Life lessons on the twisty turning road and the trippy trappy bridge

So I was driving to Exeter, down the valley road, twisting and turning (on three hours sleep and a cafetiere of monster strong coffee because needs must when the devil drives – does that make me a devil? Nah, that really is inflation) on my way to a meeting.  And I got stuck behind a tractor, doing next to nothing a mile but hey…no need to fret, huh?  Because, as I always remind myself at times like this, you just never know, do you?  If you push at things, if you overtake on a blind corner, or even on a seemingly clear stretch of road, you just never know what the consequences will be, do you?  And it got me thinking, it’s a fine balance, isn’t it?

I mean, if we never overtook, we’d be forever stuck in the seriously slow lane, caught behind tractors all our lives, right?

Anyhow, the tractor went off towards the motorway and I could have overtaken then but instead I took the slow way, the winding way, and I came to a bridge, one that is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time.  This one, as it happens...the bridge, I mean...

And there was a Toyota in front of me stuck out in the middle of the road waiting to cross.  Just one problem.  Facing him was a huge, and I mean really really really huge and vastly long articulated truck/lorry thing (what is the difference between a truck and a lorry?).  But the guy just sat there, like this lorry was suddenly going to morph into a Mini and squeeze past him.  So I reversed back to give him a nudge, a gentle reminder of what was needed here.  But nah.  And we all sat there like that for a bit until the guy in the Toyota finally came back to life and reversed…just a tad.  And then a tad more until the guy driving the city on wheels managed to manoeuvre past and he looked down at me and I looked up at him and we both rolled our eyes and grinned and shrugged our shoulders and laughed. 

Sometimes, when faced with a juggernaut, you have to accept that you need to back right off.  

So I continued, trip trap over the bridge and the Toyota driver suddenly woke right up and morphed into rally cross guy and vanished in a puff of speed.  Which was fine except …a sign.  Not this precise one but one giving out the same message.

Oh shit.  But hey, I thought, you never know, do you?  Sometimes you have to take a chance, right?  Even though the signs aren’t good.  So I drove on.

ROAD AHEAD CLOSED.  Another sign shouted.  Hmm.  Well, what’s the worst that could happen, I asked myself?  There’d be a way out, right?  Or, if not, I’d just turn round.  I kept driving.

ROAD AHEAD REALLY CLOSED!!!!  It yelled.  Okay, it didn’t really say that but, you know…that was the gist.  So I drove on.  And on.  And on.  And the signs kept wagging their fingers at me and I kept sticking a finger up at them.

I was nearly at Exeter when the signs stopped.  Instead there was a different sign.  DIVERTED TRAFFIC. 

You gotta laugh, right?  All that yelling and then they divert me onto... the same road I was on anyhow? 

Sometimes you have to say 'fuck it' and just keep on going regardless.

So, I got to Exeter and I parked and I wandered up to the place I was having my meeting and, hey, it was nice.  Yes, this is it and I sat right off in that very far left-hand corner.

Ordered a mocha (I always kid myself that mocha isn’t really coffee) and waited.  No sign of my editor.  Waited a bit more.  Then checked my diary.  Ah.   Right place. Right time of day. Right day even.  Wrong week. 

Sometimes it’s just the wrong time. 

I laughed.  Told the waitress what had happened and she laughed too.  Ordered a green smoothie and drank it.  Paid my bill and the woman at the next table asked the waitress what was in the smoothie and she told her and I smiled as I walked past and said, ‘It was pretty good.’  And she smiled and said, ‘I thought so.’

And then, because I’d drunk all that sodding coffee, not to mention the green smoothie, I popped into the museum to go to the loo and I was sitting there, minding my own business, musing gently as you do, when the bloody thing flushed itself.  And I thought again.

Sometimes, sod it, timing can be a real shit.   

Anyhow. I got back in my car and drove back down the windy twisty road, past the signs telling me the road was still closed (yes, in both directions), past the trippy trappy bridge (no Toyota) and home again, home again, jiggidy jig. 

So, was it all a wasted journey, huh?  A total waste of time and effort and space?  Not at all. 

Destination isn’t everything. The journey can be pretty beautiful all on and of its own account. 

Don't you reckon?   
Anyhow...it doesn't matter.  I'll just go back again.  Next week.  Well...hopefully.  Because, after all, you just never know.  Do you?