Magical mystery tour · 6:49pm Aug 27th, 2017
I’ve been waiting for “Get the Show on the Road” since the foreign-language version popped up weeks ago! I wanted to know more about what was going on in it. The song itself is just meh, but the concept is amusing, and makes sense given where the writers seem to be going with EG. Fan of Most Everything sent a note to make certain I didn’t miss it, and observed poor Cook might tear his hair over it, which inspired a delighted laugh. 
Thanks, FOME!
Cook, I think, would be profoundly ambivalent. He doesn’t, after all, have any say over most of the girls, and only the most limited authority regarding Sunset—he’s an observer, not an enforcer, and he prefers it that way. As long as they stay in touch, giving him the low-down, and occasionally meet in person, he’s fulfilling the letter of his duties. On the other hand, there certainly is room for the sort of worries anyone would have over friends, especially teenage friends, haring off on road trips.
At worst he’d be ordered to trail along after them in his government-issue sedan. That wouldn’t be a real hardship and actually might be reassuring, especially to parents or guardians. He’d represent an adult presence, even at one remove, to whom the girls could turn in the event of trouble (that didn’t require them to pull out their pendants). Picture both vehicles pulled over at the side of a two-lane highway in the midst of heat-shimmering desert, steam pouring from the bus’s radiator, with Cook, jacket over shoulder, talking on his not-what-it-seems cel phone.
I did note that, while there was an allusion to a “tour”, no mention was made of how wide it would range. Across the city? The county or equivalent? The state or province? The region? The country? Moreover, Big Mac was driving, implying AJ, at least, doesn’t have a driver license, and suggesting none of the others have licenses. I haven’t conducted any significant research across jurisdictions, but since the girls almost certainly are sixteen to seventeen years old, and California (where a goodly portion of the writing staff is) strongly restricts driving for anyone under eighteen, that makes sense.
I don't know know a whole lot about Cali or other states regulations, but I know in Maryland you need certain endorsements on your license to drive large passenger vehicles like busses, and you must be....it's either 18 or 21, I don't really remember. I know it was 21 for CDL but I don't recall the bus limit since I didn't really have an interest in it.
4649713
I hadn’t even considered the added requirements and restrictions for large vehicles; that’s a good point. I’m sure most states’ vehicle codes include similar laws, even if they might be structured differently.