 |
| In the Land of Seguaro Cactus and Frayed Nerves |
Oh dear merciful heavens!! I have lived for 41 years with
this!!
We are on the move for the first time in 6 days and the
first order of business for both rigs was a fuel stop along I-8 in El
Cajon. We landed at different gas
stations which is inevitably the first indicator of trouble ahead....
With fueling complete Wick radios that the turn-around he
used was not particularly desirable or accessible so we bypass the first
opportunity. This, problematically leads
to the next challenge, which is the decision making process of where exactly
the right place to turn might be...
Says I, after traversing several blocks away from our
travel mates, "uh, why don't you radio and let Wick know where we
are?"
Driver, "Nah, we'll find someplace along
here...."
Me, although only inside my head, 'he never listens. Must
be nice to always know better.'
Driver, spotting a sign for the freeway entrance,
"We'll just get on here and drive real slow..."
About now a broken up radio transmission comes in, the
gist of which seems to be some concern as to our whereabouts - clearly now out
of range of two-way communication capability.
Me, becoming alarmed, "We can't just assume they are
going to know we got on the freeway, you know!!"
Driver, " so call them on the phone and have him
come this way...."
Me, dialing...then, "Hey we've found a freeway
entrance down here. Can you come this way?"
Them, "No, we're boxed in on both sides here."
Me, assuming the reasonable reaction, okay we'll get turned around and come back
for you...."
I may not have been a green Beret or a Navy Seal but even
I know the motto 'NO MAN LEFT BEHIND! For Heaven's sake!! I begin immediately, and perhaps somewhat
excitedly pointing out turn-around options only to be met with:
Driver, "That's too sharp a turn! That's too
steep!"
Personally, it is my fervent belief that he had by now
spied the onramp and was simply fixated on the quest like a Cheetah on the
kill.
Me, now pretty much shrieking, "What the heck! You
can't just leave them back there. You
don't EVER LISTEN!"
Now this is where my memory of events gets a little
fuzzy, mostly because my head was in danger of exploding....but I think this is
what he says next:
Driver, pretty
much hollering back while simultaneously merging onto said freeway " What
did you EXPECT me to do?!!? There was
nowhere to turn around!"
(Apparently blind and deaf to the 20 possibilities pointed out by the
Navigator)
Me, "Well! Clearly I didn't EXPECT you to LISTEN to
me!! why would I EXPECT that?!"
Driver, showing a remarkable level of disdain for the No
Man Left Behind mandate, "I'll drive slow...They'll catch
up!!!". Yes readers, the
exclamation marks indicate full scale yelling at this point in the
"conversation."
Me,
"Forty-one years!!! Forty-one years!! I've been putting up with
this for forty-one years!!!!"
Driver, all forgetful and confused-like,
"What?"
Me, "Forty-one years! You haven't LISTENED to me in
FORTY-ONE YEARS!!!"
Driver, "You'd think you would have learned by
now."
This all might carry at least a little weight with the
guilty, non-listening offender if I could avoid laughing....Sigh....I kinda
feel like the dog, Doug, in the Pixar movie "Up"..... It's funny
'cause its true.
We finally reconnoitered at a rest stop just out of El Centro and decided a
lunch break was in order. Reunited over
lunch I kindly offered Wick some delicious hummus which he rejected without a
moment's consideration. I ask him if he
has ever even tried it and Gwen,
apparently married even longer than me, spontaneously replies, "No. He'd
rather remain ignorant..."
After I gleefully declared the exchange blog- worthy Gwen
announced that upon reflection she perhaps should have gone with
"uninformed."
No comments:
Post a Comment