The drive back to Yakima as most of you know is some what a visual shock from the lushness of a cedar forest to the tedious boredom of the dry land wheat country. I can only see so many miles of brown treeless vistas and blue sky baking in the heat. To break the monotony I began to watch the huge lumbering motor homes that were sharing the highway, in particular the names painted on their plastic skins.

Who comes up with the names? What are the psychological implications of these names? Is there a focus group somewhere advising the manufactures on the names? For example does a giant rig named Intruder sell better than a giant rig named Bounder with a picture of a kangaroo? Maybe Intruder is for the type A personalities, it just doesn’t seem like a friendly kind of a thing, and Bounder with a kangaroo doesn’t make me think of a smooth calming ride.

Then there are the Indian names, which make some sense as in the indigenous tribal people traveling from place to place looking for something to eat with the seasons. Although I am not sure that image is one of a luxurious lifestyle. One of my favorite names is Perpetrator, which takes the idea of Intruder to the next level. As in “Hop in honey lets take the old Perp out, for a ride”, or” Its not just a motor home it’s a Perpetrator”

Twenty-Seven years ago this month Liz and I and my brother Gary and his wife rented a motor home named Commander from his undertaker boss for a jaunt to San Francisco. We returned a week later with the plumbing fouled, a six-inch wide tear in the aluminum skin from front to back (picture a sardine can being opened) and the shag carpet crunching underfoot from a half-gallon of spilled pea soup. On the drive home I tried to explain to Gary that a trip like this was all a part of the big tapestry of life. You know the old “its not destination it’s the journey” lecture. Clearly cheering people up is probably not my best interpersonal skill.

We can laugh about it now, but I still cringe when I see an old smoking Commander on the open road. If you own one of these behemoths please don’t get upset at my observations I was just trying to keep my sanity on the long road from Idaho.