Today I was oh-so-reminded that having a gps does not mean that you will get to where you are going. Or… that the gps is only as good at finding your destination as you are at telling it what that destination is.
Kaitlyn and I drove around, literally, in circles for about 90 minutes trying to find a meeting point where we were supposed to, well, meet up with a group going to an area lake for the day. When I signed up it seemed like a fun way to spend some vacation time with Kaitlyn. When I looked at the directions earlier in the week, it looked like something I could accomplish. When I looked at them again this morning, I realized my fun day with Kaitlyn faced a serious possibility of not happening because I had no idea where I was going.
I did what anyone would do. I called Bill at work. Tonight he announced that next time I have plans, I am to check the directions before the day of the event to confirm that I know not only where I am going but how I am getting there. Yea, yea.
After nearly giving up, I finally figured out that the gps was leading me astray and I got to the lake. Kaitlyn convinced me to go into the water. Murky, cold lake water. Ooohh.. my favorite. She loved it. And she loved running and screaming with the other 4 year olds who were there.
On our way home, I strayed off our path to find the area of the lake that has paddle boats and row boats for rent. I marked that in my gps for another time. (Perhaps with Bill… Mr Smarty-Pants-I-Know-Where -I’m-Going)
As we were driving away, I looked over the lake at the mountains that surrounded it (you can see a ski resort from the shore) and realized…. Kaitlyn and I just spent a day at a lake in the French Alps. And the most memorable thing about it is that I got terribly lost. Is living here actually becoming that routine? A day in the Alps is just a day of struggling to find my way around? And is that a good thing or a bad thing?