In Which I Learn to Love a GPS

My "tour guide" on Saturday was the friend of a friend -- said girl was busy until dinner time. So she and I grabbed dinner after my tour. We had to drive a little ways outside of Steubenville to get to the place she suggested, and that meant also driving half an hour back after dinner to drop her off. To my extreme displeasure, when we hopped back into my car, the clouds decided to drop white flakes upon us. I spent most of the trip back to Steubenville worrying about my hour or more drive back to the Orchard.

Luckily, it had let up some by the time we made it back and I was leaving. Still, I was very nervous as I called Percy to tell him that I was on my way back. To make my drive even worse, truck and cars in front of me kept kicking up salty water from the treated roads, blurring my windshield. Nervous drive + mountain roads + snow + blurry windshield = not a good combination. On the plus side, I found Froggy 103.5 -- a station that (with another number) appears by Dwight's desk in the office.

I was cruising along, below the speed limit, to be sure, but doing well. In fact, I was starting to get too confident, and that just wouldn't do. I came to a fork in the road and the GPS did not tell me what to do. I used a fail proof method to figure it out -- take a turn and hold my breath until I did or did not hear, "Recalculating." I took a turn, held my breath... and the GPS said, "Recalculating." It told me where to turn next. I saw the road at the very last minute and tried to slam on my brakes and make it. Unfortunately, the white stuff on the road was no longer salt. It was snow. I took my foot off the break and started a litany of frustrated words as the GPS said again, "Recalculating."

Eventually, it led me through snowy, windy, country roads back to the not-snowy, windy, country road that would lead me safely to my destination. I took the next few turns a tad more carefully, and, by the grace of God in the form of a GPS, actually made it back to the Orchard and Percy, safely in one piece.