call_me_chas (call_me_chas) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2010-06-20 16:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | car, chas, deacon, nia |
Georgia Sunday
Charlie had been as organised as it was possible for him to be and, so far, things appeared to be going according to plan.
A nice man with a beer gut and a moustache had met them at the airport and had taken them out to where the camper van was parked, complete with child seat. They had fillled in the paperwork, accepted the keys and had driven straight to the nearest market to stock up on fuel and food.
"So?" Charlie asked, having left this bit of the itinerary to Deacon, "where shall we go first?"
"Well," Deacon said, looking over a map, "there's the Motorsports Hall of Fame." He grinned and looked at Nia. "Lots of fast cars."
"Vrooom!" Nia said excitedly and kicked her feet and Deacon chuckled.
"There's also some wooden dinosaurs in Gatlinburg. Stone Mountain is cool too."
"Dinosaurs," Charlie said, "oh wow, we're going to be busy. And north Georgia is very pretty. might get some painting done."
"Wanna paint," Nia said. "Wanna paint now. Or colour?"
Charlie grunted and fished a colouring book and some crayons from the bag in the foot well and put them on the car seat table - he had specified one with a table - and Nia said, "N'kyou, Daddy," and began to leaf through the book.
Charlie turned on the engine and glanced at Deacon. "Where to, navigator?"
"Let's hit the Hall of Fame first before she gets to bored then we can entertain her with the outdoorsy stuff," he said and punched in the address on the GPS that came with the camper.
Charlie grinned and took the right exit from the car park and took care to drive very safely, if perhaps a bit annoyingly to the speed fiends around him. After the second one honked him he sighed and said, "how fast AM i supposed to be going? This isn't a Porsche. It's a big-ass truck with a loo in it. It's like driving a bungalow."
"Gotta keep up with the speed limit, Mouse," Deacon said with a grin. "Big truck or not. Would you rather me drive?"
"No," Charlie said with the merest suspicion of a pout. "I think I can manage - as far as the museum anyway." And he speeded up too, to try and match the speed of the other traffic, very few of whom seemed to be observing the limit with any particular care.
Soon enough they arrived at the Motorsports Hall of Fame and once inside even Nia seemed impressed. Deacon of course was loving every second as he looked at the old cars, the pictures, read the accounts of various races.
"Hey they have a section on cross country races," he said.
"As well they might," Charlie said. "They are things of legend. Let's go see. It might just be stills from The Cannonball Run."
Deacon chuckled and they headed to the display. They oohed and aaahhed over what they saw until Deacon did a double take at one picture. "Is that...?"
"Oh," Charlie said and bit his lip. The photo was fantastic - partially blurred with the speed at which the vehicles were travelling but one, the old black Challenger, was sufficiently sharp for Charlie to recognise it as it sped past a bright red Suzuki. "Oh," he said again. "Car."
"Car!" Nia exclaimed, bouncing on Deacon's hip and pointing.
"Holy sh - err - crap," Deacon breathed. "It is Car. Well lookie there, our girl was immortalized."
"Yes," Charlie said in a very small tight voice and reached into his pocket for a tissue. "I remember you doing that - overtaking there. I think, if you look very closely, you can see that I'm screaming." He blew his nose, a sharp honk that echoed around the room.
A few people looked at them but Deacon just smiled at the picture - and the memory. "She was a good car," he said with a nod. "C'mon, let's see what else they've got."