Wonderwall

It was the summer of 1995. I'd bought my brother in law's 63 split window Volkswagon van and was "in love" with Christy (can you believe I can't remember her last name?) and when I went home to Maple Ridge she went home to Llyodminister. She was a serious country girl and I was a long haired, drug addled semi alcoholic with passion, flair and a touch of charisma that I guess she thought was cool when we were at Uni. I missed her and decided that an epic road trip was in order. I let her know that during a 4 day long weekend I was going to drive up to see her and spend a day and a half with her before driving all the way back again.

I left work on the Thurs night and drove off, taking full advantage of the summer sun being up long enough to get past the Coquihala in one push. The van had no stereo and so I had bought a dozen batteries for my old cassette stereo and plonked it on the dashboard. Just out of Hope, grinding up the Coq the song Wonderwall came on. I don't know what it is about that song that gets me every time but I cranked it up, sang along and was totally alive!!

I made it to Jasper in the very wee hours of Friday morning. Got gas and bought a giant coffee. I had a brief 10min power nap while I waited for the coffee to cool and then I set off again. Just outside of Edmonton something went wrong... The van spluttered, jerked and died. I managed to flag a car down, standing on the side of the road, next to a VW van and wearing my UofA Arts t-shirt. All that was missing was a cigarette!

A nice tow driver towed me to a close garage and as it was a short trip let me off with a $20 charge. The mechanic asked me if there was gas in the tank. I said yeah, the gauge showed just under a quarter tank. He opened the gas cap, poured in a couple liters of gas and turned the key. Of course, much to my dismay, it fired up immediately! I asked him how he knew and he said it was a common fault with the CV bus that it's gas gauge failed early on. He suggested I not let it ever dip below 1/4. I didn't and it never ran out again.

So I finished the drive that day, got to Lloydminister about 2ish, broke up with Christy about 3ish and then was in Edmonton ready to party with my friends at BPs on Whyte by 5. I spent the next couple days on friends couches and in the bars, then got in the van ready to drive home on the Monday.

Hung over, sleepy, a bit grumpy but not really sad about breaking up with Christy, I turned the stereo on as I hit open road on Hwy 14, the Yellowhead out of Edmonton.

It was Wonderwall again!! I stared at the stereo for a minute, howled with laughter and felt the weight of the world lift back off my shoulders. The hangover vanished, the grumpiness left me and I was ready for that obscene 16 hour (cause a VW is slow...) drive back to Maple Ridge. I sang the whole song and was grinning from ear to ear by the end. Best. Trip. Ever.