I had lived in Maryland for three years before I met Charley, so by then I knew my way around fairly well. But he was a native, and he quickly figured out that I used the main roads to get wherever I was going, so he made it his mission to teach me all his shortcuts. Which meant that he never took me the same way ever, he showed me a different way to get to each of my usual stops every time we went out. It took me a long time to actually learn all his shortcuts, but I suddenly went from knowing one way to get places to knowing five ways to get places. Since I’ve moved a year and a half ago I’m reminded of that because the GPS always takes me back roads to go places. That has really confused me because I find that I’m at intersections of roads that I’d have bet money didn’t cross each other. But because of the GPS I crossed Rt. 19 on a side street so close to home that it’s ridiculous, and found a ‘rotary’, (MA speak for a roundabout/traffic circle), with a pond in the center. And it faced east. It occurred to me right away that if I could find a place to park my car I imagined that that little pond might be a good place to view the sunrise. And it was. This morning. A year and a half later…
While I was watching the sky I noticed an egret fly to the edge of the pond and proceed to concentrate on staring into the water, hunting. Maybe he was so intent on breakfast that he failed to notice me, but he kept repositioning himself and each time he did he got a little closer to me. But as I stood there I was also aware that I was standing in sand, in my flip flops, and hoped I wasn’t standing on a fire ant mound. Which is probably why I twitched when I felt something touch my leg, and off he flew.
After the GPS took me on a very convoluted route to where I was going yesterday I have my doubts about just how reliable it is. I wonder if it had me traveling in circles when I was 2500 miles from home and wouldn’t have even realized it? I had doubts about Charley’s shortcuts too. One of them had you go from one cloverleaf immediately into another, and then one more. He really liked that one. It made me dizzy…
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 