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.