May 25, 2008

• A Trip to Nowhere

  After the wonderful weekend my friend and I had, we were thrilled.  But, that thrill was soon to turn into heart-pounding panic.

  We drove through the Peak District, which really didn’t look all that different from the Lake District, except the hills were higher and there weren’t lakes.  We were making good time and great conversation when we hit stand-still traffic.  For ten miles.  We kept seeing horse trailers coming the other direction.  Finally, we saw a sign at a roundabout that proclaimed there were horse trials–and they had just let out.  “Let’s go the opposite direction and then skip the horse trial town,” Navigator Teacherperson suggested. We turned off, but we missed the turn for the road we wanted.  “Oh, the map shows that the next turn will connect us with the road we missed,” NTP said.
   
  

  

  
  We turned into a nowhere sort of small town and went down what we thought was the road. Then, we were confronted with a dirt road.  “Uh,” said I consulting the map, “There is a little white road thing which connects our highway. I can see our road down there. Maybe the white lines are dirt roads?”  So we started down the road, going slower and slower as the ruts grew deeper.

  

  
  “Wouldn’t it be awful if this road just ended?” Lisa joked. “We’d never be able to turn around. I wish she weren’t such a prophetess.  Oh NOOOOO!!!

  

  
  What to do?  Backing up the whole way was our only option–in a standard transmission.  Lisa bravely did an amazing job of backing up half way to where there was a gate. I opened the gate to give her room to turn around. That’s when the heart-pounding started.  She was stuck. And there were stone fences on either side of the car and behind.  AAAAAHHHH! 

  After a bit of panicking and a lot of prayer, she was able to get the car back to its original backward position and backed up the whole way, with me walking alongside shouting encouragement.  We thought this would make a great sermon illustration someday.

  Finally, we reached the very end of the road. There was another road to do a three-point turn onto. But, somehow, the car got stuck in some weeds and Would. Not. Move.  (Front wheel drive not making contact or something.)  I tried to push, but being a general weakling, I was useless. 

  Just at that moment, Lisa’s husband called. Nothing like getting everyone worried, eh? 

  As this guy wasn’t much help to us, I decided to go looking for help in the town while Lisa tried to assure her husband that all was well and we would be just fine. Or something like that.

       

  
  Was this a tiny village a proper town or just a vacation home place?  I wasn’t sure. All the stone semi-detached houses had vacation-like names hanging on the fronts of them. Much more prayer went up. I knocked on the first door with visions of a little old lady or some scary man opening the door.  Neither happened, as no one came.

  What to do?  I started down the street again and noticed a house with some nice cars in the driveway (an Audi and something else nice).  “Hmmm,” thought I, “They must live here because no one would leave expensive cars like that at a vacation home. And, how creepy could they be with really nice cars?And there are two cars, so chances are that a family lives there.”  I knocked.   Praise God for the teenage boy and his stepdad who came to our rescue, helped to push the car out of the weeds, and got us turned around properly!

  Isn’t it wonderful to have help in all our tight spots? But I must confess that my heart was pounding for hours afterward. 

  Have you been in any tight spots lately?
  

  • 10:01 am
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