OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Dividing your time amongst family, grandchildren, working full-time and visiting with friends can certainly be taxing at times. I will say though, that spirit has done an exceptional job recently, of managing my time in better ways than I ever could. Of course, in my mind, I just chalk it up to working itself out. I am just going with the flow lately! It’s been a rather nice change of pace, instead of the rat race I tend to run in.

While driving to watch one of my grandson’s, it was suspiciously interesting that my GPS took me on a different route instead of the normal white-knuckle trek that I normally do.  You see, I like the set it and forget it, cruise control routes mostly. I always have an audiobook on to listen to, or I’m catching up with friends via speakerphone. Surprisingly the time difference was only going to be six minutes to take a different route. It wasn’t much of a debate as the traffic had stopped for an accident. I looked at the dark solid red streak mark on my GPS and it showed a bit of a distance with a 30-minute delay. So off onto a new path I went!

I have been so entertained on this route.  I would’ve never seen all that I did if it weren’t for this side track.

First, I drove through a beautiful long tunnel of trees with Spanish moss hanging down.  It was something you would normally see in a framed picture or on a postcard.

Then my GPS had me zigzagging through this little town, where they had a monster missile in an antique graveyard of sorts. That’s the only way to describe it. It looked like a massive missile that had fallen out of the sky and got stuck in the ground!

I then happened to see a pretzel stand with one of the largest fake pretzels as its sign, I had ever seen.

My eyes then gravitated to a really big, life-size pink elephant that had glasses on and glowing eyes outside of some restaurant. This one screamed PHOTO-OPP to me but with the traffic around me I couldn’t stop.

Zigzagging again through a different town via my GPS directions, I couldn’t take my eyes off the pictorial terrain all around me. There was this cute little horse and buggy statue in front of a shop. Further up the road was a life size Cinderella carriage. There were no horses by the carriage, but it was most certainly something you would see at Disney!  WHERE-WAS-I???

Up the road a bit further there was a farm to the right of me and the farms name was called GOOD KARMA. I loved the name but also felt it was a message for me as well.

I have been so thoroughly entertained looking at the change of scenery, and yet I still managed to shave ten minutes off of my original time, despite there being slower traffic lanes.

As entertained as I have been on this particular trip, it has made me realize a couple of things. It was a reminder that faster is not always better. You’re still going to get where you need to go, but there is a lot to miss if you don’t take a look around. It was also a stark reminder that there are great towns and scenic routes that we miss because we are in a hurry.  I don’t know where I was, but I want to go back!

It goes without saying sometimes you need to take a route off the beaten path to light you up on the inside.

I still have no idea where I was at to duplicate it, but I just might try another route the next trip!