Wow, this is a long story but hopefully an interesting one. If nothing else I hope to show that it's not the destination as much as the trip getting there. Oh and that you can survive traveling with kids.

After leaving the bison in our dust we started heading for For Nelson as hard as we could. I still thought we'd make it there by bed time but alas it wasn't meant to be I guess. After a couple of hours of driving I had to fuel up again and began the search for a gas station. This is where a Milepost is essential because once you get the hang of reading it (backwards in our case) you can find pretty much anything. The only thing it didn't tell us was that alot of gas stations had stopped selling gas because they couldn't afford to pay for it. This is when gas was at its highest mark of 2008.

Most of the people we met along the way were very nice and friendly towards us. They only real jerk we met was when we found a gas station that was still pumping (thankfully). It was an old rundown looking store and it fit in well with the countryside. When we pulled into the driveway I noticed a guy stomping back and forth beside his car yelling at another young guy that was pumping gas. At first I just couldn't figure out what I was seeing but it quickly became apparent that the driver was berating the gas pumper. After I pulled up i figured the driver would calm down realizing he wasn't alone but he never even looked our way. I got out to start pumping my gas and that was when I heard the names being hurled at this poor gas pumper, I couldn't believe my ears, it was blistering to put it mildly.

Now I'm a pretty easy going guy, having 4 kids you almost have to be, but I couldn't just stand by and listen to this jerk call the gas pumper every name in the book and a few I think he made up on the spot. I looked back into the cab of the RV at my wife to make sure she was watching my back and then proceded to walk over to where the scene was taking place. The driver was totally unaware of my approach until I yelled out at him to shut his trap. "I got kids in the RV and they don't need to hear this kinda of crap so knock it off." They both jerked around and looked at me, I could almost see the relief in the gas pumpers face when it dawned on him that I wasn't talking to him but to the driver. The driver looked me up and down and then told me to F-off. Now I'm 6'4" and at the time weighed in at around 280 so I'm not a real small fella but I tend to slouch somewhat. After he said that I pulled myself upright and asked him just what the pumper had done. He pointed to his car and started yelling about how this guy had poured gas all over his car side. I looked and could see where some gas had spilled onto the guy's paint job but I still didn't see why he went off so I told him so. He started in on me then gesturing wildly at the spot and winding himself back into a fever pitch. I walked a little closer and told him that it would be best if he just got in his car and drive off before things got out of hand.

I don't know if it was the look on my face or the fact that my wife had came out of the RV with our camping hatchet to back me up that caused him to pause but pause he did. After a couple of seconds he got back in his car, slamming the door and floored it. The gas pumper had moved back somewhat in the meantime but he still got a face full of gravel slung on him by the car. After the driver left I turned to the pumper to check on him and make sure he was alright as my wife was getting back in the RV and trying to keep the kids from coming out. I finally got a real good look at the fellow and realized he had Downs or something much like it. He thanked me for running the other guy off and I asked him if he was here alone to which he said "Daddy's inside but he don't feel good today so he let me pump the gas". He was beaming by then and I told him I wanted to get a soda. So he finished pumping my gas while I went to get a drink I didn't need and to see if his dad was there. He was as it turned out, He was laying on a cot in the office and called out when I came in thinking it was his boy. I called back and he came out to wait on me. He was an older fellow maybe mid-fifties but he had a strange walk. I went and got the drink as he made his way to the counter, once I got there I asked him if he was alright. He just laughed a little and said yeah he had fallen and messed his knee up alittle so was in the back icing it up before heading into town later that night to get it looked at.

We talked for a minute and then I wished him well and went back out to the RV. The boy had finished pumping the gas by then and wyping off the windshield so I gave him a little something and climbed back into the cab. We waved and started on the road once more. Looking back I wish I had gotten his name, he seemed like a rather nice fella and I hoped things would be alright with his dad's knee.

We continued down the road for awhile and then the kids started getting cranky like they wanted us to feed them or something so my wife grabbed the Milepost and we found a little place on Pink Mountian called Sasquach Crossing. The kids were in favor but the wife wanted to try something else saying it couldn't possibly be any good. I asked her to check the book to see what else was up ahead but she couldn't find anything else close by so it was decided, off to Sasquach Crossing and find out what waited for us there.