Pseudo "Thelma and Louise" Road Trip...

... remember that movie? Well, we WEREN'T Gina Davies and Susan Sarandon, nor did we drive a convertible, kill someone or drive off a cliff! However, we did have an excellent adventure.

DAY 1 - THE GOOD- First pit stop was at "Hermanita's" (aka Loulou,) at her lakeside retreat, on a hot, hot day. We  took a dip off  the dock, then did two  turns around the lake kayaking, where we were  joined by a completely tame cormorant and a king fisher guiding us ahead. Listen Linda wanted to try kayaking for the first time but was very hesitant. Well, Loulou and I had her in the kayak in no time flat, after supper and a glass of wine or two "veut ... veut  pas". She was some proud of herself after. She wants to buy one!

THE BAD- Which was really just SILLY AND STUPID! When transferring all my stuff from my vehicle to LL's, at the meet-up point, we spent a good ten minutes trying to find my car keys so I could lock up my car. Never mind that I would need them upon our return. SUDDENLY I turned to Linda and said "Look at me." I had tucked my keys into my left brassiere cup, where they were firmly lodged, with the keychain hanging out.  Twenty years ago they would have jiggled around madly, and I would have heard them.

THE UGLY - A stop at an ubiquitous Tim's turned into a heartbreaking incident. As I stepped outside Tim's with my coffee, to cross over the drivethrough section to my car, I was already very distracted. I was meeting someone, and I was nervous. As I was almost past the car that had stopped to let me cross, I glimpsed, out of the corner of my eye, a small cocker spaniel puppy crossing DIRECTLY in front of the right front tire of the car waiting for me to finish crossing. OMG! My first and instinctive reaction was to yell stop, throw my hands up slightly, which I did...but I did not stop. All I could think was "This puppy is going to be run over. I can't look." I RAN, instead of STOPPING dead in my tracks. Trouble was, I wasn't in the middle of the road; the driver had had no way of seeing that puppy AT ALL, so he was rolling slowly forward, anticipating I would be out of his way completely.  I ran and cowered at a picnic table, my hands half covering my ears, waiting for more screams, yells, something TERRIBLE. Nothing!! When I looked up, a woman was standing in the middle of the road, yelling at those careless people who had let their puppy off its leash in such a busy business area. She was telling them to get their OTHER dog on his leash. He was a kind of pit bull and was running madly all over the place. Would you believe he ended up right by me, as a young boy chased him. I put out my hand for the dog to smell, and when he came close enough I was able to grab his collar. I looked up in time to see the owner scoop up the spaniel in a blanket into his arms, and deposit him on  the back seat of a truck. He then LEFT him there with the door WIDE OPEN. I was SOOOOO relieved to see his head poking right up, that I forgave him for leaving the door open.  The rest of the family and the other dog then jumped in and they sped off. I had to hope he maybe only had a broken leg, and not internal injuries. I had asked the little boy if the spaniel was his, (he was) and would he be okay, but he said he didn't know. The child looked terrified. What a traumatic incident!  I know... it's only a dog that got hurt, and NOT a child. However, that dog is still one of God's creatures.

I couldn't go around asking other people there milling around if THEY knew what had happened, as my meet-up person joined me just as I handed over the pit bull. I do feel that I redeemed myself in a VERY small way, by catching the second errant dog. I have to tell myself that anyway, because I
never slept much that night... reliving the whole episode in my mind, over and over again.

THE EXCELLENT- I found out that a dear, old friend remembered me in her will. Bless her!