September 4, 2018. We drove Saturday to Odessa TX, to spend Labor Day weekend with good friends. Not a new drive – a couple of known paths from our house to San Angelo, one obvious path from there to Odessa. Only … somehow we missed a turn and by the time we noticed the road no longer looked familiar, we were waaaay past that turn. Unwilling to forfeit time retracing, we proceeded to the next town (Goldthwaite TX). Studying Google Maps on my phone, strange changes kept occurring. Our printed maps were all in the truck that tows our Airstream – not with us in the Prius.
Goldthwaite further frustrated with no indication where its roads out of town would lead. But Lady Luck presented herself in a Welcome Center. (Who’d expect such in the middle of nowhere? And open on Saturday!) She sent me back to the car with a county map stating on left edge: “To San Angelo”. We were not yet aware at the county line our road dead-ended into a T … with zero indication what lay ahead in either direction.
Oddly, I have an urge to drive that way again (intentionally) for photographs. I’m relying here on images from maps and a photo of a similar pasture. Maybe next Spring when the wild flowers are blooming … to San Angelo for lunch and back again, with a map and Garmin along for the ride …
Nice poem. Sounds like a weird experience.
I think the town is Goldthwaite, but I don’t think I’ve ever been there.
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Maybe you’ll ride along next Spring to look for wildflowers?
Yup, I have indeed misspelled Goldthwaite – not intentional – my eyes are playing tricks on me! It was a place of WAIT for patience that was THWARTED … the th fits!
(Will edit the post.)
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The intrepid explorer!
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Thank you. Intrepid a kinder adjective than foolish …
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We had a few of these adventures when touring last winter. The feeling is both anxiety and excitement. There is a sense of having discovered something unknown and secret.
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Gotta chuckle at your response – while I was marveling at the new road, Gary was fuming about the confusion and resulting delay in arrival. I started this poem on my iPhone (nonfunctional for maps, but perfectly good for notes!) partly to buffer his grumpiness. Had I been the driver, grumpy might’ve been my response too …
So yes, we had both anxiety (in the driver seat) and excitement (in the passenger seat)
Thanks, VJ!
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Ha ha. Ric wasn’t so amused by our little misadventures either, but I couldn’t help but giggle.
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Love how you take us on a journey with you in that poem!
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Thank you for “coming along into the Twilight Zone” !
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