Today's post was inspired by this prompt from the folks at Scintilla Project. " Talk
about where you were going the day you got lost. Were you alone? Did you ever get to where you were going?
If my GPS were human I would marry it. I don’t know what I would do without it, seriously.
It shows me faster ways to get places, warns me if traffic is ahead and lets me choose an alternate path, it is even patient with me when I inadvertently go the wrong way.
I started using a handheld GPS on road trips with my children.
One day in the wilds of Butte, Montana the GPS we called Pete took us onto a private ranch road. I was scared a crazed rancher with a long shot gun was going to chase after me, taking my children hostage and feeding them to a hungry buffalo or whatever big, meat eating animal roams around those parts of the country. I turned back. Pete was
The Beauty of the Montana Sky took my breath away. Photos can't capture that feeling it gives off....
not amused. He kept
saying, "Take a U-Turn as soon as possible!”
Over and over again as the widest most beautiful sunset was taking place all around us we were told, "Take a U-Turn as soon as possible" we found our way back to our funky motel. Butte’s name was quite a joke for my children. We still laugh about it. Samuel was seven at the time and any sort of “naughty body part” humor had him in stitches and he repeated it over and over and over again.
My favorite “ohmigawsh, we’re lost!” took place outside Cambridge, Massachusetts when we were trying to get to my friend, Pegi’s house in Hyannis on Cape Cod. I can still see the road in front of me: it was one of those chaotic stretches of highway which is like a doorway to roads in every direction and if you take the wrong one, you can pretty much be guaranteed a heckuva long detour.
We went into a tunnel – with me praying I made the right choice and then, we lost our
Yes - once the worry of "Well Guys, We're on our own!" we had a lovely Easter Celebration in Cape Cod
GPS signal. The girls and I moaned. We then went
silent until Samuel, now nine and completely logical declared, “Well, guys, it
looks like we are on our own!” which made the girls and I grown and laugh
hysterically. We popped out of the tunnel, the GPS received its signal again
and we were exactly where we were supposed to be.
Why is it the getting lost or almost getting lost or going the wrong way stories seem to wind up as favorite stories to tell later? They’re often more memorable than all the well thought out plans: the National Park, the amusement park, the beach. Those activities become fuzzy, but sitting in the car together laughing and moaning as we sit close together, wide-eyed while sipping on both wonder and worry live forever.
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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott
