Happy Wanderer

We used to have a bumper sticker on the station wagon, it was one of those customized bumper stickers you send away for where you can put anything you want on it, Dad sent away for about ten of these and they said, "Happy Wanderer". They were day-glow orange with plain black lettering and had a road construction quality to them. We had one of these on our car for about five years and Dad put a fresh one on every start of the trip, along with a new American flag for the car antenna, the trip couldn't be started without the antenna flag. Dad claimed the antenna flag was so he could find and identify our car in a crowded parking lot, but we never seemed to park in lots so the flag was more decoration and political statement than anything else. Dad also used to put an orange Styrofoam "76" ball (from the Union 76 gas stations) on the antenna, but those always seemed to get stolen, which was ironic since Dad had a whole box of "76" balls which he and his friend John one night got drunk and went out and stole as many of them as they could, I think Dad still has a dozen or so of them still in the garage. But the antenna flag never got stolen, they would fly off occasionally or deteriorate over time, but there was always a flag on Dad's antenna.

Driving for hours there really wasn't much to do or see, so I would look at whatever was outside and daydream.