Not What I Expected

I volunteered to be Saturday's docent for the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society. Duties consisted of opening up, answering phones, and other small mundane tasks that keep the organization in order. I visited the people from the thrift shop next door, finding a few bargains for myself. I added to the feature item and other tidbits for the next issue of "Down Memory Lane," the title of the Society's newsletter. There were no visitors so I left about 15 minutes early, thinking I might get some yardwork done after fetching the mail. It wasn't to be. Shortly after I got home and kicked off my shoes, the phone rang. It was my son Andrew asking what I was doing. He and his family had visited Rocky Gap State Park and the brake calipers on one wheel broke. He asked if I could come pick up his wife Renee and my granddaughters, Celine and Moriah. If he had called 5 minutes sooner, he would have missed me. I wouldn't have been home. I agreed and after some trepidation with the directions he gave me, I started out to meet them up on the far side of Grantsville, Maryland. Rocky Gap was a place Cindy and I camped when our kids were young and Andrew had taken his family back to show them.

Route 40 was closed. The road detour was at Yough Lake and took me back to Confluence, Pennsylvania to get past the road closure. The detour was extremely hilly with curve after curve. I finally found them, but only after stopping for a bathroom break and asking for directions. A gentlemen at a minimart/gas station listened to the directions my son gave me. The man knew the roadway and directed me to watch for Love's truckstop. Up til then, I had been thinking that they were at someone's house with the name Love. Boy was I confused, but I did eventually find them on far side of Grantsville, Maryland.

I drove off with the girls in my car was and Andrew was still waiting for the tow truck. Driving home, I avoided Route 40 taking Route 68 to Morgantown, West Virginia, then Route 43 to Uniontown. Yes, cheap me took a toll road. I was frustrated because I was uncertain just where they were, but after dropping them off at their house, I knew someone was more frustrated than me. In the middle of the road at their house was a pizza, probably forgotten on a car roof. I made it home about 7:30 pm. I was relieced when I got a message that Andrew made it home at 9:30.

It may not have been my plans, but the timing and directions that I got were God's.