Boys of Summer book Entry #32

June 19, 2004 - Annamaria

Las Vegas, NV

It was pretty amazing hitting the road. We stopped at Radio Shack right by our place (in Vegas) for something right before getting on the freeway and it suddenly hit me, “here we go!”. I called my dad to say we were leaving. He said, “Already!?”

I love road trips. But there was a piece of me that felt like, “Should I be here?” This trip was for Bob and his dad and I didn’t want anyone to fuss or worry about me.

June 19, 2004 - Dan

Grand Canyon, AZ

We were up by 9:30 a.m. and began to pack. Loading the Explorer was an adventure that got us thinking about what we’ll do when Paulette and Annamaria join us from New York to Toronto.

We were finally under way shortly after noon. We arrived at the Grand Canyon at about 5 p.m.

Bob:

After dinner, I pulled dad aside for an interview.

BC:

Are you scared?

DC:

No, I’m not scared. I’m confident. We got a lot of people supporting us. Both people we know and people we don’t. I guess, we know them all we just haven’t met them yet. That’s the right phrase, isn’t it?

BC:

What do you think about the phrase “common good”?

DC:

Hopefully this (trip) would be for the common good. The idea is to try to develop awareness amongst the population for Parkinson’s so this certainly would fit into Bob’s idea of “common good”. Nah, my idea too. I’ve heard a lot about common good over the last couple days and I’m promised I’ll hear a lot more. So I may not be the same person when this is all over. We’ll see.

BC:

How are you feeling physically right now?

DC:

Physically I feel fine. I got a good night’s sleep. As long as I’m getting enough sleep, getting enough to eat -- one beer a day, that’s reasonable.

******

Dan:

We stayed up to watch and photograph the sunset. Beautiful! Bob and I played some cribbage, then off to bed. We put up the tents and because the air pump for the mattress was broken, I slept on two pillows.