Life is Not a Drive Thru

I just love going on road trips with women. We can not only take detours, we might even change agendas. We can stop anywhere & often, and linger as long as we want. Heck, we can even ask for directions.

My dear hubby on the other hand, well bless his heart, he is getting better with age, but he still is not up to par with my girlfriends. If I were to even whisper ‘Look’ to the gals, we are instantly stopped, turned – whatever it takes, with an enthusiastic and adrenalin pumped ‘What did you see?!!’ With DH, I can be shouting ‘WHOA! WHOOOA!!’ for a mile & he’ll slowly come to …’What? Did you say something? You wanted to stop? Oh. Well, we’re past it now.’

On our first visit to Newfoundland in 2003 we drove three and a half hours to see a single mini iceberg, believing that it was our only chance to view one as we would likely never be back. Well of course, since then we have seen a multitude of glorious icebergs & I do have the odd photo.

One evening, with a van full of people, we drove by an iceberg that I will admit that I had been by a dozen times, and in fact had taken numerous shots of it. He replied to my request to stop with “Don’t you have enough iceberg pictures?’ I said ‘It’s not just any iceberg - there are a lot of factors: the position, the shape, the colour, the lighting - I'm very particular now ... I don't stop for every iceberg.'

He begrudgingly pulled over & everyone waited while I snapped away and then we carried on.

A bit down the road, he stopped the van, got out and proceeded to go to someone’s front lawn and roll on it. Literally – laid down and rolled on it. We were all dumbfounded at the sight. When he got in & we asked him what exactly he was doing, he said “Well, I like lawns & some just call me to come and roll on them. Not just ANY lawn though – it has to be the right size & the right grade & the right type of grass. I’m particular about the lawns that I want to roll on.”

My girlfriends on the other hand – there is never a hesitation, never a judgment, a comment, an eye roll or an air of impatience. ‘STOP!’ means an added bonus to the adventure. A ‘TURN AROUND’ is even better.

On our journey to our retreat, Pauline, our sharp eyed driver spotted a great white Snowy Owl sitting on the top of a hydro pole. Some of us missed it.

‘Well let’s just turn around and see it!’ was the chorus. Since we were in convoy, we had to tell the gals behind us why we were suddenly doing a U-turn. Of course, they were right with us.

My camera ever handy, I captured it on behalf of all the journeyers. We rejoiced and congratulated ourselves for a good ‘score’. It will be mentioned with fondness often over the years. It really doesn’t take all that much to delight, amuse and entertain us.

There are so many cool things between Here and There. To make deposits into your memory bank & build up a rich account, you gotta Stop. Life is not a drive thru.