The Miami Trip

By DL Edison

It’s the fall of 1987 and Dave Palicheck just boarded a Greyhound Bus in Miami, Florida —destination Seattle, Washington.
Dave’s completely broke and has five and a half; grueling, hilarious and hungry, long days and nights ahead of him on his adventure. He's traveling with his girlfriend Kelley and every day is a countdown of perpetual boredom and full of mystery, particularly when it comes to the funky (sometimes sketchy) roadside diners along the way. He kills time by listening to his hippest cassette tapes, dreaming of Seattle and writing in his journal about all the freaks he finds along the way. His highest priority on the trip is plotting where to smoke the one and only joint he has for the ride home. Along the way back to his beloved Pacific Northwest, Dave finds beauty in part of the U.S. he's never been before, interest in the fellow weirdos he’s riding with and he even gains a little insight about himself (and Kelley), as he closes in on home.

A fast paced, quick read that's quirky, well written and a lot of fun to read

• Language: English
• Publisher: DL Edison
• Release date: Jun 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463190609

DL Edison

America’s Best, Least Known AuthorD.L Edison

Book preview

The Miami Trip

By DL Edison

The Miami Trip | A Dave Palicheck Series

Copyright © 2015 by D.L. Edison

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidences are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locals is entirely coincidental.

For questions and comments about this book please contact the author at [e-mail] or check out www.DLEdison.com

I’m Dave Palicheck, a fuckin’ rock star from Seattle! Ok… I’m a twenty-two-year-old broke ass bartender that lives in Kirkland, Washington but I do love to rock.

My full name is David Dale Palicheck, Davey to my mom who named me after Davey Jones from that band The Monkeys. She always did have shitty taste in music. If anyone else calls me a nickname it’s usually D or D.D. like Dee Dee Ramone unless my friends are being assholes, then it’s double D ya fuckin’ big boob! My dad wanted a Dale Jr. but my mom is such a ball buster that she got her way as usual. I was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up on the north end. I graduated from Lynnwood High School, where I played varsity baseball, in nineteen eighty-three. Damn that was four years ago already.

Right now I’m just getting comfortable in the seat next to my girlfriend on a bus for a ride back home to Seattle. I met Kelley Di Martini in May and we’ve been hanging out since. I first laid eyes on her one Saturday night up on the U.W. Campus in Kane Hall. I was with my buddy Pat Bird Anderson (he got a cool nickname from his mom who is a big Charlie Parker fan). We were there to see that dude Lane from the band Sleaze who was playing with his new band Alice N’ Chains. Sleaze played around Lynnwood a little bit were always cool to go see and his new band is sounding pretty tight too. Kelley was there with one of her girlfriends that goes to the U and the four of us hit it off so we hung out after the show.

We were having such a blast together over the summer that we followed the sun once it left Seattle and by late November we found ourselves in Miami, Florida. Now we’re on a bus going north… back home.

As we pulled out of the Miami bus terminal I was getting both relaxed and excited as my new adventure began. I settled into my variously stained fabric seat (I don’t even want to know the origin of most of those stains) at the back of the bus and wondered how many people can say they have traveled more than three thousand miles in one trip across the U.S. on a bus? I thought of course most people today will take an airplane, a road trip in a car or maybe even travel by train but I smiled to myself thinking of the five-day trip ahead of me on this bus. This was going to be unique and definitely off of the beaten path and I was totally psyched, stained seats and all!

We had gotten off to a slow start. It was quite a while before we got the attention of the ticketing agent once we got to the Miami bus terminal. It was a good five minutes before she acknowledged us and we were the only customers in the place at the time. Maybe it was my stoned glossy eyes and shaved Mohawk styled head that caused her to be hesitant to help us or maybe it was because I was smoking a cigarette right under a big red No Smoking sign that I did not notice. I wasn’t being rude or anything like that it was just one of those can’t see the forest through the trees moments. After pointing out (literally with her finger and verbally with the I’ve had way too much of this shit tone in her voice) the no smoking sign to me she sold us two one way tickets to Seattle, one for me and the other for Kelley and I was homeward bound once again.

Before we got to the bus terminal I gotta admit I was a little worried and was almost second guessing the decision to travel by bus but it was all we could afford so there really wasn’t an option. Outside of the extreme length of time it will take to get home I was also thinking of all that can potentially go wrong like missing a connection, getting on the wrong bus, losing luggage and the stereotypical shifty characters I imagined we’d find riding along with us.

My concern heightened a little as the cab we ordered stopped at our apartment on South Collins Avenue to pick us up. The guy drove up to the curb so fast He looked like he was practicing his pit maneuver tactics as he pulled up. He got out of his cab and smiled. The driver then grabbed a couple of our suit cases and began to load them into his trunk like he was an hour late to get somewhere. Fine by me, I was paying him so the quicker he is the cheaper it will be.

As he picked up the last two cases to swing them into place with the rest of the bags, he banged one against his rear bumper causing the handle on one case to completely snap off which threw off his motion. He then dropped the other suit case which upon hitting the ground, immediately opened up spewing