" Country Roads, Take Me Home"

I must admit that I had no idea how today would turn out when I woke up this morning. Katie had her friend spend the night and I was pretty sure that I was going to let her drive her home. I have let her do it once before and she did pretty well.

Kate has only driven about a half a dozen times thus far with her drivers permit. When we left the house I thought, what the heck, we have plenty of time so I was going to let her drive around a bit more. So off we went. " Take a right turn here." I said and off we went.

I thought that I knew where we were going. Really I did. But after going several miles out of town, not seeing anything familiar, I knew that we were lost! Katie's friend was being very quite (for a change) as I secretly was starting to panic. Katie in the mean time was doing great. She was getting much more comfortable with handling my car. In a previous driving session, Katie felt uncomfortable doing 55 M.P.H. , so I told her to drive the speed that was comfortable for her. That was 39M.P.H. in a 55M.P.H. speed zone. But that was fine I told as other cars would pass if they wanted to.


We were in the middle of nowhere. But it was o.k.
We had a full tank of gas, plenty of gum, no map and no bars on any of our cell phones.

Must take deep breaths, I will be fine. Katie was doing fine. After driving for about 40 minutes, my Katie was now doing 55M.P.H.! And she was having a great time. The one thing that I have to consistently remind her of, is that she drifts to the right. There was much improvement today but still too much drifting!

So back to having NO CLUE where we were. There were some roads in which I recognized the names of. At these times I would make her turn on to them in hopes of finding a small town that I recognized. We even passed the sign that read "Devils Prop"! This is an amazing place to go hiking or just sit and enjoy the beauty. But my husband Jake always took us there and all that I knew was that it was far from our home. Yikes!

This is an actual photo of "Devils Prop" which has been around for hundreds of years. Back in the 1800's, young folks from our town would take buggy rides out there. It would take them all day to get there.

So now that Katie and I know the way, I told her we would go this spring and take a picnic lunch and our camera's! But in the meantime we are still lost. We went through two that I know of, possibly three counties.

Finally we came to a tiny town that I remembered driving through many years ago before Katie was born, but couldn't remember geographically, where it was in relation to our town. Katie slowed down through the tiny town when I spotted a nice looking young man. At which time I instructed Katie to CAREFULLY pull over and stop. The nice looking young man was very polite in giving us directions to the highway that we need to get back home.

I heard the angels singing after I thanked him and Katie pulled back out onto the road. We got on the highway and were on our way in the right direction. Finally! Hallelujah! I finally KNEW where we were going. And why don't we have a damn map in this car, is what I asked my husband when we finally did get home. At least I can read a map!

Katie then had to actually drive in traffic of a larger town to a four way stop light in which she had to make a left turn with cars all around her. She did great! And the rest of the TWO hour trip was a piece of cake!

My initial intention was about a 45 min. drive. Oh well, the more practice the better. And thinking back on it now, we did have fun. I think that Katie will be a very good driver. Once she learns to stop drifting!

Just to let you know, I have a fear of getting lost and will have a panic attack when I do. When I was 17 I got very lost with no money, hardly any gas and of coarse no cell phones back then. Or GPS. Not that I have one now! It was in a very bad neighborhood in the southside of Chicago. I did eventually find a street that I knew, but this is why I panic when I get lost now.

When we knew we were lost, Katie said to me "Relax mom, I'm a truck drivers daughter. It's no big deal." Well how about that? Maybe I will be able to relax one day after all!