Changing Directions

It was early morning when I was in Weed at the gas station, the cold air kept me awake and I turned left just out of Weed onto Interstate 5 ...heading south..its a downhill ride from Weed and soon the temperature was warming , there was no evidence of the sun rising , a few hours and I was getting tired ... I stopped and found a place in Redding California to sleep ..I like sleeping in a car , it feels safe and cave like ...when you wake up you simply tilt your seat up and go ... As I went to sleep then for the next several hours I started thinking , really thinking about the turns and twists of my life ...when I remove myself from all the distractions of life I start thinking about me. Selfish perhaps, but there are some times when you look back, you know how it is ...one day you are six years old , you are chasing dandelions during the day and throwing tantrums when you are told to go to bed ...you feel the first startling twinges of independence , and every thing is new ...so much new you simply can't take it all in , so your mind stores up memories which come flooding back to you when you least expect it. I started to think about my life in terms of memorable periods ...The early years from six to twelve , High School years , Sandy and the serious dating years , First marriage and college , Divorce , college , Student Body President , All Night Cast parties ,Diana , Karen , And my Daughter Kaisa , Store in Sisters , being a volunteer fireman , so many memories . It was like one of those beach cabin Jigsaw puzzles and like them there were some pieces missing ...somewhere around Redding California I made one of those decisions that would seemingly alter the course of my life ..without realizing It I went from driving for the sake of my pleasure to , driving for the sake examining what my life meant , what was my purpose and how did it all seem to come down to this , a lony middle aged man in a beat up car driving relentlessly down 1-5 with no apparent destination.
I did something childlike ..I called my Mother ..I had some questions and I think I was ready to hear the answers .
I wanted to know more about her and more about how she and my father came to know each other , we talked for a while on the phone , oblivious to the roaming charges I Must have racked up a hundred dollar bill on that early Morning conversation. My Mother reminded me that I was not far from some of Her family that had settled in Selma California . They owned land and had harvested Grapes for Sunmaid raisins , fleeing Oklahoma in the dust bowl years they were a part of that great group of Immigrants who settled in Californian in the 1930's ...they were Oakies , and I decided it was time to revisit some of my Kin Folk.