Years ago as a young boy, I traveled with my parents back and forth to Pa almost every weekend. They remodeled a 4 apartment building into 10 units. My mother had a theory that if we lived in the unfinished part it would encourage us to work faster at finishing it.
So that meant living in the attic on weekends with the roof half open. It meant removing the rolls of insulation from our beds at night and living what I recall as a spartan life at times.
Once our work weekend was done we would slip into the car and head home for school and work. That was a whole new expedition. We would carry boards in the car, usually a station wagon. That way we could get up on I-81 before it was open. We would move or go around the barricades and then put the boards down and drive the car over them to enter or exit along the way.
Before I-81, the trip was several hours longer going through all the small towns. I-81 was the promise of a much shorter and easier trip. During those years for me, Pa was a place to get away from. So shorter was better and I was a willing accomplice.
So one rainy winters day we started home, tired and glad to be going. We made the pilgrimage to the unopened highway and started up the high mountain slope outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Nearly to the top my father said the car was not acting right. Maybe it was the transmission. Looking over the valley it would be a long wait till help arrived. Dad stopped the car and started to get out. It wasn't the transmission but instead 3-4 inches of ice on the road. Instantly fear overwhelmed us. No guard rails, an unfinished roadway with 1-2 foot drop offs and nearly to top.
I cried to get out and walk but Dad would not let me. Somehow he backed that car down the mountain and got us off the frozen interstate.
My relationship with my parents is strained still. After many years they still want me to go for drives with them in that same vehicle. I won't.
In many ways my experiences are no better or worse than others, but the point is more what we learn from them. My life is very blessed now and has been for many years.
At some point in my life I got out of that car never to return. There have been many times when my parents wanted me to go for a drive. They don't understand but I have found my own way, my own walk.
So if you find yourself distressed, in a car going where you don't want to go. Just get out and start walking. Your own walk.
Keep walkin
Ron
