Road Trip

The story of Noah teaches us that we need to be prepared.  It is drilled into us as boy scouts or members of the church – to always be prepared.  Sometimes we are.  Often we’re not.  And sometimes we think we are and then life takes us in a completely different direction – or else the answer doesn’t come as soon as we had hoped.

My sister-in-law, Sunny, had had a calling to serve in the primary presidency at one point.  Once a month, each member of the presidency was asked to create a sharing time.  Now this was back before Pinterest or SugarDoodle.  Each month she would read and pray and study and pour out her heart and soul.  It always seemed to me that she wouldn’t receive revelation for her sharing time until Saturday night or the Sunday morning in which she needed to present the activity.  I thought that would drive me nuts.  And it does, but my last minute revelation or movement seems to be more about my life than presenting lesson.

My dad was a very organized individual.  He would always plan things out.  When we took family vacations, he always made arrangements on how far we would travel from one point to the next and in which town we’d stay and what activities we’d do – with some leisure.  I don’t recall having ever made motel reservations, as we would look for vacant signs and something hopefully with a pool.  Mom and I seemed to use more spontaneity after his passing.  More times than not we had a plan in place, but I remember taking road trips in which we would drive to nowhere in particular – or else we would start out with one destination in mind (the arches in Moab for example) 

and change our minds at the drop of the hat (why not go to Bryce and Zions instead.   

And hey, while we’re at it, why not hit the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  How far can it be?)

The problem with not having planned or made reservations is that we had her mother (my 70 plus year old grandmother) whose bladder wasn’t used to such fullness from one area to the next.  We had to stop – we had to get a room with a toilet.  We had to get a bed.  And there was nothing between the Jacob's ladder and Fredonia, Arizona.  It was a long drive in the dark before we finally found a bed and breakfast.  Two more miles and we would have been in Kanab – which we were the next morning.  But I don’t think we were even using a map at that point.  GPS was a foreign myth.  And mom had a lousy sense of direction besides – but hey, we got some excellent pictures (whatever happened to those?)

Some things need to be planned for:  scheduling appointments, attending graduations, weddings – even funerals – though many of those don’t seem to come with as much notice as does a wedding or baby blessing. 

Sunny would always plan for family members to attend baptisms, priesthood ordaining, and so forth.  She contacted family members weeks in advance.  And it was always an eventful occasion.  My boys were, “Oh, by the way, I’m being ordained this morning” and then wondered why so many family members didn’t attend.  Not that I ever set a great example.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Roland and I wished to be married in the temple – to start life on the eternal path (so to speak) and would make a date and change the date and change the date again – hoping that we’d have a clearance and would be able to go through the house of the Lord.  Ah, but God’s plans didn’t seem to exactly mirror our own.  Until finally I was fed up with the “celestial red tape” and decided to ask my bishop to marry us right away.  Everyone in attendance (including the groom) was given an eight hours notice or less.

That seems to occur A LOT in my life.  Take this road trip for example.  Roland and I had both known that when/if we went to Oregon to secure a rental, it would be at the drop of a hat, and it was.  Corey had initially agreed to go with me and had made arrangements – and though we had an address, we didn’t have a key nor signed the final papers.

Denise, who recently moved from Newport, Oregon, lives in my ward and told me that she would be driving to Oregon tomorrow.  Roland called on the rental yesterday and we looked into options on getting me to Roseburg first to take a look at the house and then to seal the deal so that we can move in ASAP – I decided to call Denise and ask her to change her plans to leaving earlier and a different route and I would pay for the gas (which I would have had to do on my own anyway)

Denise and I actually share the same first name (which is neither Denise nor LaTiesha) and today she drove us from West Valley, Utah to Winnamucca, Nevada.  Tomorrow we will go as far as Medford.  And then I may have to go all the way to Roseburg to meet with the property manage rep, or perhaps she’ll agree to meet me at the address where I wish to live.  We've taken a few pics, but I won't be loading them from the camera until after I return home.

I had reservations in Roseburg for tomorrow night, but they have been cancelled – along with my car rental.  Tomorrow Denise and I will try going through Medford Temple – or perhaps we’ll have to wait until Friday morning.  And then I will look for a rental car there (hopefully one I’ll be able to drive one way to Salt Lake) and a room in who-knows-what-town I’ll end up in?  Don’t know how I’m getting home at this point.  Denise and I will be parting company on Friday.  And then I guess I’ll play it by ear. What is up with that?