Free Bug Out! Part 7: Mile High Motorhomes by Robert Boren

phone and passed it back to Gabe.
    “Should be smooth sailing the rest of the way,” Gabe said as he took the phone. This road gets away from I-70 in a hurry. Lot of rough country in between.”
    “Look, choppers!” Dobie said, looking up. “Heading for town.”
    “Hope they’re on our side.”
    Dobie’s phone started ringing. He answered it. It was Jake.
    “You guys make it out of that without a scratch, I hope?”
    “Yeah, we did. You guys?”
    “They put a bunch of lead into the back end of the truck. None of it got to the cab. I suspect there’s holes in some of my stuff.”
    “Good thing it was back there. Otherwise they might have hit you.”
    “Seriously. I hope they don’t do too much damage in town.”
    “I called Bob and tipped him off. They’ll be ready.”
    “Good. Oh well, at least this is turning out to be a good day.”
    “Getting shot up?”
    “No, my daughter is finally going to have a boyfriend that I approve of.”
    “Dad!” shouted Trish. Dobie held the phone away from his ear. Then he cracked up.
    “Now be nice, Jake.”
    “I actually wasn’t just joking around. Terry saved our butts back there. Several of them were aiming at our tires before he started shooting at them. I’m in his debt.”
    “Alright, Jake, just don’t mess with Trish too much about it. That tends to put a wet blanket on romance. Talk to you later.”
    Dobie stuck his phone back in his pocket, and looked over at Gabe, grinning.
    “What was that all about?” Gabe asked.
    “Sounds like the back end of Jake’s truck got shot up pretty good. Glad we put the signal generator up here.”
    “What was so funny?”
    “Jake told me that Terry is the first of Trish’s boyfriends that he approves of.”
    “He said that in front of the two of them? Geez.”
    “Yeah, and she yelled at him,” Dobie said, laughing. “Jake said some nice things about Terry, though. Sounds like he saved them back there.”
    “He’s a good kid,” Gabe said. “We’re just about to the straight part of the road. We can speed up then. Be back to the park in no time.”
    “Just make sure you can see the truck before you speed up,” Dobie said.
    “I know. Don’t worry. I’ve had one eye in the rear view mirror most of the time.”
    The road straightened out, going into a long wide valley. Dobie felt relieved when he could see the truck emerge from the switchbacks. They drove along silently, watching the lush scenery of the valley unfold in front of them.
    “Pretty back here,” Dobie said.
    “Yeah, but it’s rough in the winter,” Gabe said. “We’re getting close now. See the road climbing up ahead? There’s a few switchbacks, and then we pick up the highway again. We’ll be on a stretch of dirt, but it isn’t a long one.”
    “I’ve never gone to your park this way. Been in this valley before, though. With my dad.”
    “Your great granddad owned about half of this valley, way back when. Wanted to build a lodge up here. Never could make it come together.”
    “Really? Wonder why my dad never told me about that.”
    “There were a lot of hard feelings over it,” Gabe said. “Big feud between your great granddad and two other people who owned property in the valley. They wanted to free graze sheep here. They had a big farm on the west end of the valley. Didn’t mix so well with what your great granddad wanted to do. They almost got into a shooting war over it.”
    “What happened?”
    “Not sure, exactly. Your great granddad ended up selling his land to those folks, and he and your great grandma left town. They never came back.”
    “My grandpa came back, though,” Dobie said.
    “Yeah, he and my grandpa had a store in town for a while. Then he retired, and my grandpa and dad built the RV Park. I think your grandpa was kind of a silent partner originally. When he moved back into this area, he brought a fair amount of money with him.”
    “Interesting. I’ll have to look into this someday.”
    “I’ll never