Geez, these are bittersweet memories. My ex-wife and I had divorced, and she was living in Ohio at the time. She had called my parents and told them that my oldest son wanted to come to West Virginia to spend some time with us. So I had worked a long shift at work (12 hours), but if my son wanted to come home I wasn’t going to waste any time. My dad and I drove up to Ohio in the middle of the night. It was surreal. There was hardly any traffic. The roads that normally were cramped and overflowing with traffic were deserted. I kept having to look at road signs just to assure myself we were on the right path.
For mile after mile, we were listening to this radio station. They were playing all the best tunes I could remember, but no commercials! I started wondering if we were picking up a student radio station from Ohio State. Mile after mile this station didn’t waver, my dad and I talked for the first time in years. Not that we had a bad relationship, but with me working such long hours and living in my own house, even though we were in the same community, I had no time to ‘catch up’. So that night, on a dark, deserted 4-lane in Ohio, we had plenty of time to talk.
At one point, we saw this most beautiful Mosque; lit up like a stadium all alone in the darkness. It’s spirals and towers gleaming white, and breaking out of the surrounding darkness like a brilliant, full moon in an otherwise black sky. I’m telling you this was surreal!
We finally reached our destination in the early morning hours, where my ex (who was living with her brother at the time) showed us to some guest rooms where we could sleep. That was probably 30 years ago, but its the road trip I remember most.
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