angels on the powhite

There is a major highway here called the Powhite Parkway. Try to say that out loud and NOT sound Southern. :)

We had to take the Powhite to our show. It is sometimes called 76 and sometimes 195. The guy at the desk pooh-poohed our mapquest directions and directed us the other way. Which was, of course, the wrong way and we bear part of the responsibility because when he never heard of Byrd park which is downtown, 7 miles away and quite the big deal, a warning bell should have gone off. He said he wasn't a park person. But we took his short cut behind Olive Garden and headed out. The wrong way.

The first turn off was to be after 5 miles and we went 8 with a serendipitous belief in desk clerks and with a certain understanding of the vagaries of mapquest and the Virginia highway sign department. Russell says we should turn around. I say give it 2 more miles. But this terrain is not at all familiar and I know we are lost. He is the anti-guy-stereotype. He loves to ask directions. He has chased frightened people down the street, waving his arms and calling "excuse me? excuse me?" I like to use the iPhone or a map. He always gets us there, I never do.

We are winding our way through a lovely, wooded neighborhood and finally pull into a driveway to turn around. Russ spots people at the top of the drive and gets excited about asking directions and pulls all the way in. It is a very long driveway so they have a few seconds to get concerned and puzzled about this NY car disrupting their quiet morning.He hops out, all smiles and Russell-ness. They furrow their brows. I can't hear him, but I see him gesturing and pointing and then I think I see the guy say "That's where we are going" No. How odd would that be. But when Russell gets back in, he says that is indeed the case and we are to follow them We have trouble calculating the odds of this happening. There may be no formula.

We follow our angels back in the right direction, to our area of the park, to our spot which is just a few away from them.

I'm still shaking my head. I wish I could say sales were miraculous, too, but everyone was commenting on how slow the show was and there seemed to be fewer people in attendance than in the past.

Oh well, perhaps today will be better. If we can find the place.