How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Mom said we'd never get out of that mobile home when he had to make such big payments on that rig, and she'd never know where he was when he hauled cross-country. (11.3)
Dad wants freedom to travel and is willing to do anything to get his truck. Mom wants the freedom of a permanent house and knowing where her husband is. They're on opposite sides of the freedom versus security question.
Quote #2
We live in a little house, a really little house. […] Mom says at least it keeps the rain off, and it can't be hauled away on a flatbed truck. (13.3)
Some people, like Dad, equate freedom with movement while for some, like Mom, freedom is being secure and stable. Mom believes you can't feel free until you know what your life is going to be like from day to day. It's not that one idea is right and one is wrong, it's just that they're different. When you're married, though, it's probably good to be on the same page about it.
Quote #3
I asked Dad if I could ride with him sometime next summer when school is out, and he said he'd see. (26.1)
Dad likes his freedom and doesn't do well with commitments. He wants to go where the wind blows, crossing back and forth across the country with Bandit and his truck. It's not that he can't take Leigh with him, it's that he doesn't want to commit to it. So he gives Leigh the dreaded "we'll see."
Quote #4
"It's not really his truck he is in love with. He loves the feel of power when he is sitting high in his cab controlling a mighty machine. He loves the excitement of never knowing where this next trip will take him." (34.3)
Dad finds it very confining to have a 9-to-5 job, a car, and to come home every evening to the same house. He's got a little cowboy in him.
Quote #5
I felt so terrible about Bandit riding around with a strange trucker and Dad taking another boy out for pizza when I was all alone in the house with the mildewed bathroom when it was raining outside and I was hungry. (39.2)
So Dad's got the freedom to go wherever with whomever, which is cool for Dad but which hurts our boy something fierce. It's not just the physical isolation of being stuck in the house with nothing to eat that's making Leigh feel terrible. It's Dad choosing not only to not be with Leigh but to give his attention to some other boy.
Quote #6
"Things weren't too happy at home with your grandfather drinking and all, so your Dad and I ran off to Las Vegas and got married. I enjoyed riding with him until you came along, and—well, by that time I had had enough of highways and truck stops. I stayed home with you, and he was gone most of the time." (39.11)
Mom found her ticket out of a bad family situation by running off to get married. In trying to escape from one kind of stuck-ness (we just made that word up), she ended up in another: married to a man who didn't want to grow up.
Quote #7
I remembered, too, how Mom and I were alone a lot and how I hated living in that mobile home. About the only places we ever went were the laundromat and the library. (39.12)
You can see how confined Leigh felt living in the mobile home. They probably were broke and couldn't afford to go anywhere.
Quote #8
"Maybe Bandit is just a bum," said Mom. [...] "Remember how he jumped into your father's cab in the first place? Maybe he was ready to move on to another truck." (39.16)
It seems that Bandit is more like Dad than any other character: both are nomads always on the move. Mom uses this fact to reassure Leigh that Bandit probably found a new home.
Quote #9
Barry saw the sign on my door that said KEEP OUT MOM THAT MEANS YOU. He asked if my Mom really stays out of my room. I said, "Sure, if I keep things picked up." Mom is not a snoop. (55.5)
Though Mom keeps an eye on him and doesn't want him hanging out at the gas station, she's good about giving Leigh his own space and trusting him. He has a lot of freedom when he's home on his own, but sometimes it feels more like loneliness to him.
Quote #10
"Dad, you keep Bandit. You need him more than I do." Dad hesitated until I said, "Please take him. I don't have any way to amuse him." (60.42)
This is really an awesome sacrifice on Leigh's part. He really misses Bandit but lets him go because it'll be better for Dad to have him. Leigh also knows it'll be better for Bandit to have the freedom of traveling with Dad rather than be stuck in his and Mom's little house.