trip to sequoia

ch.13 

A New Life cont. 

     Lee started the old Ford and Susie got all excited as she was getting to go along as they headed for the new shop. Lee had found an old gas station on what was once the National Road. These were some of the first gas stations in the world , The National Road was one of the first east- west routes to have converted to hard pavement after being used by stagecoaches and covered wagons. Lee had found one possibly built in the late 30’s by some enterprising couple out of readily available bricks  , and was probably as ultra-modern as some of the chrome and steel structures we see in use today. These mom and pops, as they were called are  being replaced by corporate owned  self serves all over the country , and eventually there will be no more around except these old shells of a station that were left behind in the move to greater technology. Lee hoped that the new gas stations would soon go the same way as the mom and pops and be replaced by electric charging stations at little places like his he was renting. That eventually we would  lose our dependence on oil as a major staple,  and begin driving electric vehicles powered by solar cells and an extension cord. Longer trips would require recharging and little places like his old gas station  would soon dart up again across the country to fill a need , much the same as they did in the years the first stations were built along the National Road.

     Even a so called hybrid which amounted to a gas generator being paired alongside a generator in a car and technology using the fact that no matter where you go there is always hills some you climb and some you roll down the other side. Unless you are climbing a mountain all day then around 50 percent of the time you are either rolling down a hill or up and if you follow the same route as most people do daily then this would be equal to fifty percent up hill and fifty  percent downhill.  Then what was a hill  you climb going someplace is now a hill you are rolling down coming back . Lee being one who thought about these things constantly often figured that if you had a generator on each wheel that also was paired with a motor that would make use of gravity and convert this electricity from the act of rolling down hills into a charge on the batteries so that when you rolled up the hill that same power would be used to roll back up again. Likewise when you stopped a vehicle the generators would be put into a full charge mode creating drag on the car stopping the vehicle. And starting would increase demands on the battery you had just charged and would soon have you rolling again. With a gas generator and taking full advantage of all forces and placing solar panels on top of cars to charge when sitting still , one could easily achieve mileages of 100 miles to the gallon and have virtually cost free driving. Unless we let corporate America take over and screw it for us all. Somehow they will find a way to meter it thought Lee as he pulled the old pickup into  the driveway of his new business.

     Ann had offered him a job at the Gunnite corporation but Lee felt he needed to pursue his carving career, he felt he had some talent at it as people readily bought them up when he offered them for sale.  . His larger carvings he had already moved into place in his carving area and some finished ones were set out along the road. Already there had been a flurry of visitors to his shop and he planned on having an open house where he would let the public come and see what he had accomplished.

    Lee took Susie in the old musty building and grabbed the old wooden garage door and gave it a lift and it creaked open slowly revealing dust trails in the air that drifted down on them as they stood in the bay of the old garage. Boxes of tools and smaller carvings dotted the floor, a lot of cleaning needed to be done. Lee tied Susie up so she wouldn't roam and be hit on the road .Then  placed a pan of water and some food and an old moving quilt to lay on and grabbed a tennis ball out of one of the boxes to amuse herself with and soon she was playing with it.

      Lee set about arranging things in his new garage and found his coffee pot in one of the boxes and soon was enjoying a cup of coffee thinking about all he had to do. He found an old wooden chair and sat down after sweeping the dust off, sat and contemplated his strategy for being a successful carver. His plan was to produce eight carvings a week with a projected selling price of one hundred dollars each. He could sell for less if needed , but he needed to have at five hundred a month to pay rent and utilities and insurance . This wasn’t going to buy him food and or help him pay rent at Ann’s house , but she never really expected him to anyhow. She had plenty of money and owned the house anyhow. She was glad to finally he him where she wanted for now. Lee checked his phone and saw he had a text message from Ann saying ‘ Here’s to new beginnings ours and yours. ‘ Lee smiled knowing she meant that it was a new beginning to their relationship and a new beginning to him as he was doing something he had never done before . Just work for himself. Lee sent her a thank you, and have a good day,  then  pocketed his phone.

       Lee sat and finishd his coffee thinking about how things went over the past couple of months and sad as he was to not be able to keep the farm , how relieved he was to finally be free of the responsibility of making it all work for his family. Then again, did it work much more than provide his family with a place to sleep and eat in and what kind of price did they have to pay for it over the years?  Broken bones, a bad back, the cancer Darla his mom had could be attributed somewhat to their lifestyle. The many nights and cold mornings when the cows needed fed, the kicks in the legs when calves or cows sensed you were to close. The scraped knuckles and bloody fingers sliced as one would try to fix this or that by himself. At times it would have been easier to do the nine to five, or even work at a factory and forget the farming stuff as no matter how much  money one was paid for farming it was never enough. Only to find in the end of your life your only reward was that you tried as hard as you could to make it. No amount of money would ever make it worthwhile. But now he had a chance to spend his waning years finally doing what he wanted to do all along and that is being creative. Lee cranked up the radio and soon found himself cleaning again as the dust wafted up from hidden places and filled the bay of the garage looking for new places to lay and clouding ones view of Lee as he embarked on new adventures.