This is Digby Pancake. Oh, what a tangled web our persons get themselves into sometimes. Or a mountain road in California. Same thing.
You would think that after all of these years of traveling that they would be good drivers. I am an excellent driver. In my mind.
I know that if the persons would have let me drive the big cherry truck of ours that I would have done a better job of it yesterday. Because I would not have taken that turn. In fact, I wouldn’t have taken the second turn. Or the third.
When was the last time that you had a gut feeling? No. Not a hungry feeling. A gut feeling. That feeling deep down that isn’t so deep after all. Because it always tells you what you need to hear. But sometimes you just don’t listen.
We had reserved a campsite on a creek. The persons just knew I would love it. So they asked if our Big Brown Biscuit Buggy RV could fit. And the nice creek lady said she was sure it could. The persons talked about measurements. How wide it was. Would it fit in the campsite? Sure would. But they didn’t think of the road to the campsite. The road to where you are going is pretty important. You can’t get there without a way there.
When our persons were about to drive on the road, Girl Person said she was having anxiety for some reason. It was her gut. Then, when they saw the road we had to take, 6 miles up, they questioned it. They looked at the directions. Sure looked like some tight turns. Sure did. But hey. They had to make it, right? Sure. They would try. And although trying is good, trying without knowledge of what you are trying to do is useless. Because about half way up, the tree limbs started getting lower. The road got tighter. The road got steeper. Other cars and motorcycles were coming down the opposite way. And well, when the man on the tractor came out to see what all the commotion was as we called it quits on the side of the road, everyone ascertained the best plan of action would be to get a chainsaw and start sawing limbs. Maybe once they got past that part, they would be ok.
Until they found out the road got steeper. And Boy Person had to make a decision. Should he keep going? Or should he turn a 40 foot trailer around in a 20 foot spot with the chainsaw man watching? Guiding? With the chainsaw man saying this was the funnest day he had had in years.
What should he do with Girl Person on the side of the road with more poison oak? What was he going to do with me and Brickle wondering why they didn’t just let us drive in the first place. Yep. You got it. He tried to fit a camel thru the eye of a needle. If a camel would have popped up, I would have been not shocked at all. Because nothing was making sense.
Not Girl Person yelling stop on the cliff. Not the random corgi dog that walked down the road, looked up at me and then disappeared like a mirage.
As Girl Person looked at the man on the tractor, she wondered. How did she get here? I’ll tell ya. They should have trusted their gut. It was like a chainsaw to a tree limb on a very random California road with corgis and tractors and poison oak. It was cutting. After many many tried attempts, the Big Brown Biscuit Buggy got turned in the right direction. Down that same road. Down the road of broken dreams. Now we had no campsite. We had a few less hairs on our heads. A few less nerves. A bit less pride.
It’s excellent to be determined. Confident. But we all have to realize as much as we think we know, we don’t know it all. Not even Brickle. So when you don’t have enough information, you have to rely on your gut. Trust it. Listen to it. Risks are great. But are you willing to lose what could be lost by doing it? Don’t rely on others to guide your way. Listen to your gut. And also listen for a chainsaw in the woods if you ever go down that California random road. There’s a man on a tractor waiting to clear your path if you don’t choose wisely.
-Digby Pancake
We have no cell service right now. But we know where to hike to get some at our meeting campsite till tomorrow. It just may take us a little more time to respond.
