What We Choose to Follow

For the sake of wonder, frustration and HOLY COW!, years ago I began snapping phone photos of surprising things we by happenstance travel behind on the highway. Well, “travel behind” at least for a split second until we careen past them, or for several minutes as we poke along blind to everything but that which was in front of us due to its enormity. (Curses. Reaches for phone to snap a photo…)

Sure, we follow road signs and GPS instructions. Let's not forget lead cars through construction. And globs of scrambling people to another changed gate. 

But what we choose to follow throughout life is a bigger topic. For instance:

• Tweeple on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram 
•  The recommended food pyramid and the “new” upside down version of same 
•  The person in front of us in the restroom line  
•   Fashions. (I wear Crocs almost every day, so file that where you will) 
•  Trending diets 
•  Pill bottle instructions 
•   Our spouses and significant others across the country 
•   Musicians 
•   News channels 
•   Bad advice 
•  Hollywood types and the movies …

Case in point. In an attempt to slowly crank my slothy rigid body back to life again, I began following a gentle online yoga instructor. In a further attempt to bribe myself into actual participation, I paid for the series. FOR PETE’S SAKE YOU PAID FOR IT SO DO IT! It’s only ten minutes a day and the instructor’s mother sits next to her in a chair. (Chair yoga. It’s a thing. They offer it at senior centers and it is also in the title of this particular course.) Mom engages in the same poses but in a modified version due to lack of agility/mobility/youth.

For instance there is the Warrior Pose. Young Instructor (that’s not “my” course or instructor in previous hyperlink but a good illustration--and also I assure you I look NOTHING like that slim young poised woman) stands with one bent leg forward, the other leg outstretched behind. Mom carefully perches (careful Mom!) on the front side edge (-ish) of a chair, one leg forward, the other stretched back. There are arm and breath movements involved. Although I stand for this one, I sometimes LOL since I look anything but a warrior while weebly-wobbling in my ginormous sweat pants, sans warrior weapons, while occasionally grunting from the strain. 

Anyway, mom has a bum knee (one of mine replaced, the other sometimes moody) and she’s not very seasoned at yoga. **raises hand**  I waffle between following the mom or daughter based upon trust in my balance on any given day. 

Sometimes this decision intersects and changes directions depending on how long Younger Woman decides to blather on between poses after instructing us to Iiiinhale … Reeeach to the ceiling… then forgets to instruct us to exxxxxxxhale because she gets distracted by her own storytelling, at which point if standing, I crash into a nearby chair on my desperate near-death exhale after holding my breath too long.

This freaked us out until we realized it was being towed

But back to questionable following choices as they relate to travel. One incident in particular springs to mind: the day I road shotgun with a guy.

[TRUE CONFESSION INTERJECTION: Okay, there were dozens of those times and guys, but this One Particular Case In Point the guy I was riding with was lost and would not stop for directions. Okay, that one particular time and dozens of others. My marrying choice was partially based on a dude humble enough in spirit to not waste large portions of our lives lost. Thank you George Baumbich!]

We were in St. Louis MO in an unfamiliar area trying to return home to Illinois. He deduced that if we “followed that guy over there with the Illinois license plates” we’d find our way. And so we cut lanes and followed him.

We ended up at a zoo.

#truestory

DISCLAIMER: Following can be hazardous to your relationships.

Oh, The Things We Saw

Between business and leisure, solo travel and highway boogieing with my spouse, we put a lot of miles on our car this year, including a round-trip journey from the Chicago suburbs to Albuquerque New Mexico. We nearly beat the path between the burbs and our MN hideaway to death. My honey and I journeyed up and down super slabs, pay-for highways and plenty of back roads, including miles of pinging gravel.

We've enjoyed lovely consistencies via our literal road travel versus airlines:

• The comfort of our own leather car seats. (Adjustable lumbar support. YAY!)
• No limitations on snacks or shampoo. (Hair looks great. Unbuttons jeans again.)
• Alternative routes due to weather or whim. ("I've never been to Mabel MN. TURN LEFT HERE!")
• Up close and personal scenery. (Fall's been glorious!)
• Venue/menu choices. (Drive-through or cocktails?)
• Unlimited baggage. (To fishing pole or golf clubs, that is the question.)
• No rental vehicle snafus. (Let's hear it for an HONEST nonsmoking vehicle!)
• No missed connections. (Do I have to count wrong turns?)
• The ability to stop and go when we want to.
• No running for gates or sitting on the tarmac.

Of course there were drawbacks too:

• Couldn't watch a movie. (If I was the driver.)
• No call button. (Unless one could count on one's spouse or traveling partner (TP) to pass one something.)
• We couldn't change elevation to avoid bad weather. (And bridges can be icy.)
• Traffic congestion occasionally played havoc with our schedule. (Especially if we didn't listen to our spouse (TP) and stayed on the main route. The words harassment and neener-neener come to mind.)
• We couldn't eavesdrop on conversations around us. (Or get kicked in the back by a kid, unless he was ours, and they're 47 and 42, so no.)
• We couldn't stand up and walk around while still "making time." (Cruise control only covers so much.)
• Couldn't work on a laptop while you're driving.

Okay, we didn't follow this, but ...
STOP! I gotta get a picture
of THAT!

But one of the most enjoyable benefits, which, to be honest, also occasionally caused a time detriment, was the many unusual and interesting things we followed, as opposed to one of those ongoing and annoying two-hour stares at the crooked part in the back of the guy's head in the airline seat in front of us. You know, the guy who reclines his airline chair up against your knees?

I herewith offer a relaxing visual testimony to a few of our more recent-ish Favorite Follows. Enjoy the ride. Feel the pace. Imagine the fury of wrangling around with a cell phone to capture a moving shot. :)

Nothing like giant side-by-sides to help you make time.

Okay, not exactly a "follow" but ...

Giantest fan EVA!

Mega Bus touting $1 rides

Yep, that's the Trester Trolley
chugging up that hill in front of us!

Whoa.

Sometimes things GOING look like
they're COMING AT YOU.

Harvest Time!