One of the things that my mother was notorious of was always wanting to surprise people.
Her entire life, she really seemed to enjoy surprising others. On her travels, she brought this to an entirely different level. She would simply show up on the doorsteps of friends and family who had no idea that she would be there. This was long before the days of social media, so in most instances, people had no idea that she was in the area. Many times, they didn’t even know that she embarked on her solo road trip across the country.
I did a leg of that trip with her down the east coast from Pennsylvania to Florida between my Junior and Senior year of high school. On just that short span, she thought that it would be a great idea to stop and surprise my cousin, Paul, or “Tink” as we still called him. He was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps, stationed at Quantico. Sure enough, she thought that it would be “neat” to show up unannounced on his doorstep at about 7:15 in the morning. We arrived in his driveway, and the debate started. She wanted me to go up and ring his doorbell and tell him that I was lost. I said, “No way!” Tink was the oldest of our cousins on my mom’s side, and to say that he was an intimating figure would be an understatement of epic proportions. He was a former Division I college football player and as I had mentioned earlier, currently a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. I hadn’t seen him since I was probably about 11 or 12 years old. The thought of a soon to be 17-year-old kid with a mullet waking up a Marine at 7:15 AM by ringing his doorbell just didn’t seem like it would end well for said soon to be 17-year-old with a mullet.
However, debating with my mother was rarely a winnable task, so, there I was walking up to Tink’s door, stopping and turning around and seeing my mother, then continuing what would surely be my death walk to the front door. I sheepishly rang the doorbell and anxiously waited for my certain demise.
Tink answered the door in his gym shorts and torn up t-shirt and I went about the routine of saying that I was lost as my mom quickly sprung out from around the corner, yelling, “Well I figured if you wouldn’t be able to make it to the family reunion, we had to stop by and see you on our way to it!”
“Aunt Loretta! …and is this, Danny!? Oh my God, you’re so big now!” Tink exclaimed. “What a great surprise! What are you guys doing here?”
There it was, she did it. Tink was so happy to see us. He immediately invited us into the house and introduced us to his wife and stepson, who neither of us had even met yet. I can only imagine what they may have been thinking at that moment.
Funny thing is, as I’ve gotten older, I find myself doing so many of the same things that my mother did that I said I would never do. Loving to surprise our friends and family is one of those things.
A few weeks ago, after we had gotten some service performed on the RV, we would be heading to Midlothian, Texas from Waller, Texas. Although Midlothian is almost directly north of Waller, there is no direct route between the two. You either have to take I-35 through Waco to the west or I-45 to the east.
I had been messaging one of our fellow full-time RV friends, Mike McIlraith about our service issues and asked him what part of Texas they were currently in. He informed me that he was taking some courses at the National RV Training Academy in Athens, Texas. After a quick Google search, I realized that if we took the I-45 route to Midlothian, that it wasn’t a major detour for us to swing through Athens and surprise Mike and his wife, Terri.
So I made reservations at the Texan RV Park where Mike and Terri were staying because it was right next to the school. I didn’t say anything to Mike or Terri because I wanted to surprise them. I also didn’t say anything to Sandy about it either, because I really enjoy surprising her, too.
Once we arrived, we took Youk for a walk around the RV Park so that I could figure out where Mike and Terri’s site was at. They threw me a bit of a curve, because there was a truck in the site where the RV that looked like theirs was at. I hadn’t realized that they had purchased a new truck since that last time we had seen them. After some research to confirm that the RV was, indeed, their RV, “Sally.” I told Sandy to take a short walk with me. Of course she wanted to know why, but I insisted, by saying, “Just come here, I want to show you something.”
We walked over to Mike and Terri’s rig, Mike was still in class, so I called Terri and asked to look out of her window.
“Oh my God! What are you guys doing here?!” She shouted as she came running out of their rig to greet us with hugs. Sandy was quite surprised as well, so mission accomplished!
However, we also had a little surprise in store for us. As we were talking with Terri, she told us that Tom and Theresa Cooper, another couple from our Y2V volunteer friends group was there as well. Tom was also taking courses at the school. All three of our sites were probably within 300 feet of each other. So, Terri, Sandy, and I started walking over to Tom and Theresa’s rig. As we walked up to it, it was really funny because when we had Youk out for his walk, he started pulling us into Tom and Theresa’s site. Almost as though he knew that some of “his people” were in that site. Tom and Theresa are also big fans of Youk and his writing skills.
Sandy knocked on the door of their rig and Theresa invited her in, thinking that it was Laura Kernodle, yet another Y2V volunteer friend who was also going to be stopping in for a visit. Theresa was pleasantly surprised when she realized that it was Sandy walking into her rig.
The entire situation could not have been any more perfect.
We surprised Mike and Terri (and Sandy) as planned, yet we were surprised to know that we’d also be surprising Tom, Theresa, Laura, and Rob. We had only met Rob and Laura one day when we stopped in to help out on a project on our way through Vancleave, Mississippi back in 2022.
The eight of us went out to dinner that night and had a great time.
I say it often, the RV community is an amazing community of people. When we get together with our full-time RV friends, there is rarely anything other than smiles and laughter throughout the room.
After dinner, Rob and Laura were headed north to deliver a desk to their family and the rest of us went back to the campground.
Theresa was flying to California the next day, so our timing was perfect that we were able to see her before she left.
We went to trivia night with Mike and Terri the next night and again had a great time.
Friday morning, we would be heading to Midlothian for my book signing, so we said our good-byes when we got back from trivia.
Terri did come over to the RV before we left on Friday morning to give Youk some hugs and kisses, which he was very appreciative for. Youk is always excited to see Terri. One time in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he was so excited to see her that he knocked his baby gate into the screen door trying to get to her. The duct tape on our screen door is always a reminder of how much Youk loves Terri. He’s also a big fan of Mike, because Mike gave him bacon one time in Florida. Funny the things that a dog will remember.
Our visit in Athens was short, but special. We gave our hugs, Youk got his special pets, and we drove off to Midlothian for my book signing.
We will get to reunite with both Mike and Terri and Tom and Theresa in just a few short weeks at our next volunteer project at the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, California. Our schedule has not allowed us to be on a volunteer project since September of 2022, so we are really looking forward to seeing a bunch of our old friends and doing some work that matters. The people who we have met on our volunteer projects are some of our best friends. We may not get to see them often because of my book signing schedule, but when we do, we always make the most of it.
Isn’t that really what true friendship is all about anyway? Picking up where you left off, regardless of how much time may have passed.
When you have a chance, don’t be afraid to surprise a friend every once in a while, and just show up. You might be surprised yourself just how much it may make their day, and yours, too.
Dan I am getting such a kick out of reading abou you & Sandy’s travels!!