The Road to Hawaii

 I've had this on my mind all day today, and so I aim to exorcise this gentle musing by sharing it with others who don't mind remembering Rex, "warts and all" as they say.

It's been ten years now. A lot has changed. 2 of his daughters have joined him on the other side. I don't know how "with him" they are, and I don't think on it overmuch. To me, for the most part, Tammy is finally getting a good long rest. (And that loss has been going-on 4 years now. Unbelieveable.

It came to me, this errant memory, in bits and pieces, 

It came to me from a dream, something in the dream that jarred loose the memory. I don't remember how, or why, but Hawaii had come up in conversation with my sisters and my remaining daughter, and I remembered that Rex sometimes said he wouldn't mind going to Hawaii. 

Other times he had said he'd actually like to go, but there was no way he was flying that far for that long.

He'd rather drive. 

At the time, I just kind of gaped at him. 

People who wanted to drive to Hawaii were something of a joke that didn't quite make it for a Darwin Award nomination, but they weren't far off.

I said Hawaii is way, way, way out in the ocean."

He said there were bridges.

I asked him if he'd drive a submarine. Just silly talk, y'know. 

He vetoed the submarine. It was just the same (!?) as a crashed airplane.

I said he'd have to go on a boat if he ever wanted to go.

He informed me  something along the lines of 'oh yeah, they use ferries where they can't have bridges. Ferry boats. 

"Uhhhhhh." 

My memory ends, with giggles, on that note. And I don't remember exactly where in our time together this conversation took place. It may have been more than once. I certainly don't remember the exact words we used. 

I think it was probably more than once, as memory tugs at me with more details, but are those real or am I creating them now to have a whole story. 

Among the words I'm not sure of, is a mini-discussion of the kinds of boats that go to Hawaii, and his conclusion that if they shipped your car as well as you, then it would be a ferry for you and your car. 

This memory has warmed me, and made me smile off and on all day today. It was good to hear his voice again, if only in my mind.