Blew the grandboy’s mind today. He’s a lover of cars, and dances with joy whenever he gets a new Hotwheels or Matchbox car. I also have a collection of cars at a different scale of size and cost.
Up until now, he was aware of the presence of only two of my car replicas. Today I revealed the rest.
These twenty cars have been collected over six years along the many many round-trip visits between my home town and that of my children in my ex-wife’s city. I stop sometimes and get them from a roadside trucker’s stop called Love’s.
I’ve done that trip for six years, twice a month, and twice on almost every visitation weekend (one round trip on Friday after work to collect the child(ren) and another on Sunday afternoon when the weekend was over).
I could get these on-line (here), but they are more than just a collection of trinkets. They are a representation of love in action (yes, the name of the truck stop did not escape me 🙂 ) and of steadfast respect between my children and me. They could have balked at the hours of driving back and forth, and at lost opportunities to be with friends during those weekends, but no, never a complaint.
Those drives – and discussions – in my old vehicle are cherished. Those drives have come to an end; the youngest has entered into adulthood and now comes to my home instead. My final round-trip there will be to see the high school graduation ceremony. Now that the youngest child is self-reliant (travel-wise) and of legal age, there is no further reason for me to return to that city.
I knew that day – the end of our driving visits – would come. This is why I’ve been collecting these statuettes. These are a visual reminder to me every morning when I wake up of how blessed I am to have such a good relationship with my children.