The Trials of the Road Trip

My dad & step-mom lived in North Dakota when I was younger. Her parents lived not far from where I did, in Minnesota, and so my the NoDak's would come and visit and I would hang with them at Grandma Gen's house. It was a long (10+ hour) drive from Minnesota back to NoDak. My brother was probably about 3, and they had traveled the long, flat and pretty boring road, finally pulling into the driveway about 11 pm. My sweet little, home-body brother looked at the house, sighed, and said "We FOUND it!"


Yesterday, October's bright blue weather called to me, so I grabbed the girls and we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway. Apparently the bright blue weather also called to about 30 billion other people, thus the parkway was BUSY. We decided to take a different road OFF the parkway and head around home "the long way". About 3 miles down that winding road, there was a small road with a sign that said "One lane bridge ahead" ... well, I'm all about roads with one lane bridges, so we took a left and headed on our way. The pavement quickly turned into gray gravel, and the one lane bridge was perhaps called that because it was a one lane road. But it was BEAUTIFUL - red & yellow & orange and peach(!) colored leaves, forests and streams, waterfalls and birds. We drove and drove, around curves and along stream beds... seeing a car every great once-in-a-while... we drove and drove, in the majestic chapel that is a forest in the fall. (Gert exclaimed that she finally understood why they call it "fall" as she and her sister were shouting at the leaves to fall through our open sunroof.) We drove and drove... Essie starting to get nervous that perhaps we had found the road with no end. We drove and drove... 2 hours we drove.. stopping for pictures here and there. (Gert - "Mommy! I see a photo opportunity!!!!") I had no idea where we were, but I knew at some point something would look like something I knew - or at least point me in the direction of something I knew (who NEEDS a stinkin GPS!!!). Finally the gravel turned back into pavement, and soon a yellow line divided that pavement into two lanes. Soon then a house, and another... and another... then a small development... then a cell tower. A familiar looking one. And then it dawned on me that I knew exactly where we were, and we were about a block from our church! I was quite proud of myself and shared my victory with Essie, who was riding in the seat next to me. Gert was happily looking out the window from the backseat. We headed down the road, past the church, past the Fed-Ex building, past the fair-grounds, over the interstate...

MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that was Gert screaming - and pointing at the Target sign)

MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE'RE IN NORTH CAROLINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!