Remember when your parents or someone special in your family took you on a trip?\u00c2\u00a0 You may not have known where you were going, but you all piled in the car and kept asking \u00e2\u20ac\u0153are we almost there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
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As my son grew up we would jump in the car and say we were going to get lost so we could find ourselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Venturing from one intersection to another – he would get to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153choose\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which way we turned at each red light or stop sign.<\/p>\n
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Yes, we would invariably get lost but we would eventually find our way home.\u00c2\u00a0 It was always an adventure.<\/p>\n
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I believe my father and mother got me started on this years ago when we would go for rides on Sunday afternoons. I remember asking, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where are we?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and my father sometimes said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know.\u00c2\u00a0 I think we are lost.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
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Then he would grin as he watched to see my reaction through the rear view mirror.<\/p>\n
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This weekend, as part of my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153weekend just for Mom,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I offered to drive her on a trip of her choice. She could decide where.\u00c2\u00a0 She could decide when.<\/p>\n
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Now Mom held out on planning with me as long as she could.\u00c2\u00a0 She finally explained that she wanted me to pick the place so I began making plans.\u00c2\u00a0 I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ok\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I would plan a mystery trip just for her.<\/p>\n
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We would leave early Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
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The beach is where we went on vacations every year as my brother, sister and I were growing up.\u00c2\u00a0 Dad would go fishing and Mom would take the children that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to fish out to the beach for the day.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes we would all go fishing, but most times it was an either or situation.<\/p>\n
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Isle of Palms was our undisclosed destination.\u00c2\u00a0 Mom had not seen the magnificent new bridge in Charleston and mentioned recently that she was always uncomfortable on that narrow one going between Charleston and Mt. Pleasant.\u00c2\u00a0 My plan was to change that thought.<\/p>\n
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As we got in the car, I asked if she knew which way we were going.\u00c2\u00a0 She suspected we were headed south. After all, I suggested she not wear hose in case she wanted to get her feet wet.<\/p>\n
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My mother is an easy person to talk with and we had a great time chatting on the way.\u00c2\u00a0 As we approached Charleston, I explained my plan\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6at least part of it.\u00c2\u00a0 She was not sure she wanted to ride over the bridge, but when we got there, she realized it was just like any modern highway.\u00c2\u00a0 We enjoyed the view and were over the bridge before we knew it.<\/p>\n
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Little did she know she was in for another real surprise.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, there was a dear friend of hers she had not seen in over 20 years.\u00c2\u00a0 They kept in touch by phone but, it just never worked out for them to see each other. My last minute call to see if Doris was going to be home met with positive results and I had planned a visit at 11.<\/p>\n
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They had a great time catching up.\u00c2\u00a0 Two of her daughters and several of her young grandchildren spent time with us.\u00c2\u00a0 Later we also had a chance to visit with Doris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 husband\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6a man I always enjoyed being around when I was a young girl.<\/p>\n
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After our visit, we went to the beach, saw the ocean and had a seafood lunch\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6one of her favorite meals.<\/p>\n
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Then, another surprise awaited her.<\/p>\n
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We drove back over 526 and stopped at a dear friend of mine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home in North Charleston. George had always said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to meet my mother.\u00c2\u00a0 He is house bound now after an accident at the Navy Shipyard years ago.<\/p>\n
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He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the smartest man I know in North Charleston and he is always open to visits no matter what time it is.\u00c2\u00a0 When we arrived that afternoon, he had made coffee and was rocking in the swing on his porch. For hours he and Mom talked about Wales, WW II and shared many other stories.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a pleasure listening to them.<\/p>\n
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Yes, the mystery trip was a success.<\/p>\n
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My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you remember the little trips you had with your parents growing up and, if possible, take them on a mystery trip soon.\u00c2\u00a0 If you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fortunate enough to have your parents today, take someone else on a mystery trip and make some positive and lasting memories.\u00c2\u00a0 There are many wonderful places and people to see in South Carolina and around our country.<\/p>\n \n ~ JoellenOMyuMy <\/span><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remember when your parents or someone special in your family took you on a trip?\u00c2\u00a0 You may not have known where you were going, but you all piled in the car and kept asking \u00e2\u20ac\u0153are we almost there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As my son grew up we would jump in the car and say we were going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,25,22,16,27,18,31,17,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging-parents","category-familyfriends-gatherings","category-friendship","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest","category-parenting-families","category-releationships-general","category-retiremetn","category-teenagers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}