Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

September 01, 2003

The other night, we got in our car...

...and headed down to Texas…

Friday, was our nephew, Corban’s second birthday. Today was Corban’s mom, Sarah’s birthday. And this was a three-day weekend… Well, we couldn’t miss a chance like that! So, Friday night, at 11:30pm, we jumped in our car and headed down to Duncanville, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). It was completely unplanned; a total secret to Luke and his family. This was going to be a surprise that wouldn’t soon be forgotten.

The drive was insane. About four hours into the drive — somewhere outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma — the rain started. It wasn’t just a shower. It was torrential. Lightening and thunder occurred simultaneously; over our head as if trying to blast us off of the highway. The rain created a blanket in front of us that only allowed about thirty yards of vision. After missing one of the highways that we wanted, we drove on our alternate route, completely alone, at about 50 miles per hour. Except for the glaring beams of our headlights against the downpour of rain, it was pitch black and scary.

Somewhere north of the Texas border, I finally had to take a break. I found a road that turned off of the highway and deadended into a pseudo cul de sac. I was only able to sleep for about twenty minutes but, thankfully, Julianna was ready to drive for a while. This gave me an additional, much needed hour of rest.

After finding our way to the SIL campus, we rolled up to the trailer home that my brother and his family are living in. It was 9:30am. Quietly, we exited the car and crept up to their front door (it was hard for us to keep from laughing out loud because of our excitement). After listening for voices inside the trailer, we knocked on the door and waited. When it opened, we yelled, “Happy Birthday!” The shock and happiness expressed by Luke and Sarah was definitely well worth the long night’s drive.

The weekend was awesome. We just hung out together. We played games. We talked. We mostly just took it easy and enjoyed eachother’s company (singing “Happy Birthday” whenever the spirit hit). Seeing family is priceless — yes, it was a silly, spontaneous idea, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

In a year or so, Luke and his family will ship off to some third world country in Southeast Asia to work in linguistics, and we won’t be able to just get up and drive a few hours to see them. I thank God that Julianna I got this chance, this Labor Day weekend.

And you know what else we got to see along the way? The Gateway Country headquarters in Dallas, TX, the Amazon.com warehouse nesteld in the countryside of Oklahoma, a fire station that was completely burnt out from the inside (oops!) in McAllister, OK, and somewhere or another touted themselves as the “Home of Cowboys and Italians” (go figure). That particular town was having a prison rodeo and Italian food festival this weekend!. Too much fun.

After three days of wild abandon, Julianna and I are back to face a fairly normal, scheduled life. I can’t wait for the next opportunity for spontaneity.

And, of course, pictures will follow…

P.S. We’ve been on two long trips in our Volkswagen Beetle now. This car is, by far, the best travelling vehicle I have ever travelled in. It’s a smooth ride, comfortable, and gets great mileage — not to mention, it cuts through rain like a knife. I love this car!

P.P.S. Some friends of ours (Todd & Deanne) love their car too (for obvious reasons) and are also travelling in Texas — begin reading about there travels here.

Posted at 9:20 pm

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