From Cracker Barrel To Peak 6

One fun thing to do on road trips is randomly fall in love. The first time this ever happened to me was at a Crackle Barrel somewhere in Kentucky. It was one of the hostesses who cast her spell over me. She was an incredibly enthusiastic person who took it upon herself to decide for my buddy Jarves and me what we should order, since we were overwhelmed with the numerous options, all of which looked good. We chatted with her for quite a while, mainly about food and Nashville, before we were seated, and she continued to check in with us throughout the meal just to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. We then hung around afterwards and talked to her some more, because being in love makes you do things like that. (Jarves was in love, too.) We finally left after buying some jelly beans. We soon deemed her the Cracker Barrel Girl, and we even vowed to write a song, appropriately titled Cracker Barrel Girl. Alas, we never did write that song, but it’s not because we weren’t in love with her.

All had been quiet on the Falling In Love On A Road Trip front until my recent trip to Washington. My buddy Lurch and I stopped at a Peak 6 Adventure Store in Olympic National Park and found ourselves face to face with a beautiful surfer girl who was running the place. After talking to her for about a half of a second, I had fallen madly in love. Lurch, seeing this, wandered off to let me work my magic, by which I mean he hoped I would eventually make a gigantic fool of myself. Anyway, not only was the surfer girl beautiful, she was also funny, sarcastic, and incredibly good natured. Also, if I hadn’t made this clear already, she was beautiful. There was nobody else in the store, and she seemed quite happy to chat, probably because she was awesome and beautiful, so we discussed Olympic National Park for quite a long while before I even began to look around the store. My only misstep was when she asked me if we had seen any wildlife, to which I proudly responded, “We saw a giant slug!” While it was true, it wasn’t one of my better lines.

The Giant Slug

I finally tore myself away from her long enough to purchase several items. (Even if I didn’t find anything I liked, I would have bought something just for an excuse to talk to her again, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.) Either being in love with me, or more likely just a good salesperson, she complimented me on my choices, to which I most likely grinned stupidly and babbled incoherently. (By this point my last few vestiges of suaveness had worn off.) Then we chatted some more. This time we talked about how Bigfoot was misunderstood, and how he was probably was a pretty cool guy who just didn’t like publicity.

However, all good things must come to an end, and soon an annoying lady showed up at the store, barged in, and started to tell us all, without provocation, about how she collected rocks or something. It pretty much broke the entire spell, and Lurch and I were soon forced to leave.

So now I’m in love, even though I know I’ll probably never see her again and that her seeming willingness to talk for hours was just because she was a genuinely nice person. (Sounds like I should write a song!) However, I’m a firm believer in fate, so if it’s written in the stars, someday I’ll run into her again. Perhaps she’ll even read this blog. (Hey! You’re beautiful! We saw a giant slug!) But even if that doesn’t happen, it was still worth it, because falling in love randomly on a road trip is always a rewarding experience. I just hope the Cracker Barrel Girl doesn’t find out.