The way Ginni Thomas recalled it, she and her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, were driving through upstate New York, by Lake George, when the red check engine light flickered on the dash of their 40-foot 1992 Prevost Marathon conversion coach.
As they buzzed along Interstate 87, “The red light came on and the engine went down and it stopped. And Clarence pulled over to the side,” she said of the associate Supreme Court justice and proud RV driver.
“I was like ‘uh-oh’ and was getting ready for a long time sitting on the side of the road,” she added.
Fair enough, since Thomas doesn’t appear to have the talents of a mechanic. But he’s a “tinkerer,” she revealed in the new book Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words, the follow-up to a movie of the same name released two years ago.
“He got out of the driver’s seat, and he went to the back of the bus on the outside. He came back inside. I was thinking of, ‘Who do I call for help?’” she told co-author Mark Paoletta.
But instead, the judge hopped in the spacious driver’s seat, turned the key, and off they went.
“It was just a fan belt. I had an extra one,” the justice told his wife, to which she responded, “No justice could do what you just did.”
Thomas wasn’t always his own chief mechanic, but thanks to a lot of friendly RV owners he’s met at campgrounds and truckers at Walmart parking lots and Pilot Flying J truck stops, he’s learned how to fix his rolling home and about the country and its people along the way.
In the book of interviews, Thomas said he never traveled much as a poor child in Georgia. Then, over 20 years ago, a friend encouraged him to see the country by mobile home, and he’s never looked back.
And that’s a good thing, especially this summer, as violent left-wing foes of the court have taken to social media to threaten Thomas and other justices for playing a role in shifting decisions to the Right. Some have even posted Thomas’s home address and pushed angry protesters to yell in front of the home.
Now more than ever, a month on the road looks to be a good thing for the judge and his wife.
During one of their first trips in the motor home, they couldn’t get the awnings to work. Fellow RVers, most of whom didn’t know whom the Thomases were, came over to help. Thomas said it was “like we had a barn raising or something.”
While it’s been reported that he takes summer trips in his RV, it is in the interviews for the book released this week that both Clarence and Ginni Thomas opened up about their love of being on the road. They’ve been to nearly 40 states over 20 years, often meeting people who don’t have a clue he’s a judge or that she’s a political lawyer and activist.
Thomas tries to keep it on the down-low, but he’s sometimes recognized, even at truck stops.
“So I’m in there with big truckers, the 18-wheelers. I think it was a Pilot truck stop in Pennsylvania,” Thomas recalled. “And you have to go through a process — you put on your fueling gloves, and you have to kick the tires. I never figured that out, but you do it because you’re a professional. I was walking to pay, and this black trucker comes over. He looks at me, and says, ‘You that judge?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone.’ And he said, ‘Wow. You know, I heard you a big rig man like us, but I didn’t think I’d ever meet you.’”
