Meeting people you don't expect at a North Carolina truck stop

Well, I'm back in Virginia for no less than the 3rd time in the last 7 weeks... Can't do much of anything except sit inside today because it's horribly rainy outside. Just totally gray... It's only 1 pm and you'd think it's either 7 am or 8 pm by the color of the light outside, but no... it's early afternoon... We were going to go to Floyd today, but the weather is so gross that that will not be happening now... We stayed up late last night watching Supernatural on DVD, so I slept until 11:20 this morning...

The day before yesterday, I drove to the Burough. Yesterday, Susan and I drove to the Ville in her minivan... On the way to the Ville, we were happily listening to classic rock. Susan was recalling memories of her misspent youth and we talked of Supernatural-related things as the songs brought up recollections of both... We were driving up I-85, it was just starting to rain, and all of a sudden, just south of exit 84, Susan sees a broke-down motorist on the side of the road and exclaims, "That's Patrick!' I had not seen him because I was turned to face Susan and he was behind me, but she was so sure that we turned around at the next exit, went back and yes, indeed, walking into the Bill's Truck Stop (which was the only thing at that exit), was Patrick, my biological father who up til then had refused to meet me. He's skinnier than I had pictured him from pictures and very tall... Despite my being 5'9", 6'1" is still significantly taller... His blond hair is well on its way to graying and he's worn-looking. His head looks like the head on a bobble-head doll, not overly large like that, but in a almost disconnected sort of way with a chin that's far too sharp and not enough meat on his bones.

But we pulled over and offered him a ride, despite the temptation to do what those guys do in the Sasquatch commercial where Sasquatch is hitching and the guys offer him a ride repeatedly only to leave him in the dust repeatedly. We stayed with him until he found about a tow truck, etc. and figured out what he was going to do. Susan introduced me and instead of the hug I had gotten from his brother, Tony, his brother's girlfriend, and various cousins and more distant relatives last Christmas, I got a firm handshake and a "Hi, I'm Patrick." Still, he was polite and charming, so I suppose that's something though what I'm not sure. It was an entirely surreal experience. Hanging out at this truck stop, full of truckers and other people like that, a horrible storm outside, with Patrick, whom Susan had not even heard from in person for more than 5 years and who had expressed to his mother and to my sister Lara that he never really wanted to meet me... And yet, we were the ones to come across him when he hadn't a friend in the world, broke down on the side of the road. If we had driven by two minutes before or two minutes later, we would have not ever have seen him. Susan and I laughed about the unrealness of it several times and laughed at how crazy the universe is. It was very odd. He said very little, but as I said, was not completely cold or not at all impolite. Susan thinks it's because he was so shocked to see us, of all people, there, where we were... She could be right about that... All v. v. weird. All of that...

Lara just about screamed "WHAT?!?!?!" in my ear when I told her on the phone that we had run across him a few minutes after we left. Then she laughed and said, "Who ever said that Karma isn't real!" Seriously...

So, we'll see what happens...

To update: Lara is in the early stages of labor, but don't let that fool you. It could still be a week or more before she delivers. It's just the vaguest recollections of contractions and very slight dilation and lots of not being at all comfortable, so nothing's happening anytime too soon...