My head is still buzzing from the road hum. I got in last night, around 2200, and almost immediately crashed.

On January 26, 2013, the world lost a saint, but one of His servants is now awaiting his reward. Paul R. “Prying1” Young, one of my first blogging friends, went home. His loving wife, Renee, was in the hospital recovering from her flu shot, so the service was postponed until yesterday.

I had arranged for an extended test drive of a 2013 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup. Nice ride, by the way. Big thanks to Ed for arranging this test drive. With the Road Rhino not quite road worthy for a trip of that duration, and the Camry needed by my wife (it is her car, and I wasn’t going to force her to drive something that I am not 100% OK with) the Ram was a welcome asset. It came equipped with just about everything – with the exception of a CD player, so Santana had to stay home. The Sirius package made up for that. No dead spots, lots of channels. Full tech package, so the phone synced up nicely and allowed hands-free communications with the parties who needed to be kept apprised. Power everything. V-8 Hemi with a *kkrrksch* 32 gallon tank. Not too bad here in Arizona, at 3.499/gallon, but when I needed to refuel in Cali, the 4.199 was a bit steep. Averaged about 18.2 for the whole trip. GPS was helpful getting to Doug‘s house, where I stayed the night Friday.

(side note here – Doug’s main ride is an older model, basic Corolla. as such, he hasn’t had the luxury – or the conditioning – of riding with a female computerized voice saying “turn left now” or “prepare to bear right in one-half mile” so [for those of you who have spoken with him] realizing that he stopped talking when the gps gal was giving directions was highly amusing. he won’t let anyone else get a word in edgewise, but he’s polite enough not to interrupt her.)

Any way – left Phoenix Friday afternoon about 1600. Arrived at Doug’s house about 2000 (gained an hour at the line) and he and I went to grab a bite at Miguel Jr’s. Good burrito. Crashed for the night, up early the next day and headed out. The service was at Jubilee Fellowship in Torrance, which is about an hour and 45 minutes from Doug’s house.

I have to tell you, if I get half the people who showed up say half as many things about me, I will consider my life to have been blessed. Paul was a Godly man, with a servant’s heart, and every word spoken of him reflected that.

Afterwards, we drove back to Doug’s house, and I left there a little after 1600. Both ways the drive was uneventful, and if it weren’t for cruise control my foot would have been too heavy. There was almost no sensation of the speed I was driving in that pickup. The trip was enjoyable, but not one that I wanted to have to take.