The Harper Generations: Country Roads

Spruce Knob

Misty

After the wedding, you would think we would get some downtime. Nope. My dad dragged everyone to Spruce Knob for a train ride to see the highest point in the Allegheny Mountains. I visited this place when my dad brought me on vacation. It's boring as hell. All you see are trees and more trees.

We pulled into the parking lots and exited the cars to find a train waiting to take us to the top. There were two train rides—the short and long one. My dad chose the long one for some god-awful reason. The short one would have sufficed, but nope, he wanted everyone to get the full experience.

Noah wanted to capture the trip on film and used the video camera feature on his phone. I don't know why. It's not like he would miss much. Nixon had some fun with it.

"What are you doing?" Nixon asked Noah.

"I'm taping the trip for posterity," Noah said.

"What posterity? It's trees."

"Yeah, but it's also memories." Noah shrugged and panned the camera around to capture the landscape.

"Hey, Noah. There's a tree. There's another tree. Oh, look, there are a billion other trees. Stop filming, you dink."

Noah rolled his eyes in annoyance while we laughed. "You miss the point of a trip, Nixon."

"What point? That you enjoy videotaping a boring ass train ride." Nixon held out his palm to the monotonous landscape.

I had to admit. Nixon was right. Videotaping a trip with nothing around it was boring as hell.

"Then what do you suggest to liven up this trip?" Nathan asked Nixon.

"Not videotaping a billion trees." Nixon folded his arms. "But I heard a story about a family member and why our name changed years ago."

"What story?" Nolan asked.

"Well, it seems Grandpa Grayson had some skeletons in the family closet per se."

"What skeletons?" Noah asked with knitted brows.

Nash leaned into me and lowered his voice. "Nix is full of shit."

I glanced at Nash. "How so?"

"You'll see."

I raised my brow but said nothing. Let's see how far Nixon can take this.

Nixon waved the others to come closer. Like the gullible boys they are, they did. "So, many, many years ago, when the Gray family landed in America, their last name was Gray. Our ancestor changed it," Nixon said.

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"Our several great grandpappy was named Stosh Goodinsky. He was an ax chucker."

"What the hell is an ax chucker?" Noah asked.

"It's someone that chucks axes at trees. How the hell should I know?" Nixon shrugged. "But that's not the point." He waved his hands back and forth and shook his head.

"Will you get to the point? How did our name get changed?" Nathan asked.

"I'm getting there. Settle down, Esmeralda." Nixon gestured with his hands.

My dad listened to this conversation and rolled his eyes, knowing Nixon was full of shit. Everyone else said nothing but shook their heads.

"You're so damn impatient," Nixon huffed.

Nathan rolled his eyes.

"Who cares if Nathan is impatient? How did our last name get changed?" Noah asked.