Misplaced Faith

When you have a car full of teenaged loved ones, a traffic back-up on the express way can cause some pretty rash driving decisions. So we believed the GPS when it said we could get to the pizza place by an 

'alternate route'. 

Oh the FAITH required to use a GPS! 

Off we went, following the directions in a blow-by-blow format, thinking SOMEhow we would arrive

 in a busy college town after driving further and further, deeper and deeper  into farmland.

This is where we were when the GPS said something none of us had ever heard before:

Prepare to park your car and continue to your destination on foot.

Misplaced faith, for sure.

Head in the Clouds

We did a LOT of driving in June, trekking to the Smoky Mountains and 

Virginia Beach. On our last day of vacation, instead of dozing with head 

lolling for the entertainment of the all, I was snapping these.

Does anyone see the elephant in these clouds?

A scary clown???

In the home stretch, there was a heated ABC Game*, with a unsolvable snarl 

around letter 'X'.  I ended up on the losing team.

So glad to be home and back in familiar routines!

SIDE NOTE:

*The ABC Game - Our Version - This can be played as an all car game or as a competition between teams, persons, rows, etc.  I prefer the competition since I want to be the winner, of course. Work your way through the alphabet, in order, finding words on signs, buildings, trucks, other cars, license plates - anything. 

- Yell out your word and tack on irritating celebration phrases like, "Take that, Sucka!" (I'm sharing the most polite examples here.) If you have a wicked laugh, throw that in too.

- No abbreviated words or acronyms allowed: KOA does not count for letter 'K'. 

Especially since the 'K' in that word stands for 'Kampgrounds', one of those nasty intentional misspellings. 

- No reusing exactly the same word by multiple teams/players:

 " 'C' - Cracker!" 

"Oh! 'C' for us too - Cracker!"

Nope. No way, no how. Find your own C.

Same word found on different signs - that's (reluctantly) allowed.

- Special allowances are made for Q and X and maybe Z, if you get that far. Any word CONTAINING one of these can count.  

- Placing a friendly bet can keep things interesting. Some examples: 

Winner gets to choose the radio station for 50 miles.

Loser carries the winner's luggage.

Winner gets first bed choice. 

Winner gets to order first at the next restaurant.

Loser cleans the garbage out of the car at the next stop.

Winner gets to choose a treat at the next gas station.

Loser may not speak for an hour ... (a personal favorite)

Morning Drive

Driving My Middle Son to school in the morning is not one of my favorite things to do. 

Wonderful Man usually handles that, and I am the pick-up person. But sometimes, I have to do the morning job, too.  It's a ten minute drive through the country, and this morning there was an extra lot to look at. The green fields were laced with a delicate fog, and the sun was just coming out to gild it faintly golden. 

It's hard to concentrate on the  road  when the  roadsides  are so lovely!

The Morning Drive to School is a carefully timed mission - you must  leave no later than 7:01 to miss the buses. If you leave after 7:02, well then, you're going to have to sit in a bus-interrupted line while nine thousand and five buses (busses?) pass in front of your vehicle. 

(side note: It is interesting that most of the kids on the bus are looking into the cars they are passing. When I was a kid, I don't think I ever looked in the cars near the bus - unless of course they were directly behind the bus. Isn't that Kid Law  - 'persons who drive a car directly behind a school bus must be at least mildly tormented by bus riders')

Second Son being a time conscious sort, we almost always leave exactly on time, but you still can't be certain of missing the busses. It is an entertaining delay, anyway, seeing all those young faces peering right into yours. 

(side note: I sometimes feel called to prayer right then - do you ever feel that?)

 It's a family joke that driving to school is like playing a live video game.  It's eerily  FROGGER-ish.  There are deer that stand on the side of the road - are they gonna jump out, or just watch you drive by?  And deer that run out - are there more than those two, or are more coming?

We didn't see any deer this morning in on our drive today, though. Canadian Geese were out instead, some standing just next to the road in pairs, surveying the rural traffic patterns. (another side note: Geese are so lofty, aren't they? Don't they just seem nearly imperial? I guess it's the neck? Is it the fact that you can't actually see their eyes? How do they make me feel so small?) One goose pair decided to bump the edge of their personal life-envelope and stand on the roadside - actually deciding to feel the Kentucky asphalt under their webbed toes, while giving me the look, of course. 

I swerved. 

I slowed down to try to miss the chipmunk, who decided to stop running across the road and run straight ahead instead.   brilliant   He was still running when I whizzed by. 

My tires did bump-bump over a large snake, which had already gone on to his reward, probably during the night. (side note: WHY are snakes already out? ugh ) But I didn't make contact with any of the crazy birds who tried to fly across the road just  barely  in front of my  car, as if on a dare. (I think those might be teenager birds, absolutely certain that nothing bad could ever really happen, at least not to them. 

I didn't see the other players in the Morning Drive Game - turkeys, squirrels, black cats (and only black), house dogs, cows or elderly persons wearing hats out for a morning walk on a country road. 

They must be scheduled for tomorrow's drive.