Big Night with Big Phil

A lot of you from Greene county Indiana will appreciate this, especially you, Beech. Leave us your current email when you comment.

The main thing in life that makes it so interesting, exciting, and meaningful is knowing different people. I've been blessed (is that the right word?) with a lot of interesting characters for friends in my life. One of the more interesting is Big Phil. I don't have the time or words to sufficiently describe him here. Let's just say that he grew up with me as part of the Tulip gang and he became very good at wiffle ball, badminton, and unintentional comedy. Big Phil was like family, and nomatter what we had going in life Big Phil always seemed to show up. That was until about the turn of the millenium when he felt the call of the open road, or something like that. Big Phil became a wanderer, a feather in the wind, a ramblin' man. I received calls here and there and heard rumors about his whereabouts, his adventures, and misadventures, but physical encounters were sparse to say the least.

Last Thursday Big Phil called to say that he, his big truck, and his new sidekick were in Gallup, New Mexico. "I'm coming back from LA on I-40 to the midwest. Why don't you come down and see me and my new lady."
Since it was 6:00pm on a weeknight and Gallup is only 90 minutes away, how could we refuse that invitation? We first had to go by one of my student's homes for a birthday party. Since the family had the wood stove cranked up on a 60 degree day to where the indoor temperature was in serious danger of melting my contacts, I was happy to tell them that we could not stay because we had to get to Gallup to see an old friend. They understood and sent us on our way with some frybread.
We rolled into Luv's truckstop around 8:00 pm and easily spotted Big Phil in his big, blue truck. He excitedly gave us a tour of his home on wheels and introduced us to his newest sidekick named Rita. We then took them out to eat to the El Rancho where John Wayne himself used to hangout. Big Phil excitedly filled us in on the life of a trucker in between bites of green chile. He had Tracy so drawn into the stories and nuances of his profession that I was half afraid that I would be returning to Tsaile alone.
After we dropped Tracy off at Walmart to kill two birds with one stone I got to see Big Phil's big engine underneath his big, snub-nosed hood. After that it was time for some shut-eye for him and Rita and nighttime driving on the Rez for us, which is always an adventure because you can count on dodging cattle, sheep, and horses every couple miles or so.

There you have it, Big Phil has his wheels back beneath him and is going strong with Rita in tow. He wants to know when we can get together again sometime with Zach, CJ, Jarrod, and Tommy to hit the wiffle ball and reel in some Crane pond cats.
Only time will tell for a ramblin' man.