THE KANSAL CLUNKER

A father and son embark on a grand adventure across the U.S. in this dual memoir.

You’d be hard pressed to come up with a more unlikely vessel for self-discovery than the 1998 Acura Integra that Ruchin and Neil Kansal chose to traverse the Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway to the top of Mount Evans in Colorado. Discarded and almost a quarter-century old, with an odometer reading north of 159,000 miles, the lime-green “Teggy,” as the Kansals christened her, is the embodiment of second chances and proof-positive that life is, indeed, a highway. With Ruchin’s 50th birthday and Neil’s high school graduation coming up, the Kansals decided to mark the occasions with the coolest road trip they could possibly conceive. Their alternating voices warmly recount their venture, during which they logged 5,205 miles over 15 days and 14 nights in their reclaimed jalopy. The narrative powerfully conveys that massive undertaking while serving up the Kansals’ personal experience as a near universal expression of the quintessential nature of families—and the complexity of father and son relationships in particular. “Our conversations went beyond the car,” Neil relates. “We talked about school, my friends, everything. I started trusting Dad more with details of my life, and he would patiently listen and smile, often making classic dad jokes.” So much sweetness and light could threaten to spin out into a saccharine-infused wreck on the side of the highway, but the Kansals’ consistently upbeat text never does. Instead, the story steers into profundity, including musings on flying, architecture, and immigration. The road the Kansals traversed—like life itself—wasn’t completely free of challenges: “The dream of seeing Teggy, our beloved but aging car, triumphantly conquer the summit had fueled weeks of preparation,” Ruchin recalls. “Yet, as with all meaningful endeavors, the road to the top would evaluate Teggy’s and our endurance.” This charming father and son adventure demonstrates that the road ahead is full of promise, but never without risk; in the end, family is what makes the journey possible.

An endearing and thought-provoking road odyssey.