Time in a Bottle

Time in a Bottle.  Does anyone remember this song? It is one of those classics that takes me back in time.  I remember sitting in my new red Pontiac Lemans in Anchorage, Alaska feeling rather lonely. I drove the famous Al-Can (Alaska Canadian) hi-way from British Columbia, Canada by myself. Well, first off the Al-Can Hiway is not a fully paved road - only parts of it on the southern end and northern end.  The parts in the middle are dirt and gravel so you can't drive fast on it or you'd end up in the ditch.  It was like driving a roller coaster - ups and downs, twists and turns for miles and miles.  Tiny pine trees grew by the thousands as far as the eye could see; the weather is so harsh in that area that they seem to be miniaturized.

Jim Croce wrote " If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you"

I was sitting there listening to Jim Croce sing when all of a sudden some guy knocked on my window.  He was so excited to see someone with Idaho plates that he was about to bust a blood vessel.  We talked for a while and our subject turned to Jim Croce who was his all time favorite singer at the time.  Can you believe it, I cannot remember the guy's name but I remember the event.  He was one of the first guys that I met in Alaska.  I was so homesick and I had driven all the way to Anchorage from Boise, Idaho.  It was a long trip and one that I won't forget.