A friend posted yesterday that her life is a situation
comedy…well I have to steal that line from her with our adventure last
night. If there had been a video camera
recording our trip to pick up the writing table it could possibly rate right up
there with Seinfeld.
First we leave to pick up a table and chair in my VW Passat
(get a visual). The van has been under
the weather and is still full of stuff from our last “running out of gas”
adventure. It’s all better now, but
there was just too much to unload to make room.
Not only do we leave in my car, but we also have two dogs in tow. They haven’t seen their “mommie” all day and
of course want to “go for a ride.” I do
realize we will have tight quarters on the way back.
It is quite a long distance to retrieve my $50 table and
chair so there’s no time really for supper and we told the seller we’d be there
between 7 and 7:30. Mr. Huff gets us on
our way and doesn’t have to consult the Mapquest directions until our exit. The directions tell us to get off on exit 251
for MO-100. That’s simple enough,
right? Well when we get to exit 253
(just prior to 251) it has the MO-100 sign at that exit as well. Since it’s MO-100 that should be where we get
off, right?
We travel quite a distance and finally it is decided that we’re
not exactly where we should be. I offer
to get the GPS going which is fine. Now
it takes it a while to make a satellite connection and once it knows where we
are and our destination it tells us 487 times to “make a legal U-turn whenever
possible” and offers several street names to do it at. We’ve traveled quite a ways and we’re NOT
turning around now. I offer that if we
ride a ways, maybe the GPS lady will make an adjustment and re-calculate. Finally she does and now tells us to turn on
Hwy T to reach our destination. I read
the directions and yes, we need to take the left onto Hwy T to be on the right
MO-100. Question: why are there two
MO-100’s?
Anyway, we wind and wind down some very dark roads with
another vehicle on our tail. Don’t like
that speed buddy? You won’t like the
next one. We let him pass. We actually pass a location where the band
has played and have a slight bearing on where we are. We pass a place called “Labadie”… a major
discussion ensues on how you pronounce this town. LA bah dee or La BAY dee? I find the second southern version more palatable.
Finally we hit MO-100 to get on MO -44 (that’s right at the
Walgreens and other points of civilization).
We continue to follow the GPS lady’s instructions and there is still
another approximately 15 miles to go. We
cross the Missouri River….we go over the field and pass Grandma’s house…..
meantime I have left a message for our seller as it is now 7:45 and we are
still a little ways out.
We arrive at the sellers house, a very sweet lady. She has already dismantled the table and
wrapped it in shrink wrap to save us time.
The table is really nice by the way.
We quickly share our life story, how we met, why we wanted the table and
a good singles dating site. Normal
stuff. We load the table top, legs and
chair in the car and move two dogs to the front seat with me. We are packed in like sardines. Oh, and now I have to pee.
We leave the way we should have come in in the first place,
find a place with 2 whoppers for $5 and a potty. I convince the dogs to stay in the car. We re-load and go find a gas station for fuel
to make it back. Now I must eat a
hamburger with two dogs in my lap who are very hungry and didn’t have dinner
either. I give up after eating ½. They didn’t care for my Sprite but were
really interested in the vanilla milkshake…
Once we get back on the expressway at what we discover is
the 251 exit we realize that we have gone about 30+ miles out of our way with
our little “detour.” I’m sure it’s
lovely in the day time. We hit more
rain on the way in, but make it home safely, unload the car, feed the dogs and
set up the table. It’s perfect.
I checked this morning and the table is set up in the guest
room. It was not a dream. If any of you know how to pronounce Labadie….
let me know.
