Sunday, March 1, 2015

Easy Rider

Getting stuck or lost isn't always fun.
 
My former sister-in-law got stuck in Anchorage last night on her flight home from a Hawaiian vacation. The weather in Fairbanks last night was pretty awful and the plane turned around mid-flight. I've been there, done that. It's never in the "plan" and can be super stressful.
 
We recently road tripped to Salt Lake City with a friend and her 7 month old baby. Eleven hours in the car each way. So much could have gone wrong. I thought about that a lot bit before we left. If we had a flat tire, it would have been an all-out cussing, gnashing-of-the-teeth, throwing-all-our-stuff-on-the-side-of-the-road kind of wrong. With a 7 month old baby on board. I really didn't give it much more than a fleeting thought as I was asking my friend if she wanted to go. Later, I thought .... oh dear, what if that baby doesn't like sitting in one spot for 600+ miles? It was just another  thought I dismissed as quickly as it came. We'll be fine.  And, we were more than fine.  That baby now has the nickname Easy Rider.
 
Last fall, I took a planned road trip with a friend from high school and I never gave it much thought until about a week before we took off. The day of travel arrived and I was a bit of  wreck inside.  I was going to travel without my knight in shining armor and although I can change a flat tire if I have to, it's been a long time since I've had to. I refuse to let those thoughts remain as I would never go anywhere if fear stopped me.
 
Which brings me back to my sister-in-law.
 
Her being stuck in Anchorage last night reminded me of a trip she and I took together many moons ago. We had traveled to Portland to visit family and friends. One night we decided to drive to the outskirts to have dinner at a friend's place. I was driving and got us lost in the dark, industrial part of Portland. It was long before Google maps or GPS, and even longer before I learned how to read a map (when you live in Alaska, maps are not necessary) or follow instructions. I chuckle every time I think about it. She was really pissed off at me and I was clueless as to why.
 
I know now that some of us are wound a little tighter than others. It's not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, it's a complimentary thing. The voice of reason is always good to have along for the ride. We obviously lived to tell about it.
 
Have you ever had a trip go wrong? What happened? How do you deal with the stress of it? Does it keep you from going again?
 
love, susan
 
 

4 comments:

  1. OMG you bring memories of gone wrong trips...Laughter is how you deal,,,more you laugh the less the problem. Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh boy, I've one on trips with the same one and once we had a broken axle before we got far out of town, another time a blown water pump in Canada. Fun times!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there!

    I just stopped by to check out your blog. I've signed up for yet another year of the A to Z Challenge and look forward to reading many, many posts next month...;~)

    Take care,

    Donna L Martin
    www.donnalmartin.com
    author of THE STORY CATCHER (Anaiah Press 2015)
    coauthor CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: ANGELS AMONG US (Simon & Schuster 2013)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, hey! Thanks for dropping by! I am super jazzed about A to Z ... still forming some ideas .. do you have a theme picked out? Do tell!

      Delete

You Made My Day, Dude!

A couple weeks ago while I was driving back to Portland after spending the night on the Oregon coast, we came up on some road construction ...