The Scenic Route

I have a truly lousy sense of direction. Don't try and tell me to go north, south, east, or west, or any variation thereof. I've been known to foul up GPS directions, so I all to often end up taking the scenic route. The good news is that I tend to eventually get to the place I intend to go. It just takes longer.

On Saturday, I was returning from a meeting in Katy and decided to try following a different road from the old tried-and-true standby. Before striking out, I should have realized this would be an exercise in futility; however, there was no extreme hurry to get home, so I blithely hit the road with confidence that this route would work!

All of the sudden, I noticed that the route number I'd been following had just plain disappeared. Of course, the fact that the road suddenly became a much smaller farm-to-market road was a major clue. Being bold, I decided to follow the road a bit longer. Or was it being stubborn and refusing to backtrack?

In any case, the car and I turned left when it seemed appropriate to do so. After all, Katy is to the right of Beaumont, isn't it? At least it is when you're headed toward the coast. Unfortunately, I seemed to end up in a tangle of farm-to-market roads and began to get truly confused.

Stopping, I grabbed my rusty, trusty folding map out of the glove compartment and attempted to make it refold so I could see the part of Texas where my car was. Several minutes later, it appeared that I had two options: head on down to the coast where I couldn't drive any further, turn left, and take the Bolivar Ferry to get home OR capitulate, drive BACK to Houston, and then trudge down the dull, boring, flat road home.

Yep! The ferry won! One problem: I forgot how long it takes to wait on the ferry, especially on the weekends. The total trek ended up being almost 6 hours, instead of about 2 for the standard trip home.

But I got to see some dolphins play!

It's good to take the scenic route from time to time, isn't it?