Page 52 of Dirt Driven

Of course he’d say that, but at least he’d come around to the idea of it. Or rather, my decision.

Chapter 12 – Arie

Crossed Flags – The race had reached the halfway point.

You never knew what you were going to encounter on the road. Sometimes the drive from one track to the next goes smoothly. Other times you zip-tie your motor home back together to get to the next track.

And then there were the times when you became a family with the ones sharing the experience. It happened for us between Perris and Tucson when Caden and Kinsley needed to stop to change the baby and refused to do it going down the road any longer after a very unfortunate poop incident. Let’s just say they had to get a new comforter for their bed and learned how to install new carpet in their motor home.

When you’re traveling, just because your home’s on wheels didn’t mean your home wouldn’t need maintenance. For us it was filling up with water every couple days because of showering and a little girl who constantly left the water running in the bathroom after she washed her hands.

That being said, we decided to stop with Caden and Kinsley at a shady truck stop off I-10. Let me start out by saying, google gas stations. Look at the reviews. If the first ten start out with “This place is where hell starts,” you should probably steer clear of it. Just my general opinion after this particular stop.

“Oh, look. That’s a cute dinosaur,” Kinsley noted as we stood outside the motor homes while the guys went inside with Pace and Bristol.

Hudson and Knox were beside me and bolted the minute they saw the dinosaur statue outside the gas station. I didn’t think much of it. There was literally no one in the parking lot at nearly midnight, and yeah, our kids were wide awake.

I kept one eye on them, and one on a bright orange bus parked outside. I smiled thinking of Grand Forks and the buses they had parked outside the pits.

“There’s a bus over there.” Rager gave a nod to the shadows and the row of buses that lined the pits. “Come with me.”

“You’re carrying me. Pretty sure I don’t have a choice.”

“You never had a choice anyway.”

I’d seen the buses before, and they freaked me out. The guys raced them on occasions, even my dad had, but no way did I want to get in one myself.

They looked haunted if you asked me. Painted bright red, yellow, blue, purple, you name it, and they had it along with spray painted names on the side. Apparently they were named after the high school that donated the bus to the track.

There was about ten of them out there, some hidden, and others not so much.

“Which one?”

“Blue?” he teased, twisting his head to bite my hip where my tank top had revealed bare skin; his teeth sank in lightly, but enough that it made me jump in his arms. “It’s the color of my balls right now.”

I laughed to myself, but then my attention was on Rager exiting the store, without Caden.

“Where’s Caden?” Kinsley asked, rocking the baby from side to side.

“Bathroom,” Rager told us, holding Pace and Bristol’s hands as they clung to candy.

“You’re not opening that until morning,” I informed both of them, fearing they’d never get to bed.

“Daddy said we have them now,” Pace whined, trying to keep his package of Skittles away from Hudson, who suddenly wanted to be best friends with his siblings. He only tolerated people if you had what he wanted. Boobs, candy….

Standing beside me, Rager wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Sorry, hon. It was either that or beer. I got them to go for the candy.”

Sadly, my kids were obsessed with beer. No, they hadn’t drank it yet, that I knew of, but growing up in the pits of a dirt track they knew exactly what it was, and they wanted it.

Rager filled up the water in the motor home and I gave each kid two Skittles, hoping they’d be okay with that. After ten minutes and no Caden, Kinsley started to become worried. “What the hell is he doing in there?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Another ten minutes and he came out, his face red, and practically running to the motor homes. “Never again will I use a public restroom.”

Rager grinned. “What happened?”

“You didn’t tell me that chick in the leopard tights was a fucking lot lizard.” He shoved Rager back away from him.

---