLYERS

Now, what in the world do those two subjects have in common? It might just be their relation to the same boy.

Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho began early on one of our more recent adventures. For some reason there was a Jo Jo’s Circus marathon and we decided that one or two of those were enough. It was raining just a little but Don Andrew still wanted to go to the park. This we did and Don Andrew got to do the monkey bars numerous times.

But It was now time to return home. Don Andrew has no concept of time, unless it is snack time and he is hungry. Anyway we headed for the house with Don Andrew on his bike. Of course, after about a couple of blocks he ran off the road and got it down in the grass and the wheel wouldn’t work correctly (down there) so he thought he should ride Grandpa Sancho’s shoulders home and we would just carry his bicycle. Don Andrew figures things out quite well.

Back home it was snack time, of course, so we had a few grapes. Then it was out to the front yard where we rounded up a pretty tall pile of Don Andrew and Grandpa Sancho swords (sticks). We continue to share a very strong sense of adventure.

The Duke was raking leaves which gave our very brave knight a marvelous idea. He would swing on his rope and land in the pile of leaves. This he did many times but the pile seemed to always scatter out so we had to round those leaves up again.

Don Andrew reared back and got a very healthy swing at things, missed the pile of leaves, and crashed into the tree with his back. With this, our brave young knight did not even shed a tear. He only remembered the time in the back yard and the faithful or was it fateful words of George of the Jungle, Watch out for that tree!

This brings us to another issue. It seems that after Grandpa Sancho and Grandma Sancha came back to West Texas, our brave young knight was in a local department store. It seemed there was a big sale on something like Converse tennis shoes. They were high tops and resembled the P. F. Flyers Bennie the Jet Rodriquez wore to jump the fence and outrun the beast in Sandlot. It became very important to Don Andrew that he have a pair of those P. F. Flyers. Neither his Dad nor his Mom wanted to get them since they went in for a different brand. If my Grandpa was here he would buy them for me.

I just guess Grandpa Sancho and Grandma Sancha will have to make another trip to see Don Andrew soon because that boy needs to run faster and jump higher.