Side Trips

 After finishing with the protest outside Mitch McConnell’s office in Lexington, KY, I had some down time, as I could easily reach my next preaching location in just a couple days' drive.

I was struck with an idea: Ever since obtaining Rubi from a friend, I had been a part of a Facebook messaging group called “Parents of the Pups of Sanctuary.” Rubi and her six siblings were born to a golden retriever who belonged to friends of mine. They live on a retreat center outside of Austin, TX called Sanctuary in the Woods. The Sanctuary is run by two ministers and their spouses. I have been friends with them for many years. It’s not surprising that of the six pups who went to different homes, four of them are now preacher’s pups and I know these ministers, too, all from my former denomination, MCC.

I wondered if any of them lived within my “flight pattern” so I posted that question in our fb messaging group. To my delight, one couple, Jane and Gay, were so close I would have virtually tripped over them on the way to my next preaching destination. They graciously invited me to spend a night with them (in their 5^th wheel parked outside.)

We were all excited to see how Rubi Yellow and Aspen Orange would get along. Would they remember one another? Aspen and Shiloh, the grand canine dame of the house, met us at the door. There was much wagging of tails and what my niece’s husband calls, a “firm handshake” (aka butt-sniffing) but no obvious recognition on the part of the two golden doodles. Nonetheless, it was wonderful to see them together, to compare notes and to watch them play.

Equally wonderful was spending time with Jane and Gay. Jane had been an MCC minister and I had been a part of her formation process not too long before I left the denomination as I continued the UU turn that I had begun years earlier. We laughed and cried as we shared our lives with one another—the unexpected sorrows as well as the abundance of joy. They fed me steak for dinner, eggs and sausage for breakfast and, just before I hit the road, Jane made me a brown bag lunch to take with me.

I felt so cared for by these two women; I was glad I had put out the call to the parents of the pups of Sanctuary.

As I left their house, I realized I had three days to get to my next destination which was only 16 hours away. I had not planned any stops, so I just punched my final destination into my Jeep’s NAV system and asked the Universe to drop me where I needed to land for the night.

About 2.5 hours later, I decided to find a dog park for Rubi to stretch her legs in and for me to enjoy my homemade lunch. It was just after 11, but I had eaten breakfast at 7 and decided an early lunch would set me up for a nice, long stretch of driving. Tapping the button on my steering wheel that summoned Siri I asked her if there were any dog parks nearby.  She answered that the closest one was about seventeen miles away, ten more miles down the freeway, then about seven miles off route. I didn’t mind the delay; as I said, I had nowhere I needed to be that night, so I took the exit and made the turn to find this dog park.

As I was driving, I realized I was right on the front porch of Dollywood! DOLLYWOOD!!!!!! The Dolly Parton theme park. I texted a friend this exciting news and said I am definitely going! At the dog park, which was a lovely lot of green grass with some shade trees, I struck up a conversation with a woman who was also visiting. She said she and her wife were season ticket holders of Dollywood and had come down from Pittsburgh to visit. She added that on that day the park was closed, for deep cleaning, but that it would be open the following the day.

I made some quick calculations in my head: I still had a 14-hour drive and two days to complete it. I could get to the park right when it opened at 10 AM the following day, spend an hour or so there, and then hit the road. I wasn’t interested in riding the rides, or even sitting in outdoor venues listening to bands; I really just wanted to stroll around and soak up the ambience.

Some quick checking on my compendium app showed a campsite by the Douglas Dam Waterhead that was run by the Tennessee Valley Authority. There was a nominal fee. I nabbed one of the last spots and headed over.

It was a gorgeous camp site; I was close to the water, the site itself had a shady spot for me to set up my screen tent and a picnic table, along with a fire pit. Rubi and I walked along the water’s edge; there

were kayakers and paddle boarders on the water, and, dotted along the shore, people fishing. I was sad I couldn’t stay longer. I would have rented a kayak and taken to the water, myself if I could.

That night, I sat in my cozy (aka) cramped car quarters and participated in the Self Expression and Leadership class I have been doing since mid-July; Rubi laid next to me. The back windows were rolled down but the mesh screen coverings I had over the windows both protected us from bugs and gave us privacy. After the meeting, Rubi and I both slept soundly.

In the morning, I awoke, decided to wait for coffee and got to work tearing down camp, after taking Rubi for a quick constitutional on the neatly mowed grass lawn about 100 yards from our campsite. Soon, we were all packed up and headed for Dollywood.

The seasoned Dollywooder I had spoken to at the dog park the day before had advised me to get my tickets online; since they were running at half capacity due to Covid-19 precautions, the tickets were selling out fast. I had tried to do just that the previous afternoon but there was a notice on the sales site saying that the online tickers were sold out. There were, however, a moderate amount of tickets available for sale at the gate.

I had determined to get there before the park opened to assure that I got one of the coveted tickets, but, alas, after creeping through the multi-lanes of traffic to get to the parking lot I was informed that, even at that early hour, all the tickets were sold; evidently others had gotten there even earlier than me. I asked if there was a place where I could buy souvenirs and was directed to the massive white hotel that also bore Dolly’s name. I stopped off there and picked up a few items and snapped a few photos, then headed to the car. There was one more AMAZING place that I had noticed on the way in where I was sure I could get service: a Krispy Kreme doughnut store. KRISPY KREME!!!!!

I was so excited!!! I went through the drive thru, got two of their classic glazed doughnuts and a cup of joe, and was soon on my way.

I wasn’t disappointed I had not made it into Dollywood, instead I reflected on how, just a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have gone on either of these side trips.

I would have told myself that none of the other pup parents would be interested in seeing me and I wouldn’t want to be a bother. If I had gone, I would have turned down the offer of the homemade lunch, again, not wanting to be an imposition. I definitely would not have stayed over in Sevierville, TN on the off chance I MIGHT get into Dollywood. I would have played it safe and drove on; and a small part of me would have regretted that.

These days, I am recognizing more and more that the journey more important than the destination, that side trips are where some of the most profound insights occur. “I care less about arriving,” as Mary Chapin Carpenter sings in her song, Something Tamed and Something Wild, “and just being in the path of some light carved out of nothing, and the way it feels when the Universe has smiled.”

Our lives, after all, are not meant to be a single line between the point A of birth and the point B of death; they’re meant to resemble that old Family Circus cartoon that shows little Billy zig-zagging all over the house as he sets off to accomplish a small, single task. That final destination awaits us all; why not make the most of it until we arrive? Love Every Moment.