It was going to be a fun weekend. All we had to do was get in the car and drive, make it to our destination and then relax. And who doesn’t love a little road trip?
That’s not how it went down at all. First of all, we debated about the vehicle to take. The red car was too splashy—what if the cops were out? Well, then we should take the vehicle with the least splash—the black pickup. Packing it was a little tricky, because everything we put in the back rolled clear up to the front of the pickup bed, forcing us to crawl on our old knees up to the front to get it.
We finally got going and headed east out of town. This turned out to be a bad idea. As we passed the school we realized with the flashing yellow lights, that school was still in session.
School Zone!
What we didn’t think about was that the flashing yellow lights also meant that we should be reducing speeds to a crawl to accommodate the school children arriving at the school.
We had just registered this idea when a different set of flashing lights appeared in our rear view mirror and in the next few minutes we were being treated to a lecture on what the yellow lights meant in relation to our speed, which, in our defense, was well under the regular speed, but not slow enough to avoid a ticket.
We set out on the road trip once more, with $185 dollars less in our pockets and a somewhat dampened enthusiasm for the fun, but what the heck? We could still have a good time. That is, until we ran into the road construction. Road construction is never fun, with all those detours and orange cones, but this time it was worse than normal because it was one of those sit in a line and wait for a pilot car things and it was a long, LONG wait.
Summer in SD – Road Construction Season!
We were already officially late to meet our traveling companions, but the 20 minutes we spent staring at the impassive face of the flag person standing in the middle of the road holding a stop sign and the further 15 minutes it took to follow the pilot car through a five-minute section of road meant we were truly late.
When we finally met our traveling companions, we decided to take their car and it was one of those that beeps, has flashing lights and various other annoyances to let you know when you are getting too close to the edge of your lane. I always thought those noisy ridges were enough. Six hours of having my inability to remain between the lane markings was enough to make me ready to crash that noisy, nerve-wracking vehicle into a wall to see what lights and whistles would go off then!
The weekend went pretty well, but anyone who thinks that a road trip might be fun and relaxing should probably re-think their plans…or at least their preparation for the trip!
© Jackie Wells-Fauth and Drops In the Well, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jackie Wells-Fauth and Drops In The Well with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
dropsinthewell 