Like An Origami Roadmap – The Story Continues To Unfold

TobogganSearch recounted – Part 2

Despite serious misgivings, I was persuaded by my youngest child to travel to Nevada in search of Doctor Harold Toboggans. It was a long and painful ordeal, far in excess of anything Dr. T could reasonably expect from anyone who had ever met him.

After an unpleasant beginning, delightfully documented in part 1, the suffering began in earnest. Follow along as we explore more sensational excepts from my poorly remembered, yet fully Pulitzer-worthy vacation journal.

Day 2 – Roadtrip – Las Vegas to Reno – 450 miles

“Highway 95, the thoroughfare that most directly connects Reno with Las Vegas, is a dry, desolate stretch of pavement that is measured not so much in miles as in urinary stops.”

The Search – Reno and Surrounding Areas

“From the moment we arrived in Reno, signs of Doctor Harold Toboggans were everywhere. His influence in that unfortunate township could not have been spelled out more thoroughly.”1

H as in HaroldT as in Toboggans

Spelling out the Doctor’s presence

“The city showed all the symptoms of prolonged Toboggans exposure: dry heat, restless wind, and sickened statues.”

Sick Statue

Statuary Nausea – the surest indicator of Toboggans exposure.

But in spite of such promising evidence, the Doctor himself proved to be hard to find

Day 3 through Day 6

“Throughout the city of Reno we searched diligently for Doctor Toboggans but to no avail.

  • We didn’t see him while playing laser tag.
  • We didn’t sight him in any of the casino restaurants.
  • We didn’t run into him while coming in late to The Dark Knight.
  • We didn’t run into him while leaving early from Journey to the Center of the Earth.
  • We didn’t spot him at the water park.
  • We didn’t encounter him at the homes of friends and family.2

Despite our most earnest efforts, the Doctor was no where to be found.”3

Will the Doctor be found? Will the family survive? Will there be more rhetorical questions?

Find out as the story continues Friday.

Don’t miss any of the excitement – subscribe to the Comma in a reader or by email - today.

  1. Okay, I suppose it could have been better spelled out, but it would have easily required a dozen or more additional mountainside letters.
  2. Our friends and family of course. No human being ever discovered will admit any relation with the Doctor of any kind, which is not really surprising among those who have suffered his presence.
  3. True, I guess he could have been hiding out with the high rollers somewhere on the strip. All things considered, I guess it would be more accurate to say that he was nowhere I willing to find him.

This entry was posted in Adventures of the Author and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

24 Responses to Like An Origami Roadmap – The Story Continues To Unfold

  1. Chris non-C says:

    (Ok, I’ll take the easy one so other, funnier, people can concentrate on the good stuff)

    I think that is a statue of me based on a photo of my trip to Vegas!!!!!!

    (Brent, just add an lol cat that is about to barf to my little quip here and it will complete the tackiness and further reveal the poor taste of this whole comment)

    ….I’m gonna go now, I don’t feel well.

  2. Jeff says:

    You need to check at one of those fancy “ranches” where all those nighttime ladies hang around. I heard Dr. T is a big investor of the ranch industry.

    • Brent Diggs says:

      Yeah Jeff, Those ranches are more like fenced in trailer parks. You can see them from the highway. Scary nasty looking places.

      You could get a disease just from looking at then.

      Serious.

  3. don says:

    I think that we need to get a little philosophical here.

    Toboggans is no longer just a man with with a fuller-brush franchise on his upper lip. To find Toboggans is an inward journey now.

    Toboggans is a small part of everyone.

    I’m considering the band saw.

  4. It’s like Manifest Destiny, but with awful awful modern art!

  5. threio says:

    That dude is really constipated! You would think he would take an Ex-Lax when the rock started forming in his backside.

  6. Alice says:

    I’m new to this whole Toboggan thing, but all a post needs to get me interested is ‘Vegas.’ Give me a few reads to understand it all.

  7. Heh, having to explain one’s shtick to a newcomer can be trying. Rickey still gets the occasional question about why he writes primarily in the third person… COME ON NOW PEOPLE!!!

  8. diesel says:

    Should have gotten a Nazgul. They’re way easier to explain.

    Your quest reminds me of some of my job hunts after college.

  9. Stephanie says:

    reno to vegas in july – that sounds downright nasty hot.

  10. Pretty! This was an incredibly wonderful post. Many thanks for providing this information.

  11. grocery list says:

    I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that’s both equally educative and interesting, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The issue is an issue that too few folks are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I stumbled across this during my hunt for something relating to this.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>