One things travellers learn quickly on a road trip is that life is hard when you’re stupid.  We actually learned that lesson a couple of years ago on our way down south. No adventures this year.  That earlier year was different.

Our final destination for the day this year was Watertown, South Dakota. It was the same a few years ago. This is where I once did one of the stupider things I have ever done, a few years ago. We had been travelling south on I-29 when it started to get icy. Because we were “smart” we stopped early and hunkered down in a hotel. We were so pleased with our decision we immediately enjoyed a cocktail in the hotel room so we could toast our brilliance. We were relaxed in our hotel room when things really started to get ugly. Visibility was low and the road became treacherously icy. When we went out to eat dinner, I turned right from the Main Street when I ought not to have done that. Chris tried her best to tell me I was going back on I-29 but I didn’t listen. Hubris and ignorance led to my sad downfall. This brought me right back onto I-29 as she said when conditions were much worse than before. And we had to travel 12 miles down I-29 to the next exit to turnaround and then drove 12 miles back again on the iciest road I have ever driven on. Cars and trucks were in the ditch everywhere. I drove very slowly riding on nothing but white knuckles and guts while cursing my stupidity all the way. Fortunately, we did make it back without incident.

That year, I compounded my mistake the next day. Blizzard conditions continued and we spent the entire day in Watertown.  Early in the afternoon I decided to see if I could open the car doors.  It turned out I could not. The locks were completely locked with ice. So I trudged half a mile in bitterly cold and windy conditions to Wal-Mart to buy some lock de-icer and then walked all the way back to the hotel. I quickly proceeded to see if the de-icer would do the trick. It did quite nicely. So far so good. Then I noticed Chris waving at me from the doorway of the hotel as I was working on the lock. She had thought I might be doing something stupid outside. What made her think that?  I was annoyed because she was slowing me down and I wanted to get out of the cold as quickly as possible. I waved her off, but she persisted bugging me until I stopped to talk to her. Then she pointed out I was de-icing the wrong car!  The vehicles on the parking lot were covered with snow so all looked similar.  Well, I had done my good deed for the day. I de-iced the wrong car!

Someone must have been very pleased to find their car doors working perfectly. Meanwhile I had to de-ice my own car too. Why don’t I listen better to my lovely wife? Don’t answer that question on the grounds that it might incriminate me. No. It will incriminate me. As I keep saying, life is very hard when you are stupid.

Well this year, I at least, I did not do anything that stupid. Driving conditions were perfect. After we arrived in Watertown, Chris and I went to eat at Appleby’s, restaurant which was the least obnoxious of the chain restaurants in town. The food was quite tasty and the bartender fixed me a grand Old Fashioned with bourbon. The meals were satisfactory.

Today I proved the Bible wrong. The Bible says, “As a dog returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly. I say, not always,

It was a great first day on the trip. Life was good when we were not stupid.