October 5 – “Siri's Short Cut”

We wanted to go on some backroads that would take us through a slice of Oklahoma just so we could say we were there, but apparently Chris’ favorite friend Google Siri felt rather strongly that we needed to be on an Interstate for a while.  Hey, what can you say?

And speaking of interstates, I30 just happened to be under construction right where we needed to get through – just after we re-entered Texas.  Siri assured us it would only add five minutes’ drive time.  Wait.  She changed it to six.  No, five …

We did make it through the construction delay and headed ever further west.  The town we intended to eat supper in didn’t have anything appetizing on their signs, so we kept going.  An hour and a half later we finally made a desperation stop (read here, “bathroom”) at a McDonald’s.  But the lobby was closed for renovations.  So we went next door to Burger King.  Haven’t been to one of them in years.  Chris’ chicken was burnt.  My jr. bacon burger was passable.  I haven’t missed Burger King. 

Further on down the road we got another message from Siri.  Seemed Dallas was a mass of wrecks, and we needed to take a special shortcut she had prepared just for us.  It was indeed special.  We decided to get gas at a small town before we headed further into the wilderness.  We chose the station where a volunteer fire crew was filling up the tank on their ladder truck.  I shook the driver’s hand and introduced myself.  After that we were never sure where we were because it was so dark.  We passed a dam.  Must have been a big lake.  We were accosted by swarms of bugs with a death wish.  They pelted our windshield to such an extent that we had to stop in nowhere-town to wash it all off.  Finally, we happened upon the high school homecoming bonfire at a place called Willis Point.  Everybody in town was there.  Huge fire.  Exciting stuff.  Hope they do well in the football game.

We finally came to I20, which we sort of recognized.  At least the names of the major streets and towns were familiar.  We made our way under Siri’s direction all the way to … Waco.  Seven plus hours driving time.  A new record.

Psalms 103:22 says, “Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.  Praise the Lord, O my soul.”

Father, thank you for keeping us safe through those back roads and dark twists and turns.  And be with those high school kiddos.  Amen.