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Josh tries to convince his parents to let him to ride his
motorcycle to Austin, Texas to help his girlfriend,
Amber. His parents are skeptical since Amber has
already refused Erasmus' offer to pay for the bus ticket back
to Chicory Creek. Russell even offers to drive with
Josh to Austin, but Josh wants to do it on his own.
Josh sneaks out in the night and leaves. His motorcycle
breaks down en route to Austin. He meets a musician,
Bobby Dee Hammond, who agrees to give him a lift to
Austin. When Josh gets to Amber's motel room, he finds
that she is keeping company with an older guy named Kip who
drinks and treats her rough. Meanwhile, Nathaniel gets
conned into buying a dog named Dodger from a traveling con
man named Rudy Patois. When the Greenes try to get
their money back, Rudy has spent the money, but offers to
make it up to them by fixing them dinner. Rudy sets
Russell up with a house-painting job. Russell soon
realizes he's been bamboozled -- that Rudy's only prior
experience is painting nudes in Greenwich Village.
While Russell is painting, Rudy is downstairs dancing the
tango with the owner, Thelma Wicker. Russell asks Rudy
about his prison tattoos and finds out that Rudy did time for
bigamy. When Russell returns the next morning to find
Rudy answering the door wearing Thelma's late husband's
bathrobe, Russell walks out on the job, washing his hands of
Rudy and his schemes. Meanwhile, Josh has had a hard
time trying to rescue Amber who has fanciful dreams of going
to California and breaking into show business rather than
returning to her drunken mother and abusive stepfather.
Josh toys with the idea of going to Nashville to pursue his
aspirations to become a musician. Bobby invites Josh
with him to San Antonio to jam with some friends of
his. Josh soon realizes that he's out of his league and
that his dreams of becoming a musician are about as
unrealistic as Amber's. Bobby tries to put things in
perspective, that you can't pursue music for the money, you
have to do it for the love of music. Thelma Wicker
stops by the trailer park to reprimand Russell for being so
hard on Rudy. Thelma didn't expect him to be
perfect. She's willing to cut him some slack and
appreciate him for what he can offer -- a little body heat
and a barrel of laughs. She invites them all to dinner,
hoping that Russell and Rudy will bury the hatchet and that
Russell will finish painting her house since Rudy hasn't got
a clue. Russell, Claire and Nathaniel return home to
find Josh has returned, humbled, chastened and somewhat wiser
for the experience. Russell admits his anger has
simmered down and that he's actually proud of Josh for
putting himself out to help someone else.
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