When the boss asked me if I’d be up for driving six hours each way to pick up a trailer full of saplings for our annual tree sale, I answered with a question.
“So you’re asking me to sit and listen to the radio all day, drinking coffee and watching the world roll by for the very same pay you give me to wade knee deep in a ditch filled with manure looking for dead fish?” I said. “Hmmm, let me think. Yah, I’m all about that life!”
As if the gravy gig wasn’t good enough on its own, it also offered me an opportunity to visit my brother, Tim, and his wife, Dot, who happen to live just miles from the nursery in Michigan that supplies our trees. When I called Tim to let him know I’d be in the neighborhood we quickly made plans.
“This is great!” Tim said.
“Why don’t you bring Kristin along and the two of you can stay at our place for the night. We’ll get a pizza and eat out on our deck by the river. It’ll be wonderful!”
The older, and mostly wiser, sibling
Tim is my oldest sibling and the only one who lives farther than a 10-minute bicycle ride from my own door. With 17 years in age and 350 miles between us, we’ve never had many opportunities to spend a lot of time together, but that had not kept us from being close.
We were both completely jazzed on the whole plan. So much, in fact that it took Dot to remind both of us of a tiny little detail that neither of us had considered.
“But what about COVID?” she said. “We have not even had our own adult children cross our threshold in over a year because of the pandemic.”
More: Send help! Taking 'The Voice' along for the ride
The two of us had been so excited about it we’d literally forgotten about the whole “COVID thing” for a brief moment, and it was wonderful to remember how simple life used to be.
There was no arguing this one, however. Both of our families had been super-vigilant and the four of us are now only one booster away (mine) from being fully vaccinated. Still the plans for a sleepover constituted a risk not worth the taking. Twelve yards from the goal line is no time to start shaking the ball around.
We agreed to stick to the pizza plan nevertheless and Kristin and I set out on the road bright and early, setting sight on Lake Michigan at the far horizon. Tim had provided me with an “insider’s guide” to avoiding the three-ring traffic circus of interstate driving in Michigan.
Flip phone is good enough, for some
And keeping to true to the same “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it” thrift and economy that make him the last human being I know who carries a flip phone, he sent me a printed map through the US Mail. It was marked up in yellow highlighter and annotated in blue ink on the margins with the simplest, smoothest, “traffic-free” back roads path between Orrville and Grand Rapids.
When I received it, I’d immediately sat down at the computer and transcribed the entire route into Google so I could follow my GPS while at the same time honoring the work of my older, wiser brother.
More: SEND HELP On the road to adventure with a man of few surprises
Google refused to it. No matter what I did, no matter how many tries, my GPS insisted I stick to the route most traveled and it programed that route accordingly. In a fit of stubborn determination I turned off my GPS and dug in.
You’ll need to navigate your way back to these pages next week to learn the story of our adventure!
Kristin and I would love to hear from you! Write to “Send Help,” P.O. Box 170, Fredericksburg 44627. Be sure to check out Facebook for time-lapse film clips of Kristin’s artwork and other fun stuff at JohnLorsonSendHelp.
The Link LonkApril 10, 2021 at 03:07PM
https://www.the-daily-record.com/story/lifestyle/columns/2021/04/10/send-help-traveling-byways-looks-good-paper/7136934002/
SEND HELP: Traveling byways looks good on paper - Wooster Daily Record
https://news.google.com/search?q=Send&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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