Enjoy the Journey!!

I have recently realized that I spend much of my time trying to arrive and that getting there often gets in my way – at least in my attitude, if not in reality. God is working on me in this. I am working on choosing to be thankful in the moment for God giving that moment to me, whatever the circumstances.

This past weekend we traveled to the Shenandoah Valley and spent some time with our great friends, the Uhrin family (and Shelba’s Uncle George). We had fantastic weather, beautiful scenery, and it was very relaxing. After we got there, that is. In my newfound perspective on enjoying the journey, I reviewed two sets of directions from Mapquest – one for shortest time (15 directions, essentially all interstate) and one for shortest distance (60 directions, no interstates, and few highways). I talked Chris into the scenic view.

All was good for the first two hours of our five hour trip, other than Chris’s complaining from the passenger seat about constant navigation required by 60 directions. We saw many box turtles that confused themselves with the Little Engine that Could and chose to try to cross the road – no less than 11 of them. Then we missed a turn. When we went back, we saw why we missed it. Payne Place is a gravel road with a BROWN street sign marked "PVT" and clarified by the separate sign, "Private Road KEEP OUT."

We decided to give it a shot. The further we went, the more wrong it seemed. Soon the gravel turned to dirt. My “thank God it’s not mud” was muttered too early. The path was so narrow, we could not have turned our minivan around if we had wanted to. We even passed a dog pen, no more than 10 feet from the “road” with someone’s coon dogs in it (no house in sight). About this time, Faith spoke up. She said, “Can we pray?” I told her ABSOLUTELY, but should have said “Sure, join in.” because I certainly was praying already. Eventually, we came to a clearing and there was a HOUSE. I had no choice but to knock on the door and ask if we were in the right place. The elderly gentleman came to the door right before I was on the porch, and he was unarmed. He was very pleasant, confirmed that he gets very few visitors, and then also confirmed that once we crossed the creek and continued on up the hill and around the many curves that we would indeed find our next turn onto Buffalo Station Drive. We thanked him and continued over the river and through the woods. Before we knew it, we were on paved road and it soon became downright suburban. It was smooth sailing from there. Without a doubt, we enjoyed that journey. We are amazed that Mapquest took us there and even more amazed that it worked. We laughed for hours, every so often spontaneously chuckling again. Chris even started laughing again on the way home. In case you are wondering – we took the longer route, shorter time, and had a newfound appreciation for the highways. The trip home was ALL ABOUT the destination. Gimme a break – I’m a work in progress, and I'm still a DAD!!!