We also drove to Vegas to see his dad one time, my guy hadn't seen him since he went to prison. But I've already told this one several times, and I'm tired of it, so I'm going to condense it for you: He had a suspended license, so I drove. I got tired, so he drove for just a short time. Almost out of Texas when we got pulled over, he got arrested, sheriff led me to a motel. Got a creepy wake-up call the next morning from a heavy breathing man who I know was the hotel manager, telling me he'd give me $1,000 if I came to his room. Freaked out, grabbed my things, found courthouse, bailed him out with the rest of our money. Wanted to go home after that, but no, we were still going to Vegas, according to him. Ate chips and drank water and coffee, that's it. No money for a motel, so we just kept going. Slept in the car at a rest stop on the border of Arizona & Nevada, surrounded by big trucks with big sleeping men inside and lots of vending machines and bathrooms that stank to high heaven.
I had a dream, I saw money in my hand, woke up and announced that we were going to win some money. We did. Used it for food and a nice hotel on the way home. Met his dad, he took us out to eat, heard his dad say that my guy would be a fool if he didn't settle down with me. I liked him. Big man with a shady past but who was gentle and friendly. A real pleasure to meet him. He died a few years later of a heart attack, so it's a good thing we went out there. It was the only time my guy saw his dad.
I heard that when he died, he requested that his ashes be scattered over the mountains somewhere out there, so my guy did it for him. He told me he climbed up to the top of one and just opened the thing and let the wind carry the ashes off. He said it was a good feeling to do it and that it changed his outlook on how he viewed his father and it helped him to accept the past and want to move forward. I heard about all this when I saw him several years later, in '03.