- We delve into the fascinating world of the car Skipper is fixing up: a 1949 Ford.
- Skipper stays at home to work on the car, even when looming attendance at the University of Washington arrives. Dwight gives him heat, but Skipper is focused on the car.
- Skipper succeeds in fixing it up, and plans to go down to Tijuana to get it upholstered. Jack asks if he can come. Skipper says he'll think about it.
- Jack misconstrues "I'll think about it" as "sure, buddy!" and begins fantasizing about their trip to Mexico.
- When mom asks about the trip, Skipper says he's going with a friend. Jack feels utterly betrayed. Jack thinks about Skipper and his buddy in Mexico, while also missing his biological father.
- Jack claims that he is able to forgive his father's flaws because dad isn't there to repeat them, and he doesn't realize the injustice of that until he grows up and has his own baby.
- Jack takes an interest in cars and dreams about running away. One day on his paper route, he thumbs a ride. He plans to go to Seattle, but chickens out just a few miles down the road.
- He keeps hitchhiking, secretly hoping to one day thumb a ride all the way back to his dad in Connecticut.
- Skipper re-appears two weeks later, close to tears. The car was seriously damaged in a sandstorm. They survey the damage and Jack climbs behind the wheel, imagining that he is driving away.