MY TRAVELLING FUN HAS ENDED

My life journaller has departed and I am left with chronicling my own life from my own perspective so I'm sorry if you get a slightly biased version.


You know how so many people claim that talking on the cell phone and driving in a vehicle is so dangerous? I wonder what the general consensus is on listening to books on tape/cd. I am a living example that listening to the Chronicles of Narnia on CD is far more hazardous to my driving capabilities than talking on a cell phone. Here's why:


I was travelling from Winkler to Boissevain on Saturday and decided to listen to my borrowed Narnia series on CD. I don't know how many of you have travelled from Winkler to Boissevain, but the route is not direct and involves many twists and turns and making sure you catch the signage and follow the route numbers. Well, I was doing pretty good until I found myself so engrossed in the tale of Aslan, the Lion, creating the world of Narnia (this is in The Magician's Nephew) and the evil witch, Jadis, running away into the forest and Strawberry the horse growing wings and being given the gift of speech and Diggory getting chastised by Aslan... that I suddenly found myself in the little town of Ninette and heading East... here's a map:

Okay, I realize you might not be able to see this, but the red star is where Ninette is and Boissevain is the town right above the number 3 on the left side of the map. I had come up through Killarney and clearly, I missed the turnoff. I'm not sure how I got so turned around, though that I ended up heading EAST (back to Winkler...). It sure made me wonder, though, how dangerous it really is to listen to my CD and drive at the same time... but really, when else am I going to listen to that CD... in my living room? when I could be reading the book outloud to myself in the proper voices and intonations instead of making fun in my head about the slowness of Aslan's speech or the screechiness of Jadis? ... actually the voices on the CD are quite good, but I do think I could do it better. Maybe not with a better English accent, but more like I think it's supposed to sound.

Anyway, when I realized that I had taken the wrong turn and missed my highway altogether, I quickly snapped some pics of where I was (with the timer, of course), contracted a tick on my leg, found a Centennial Park with some sweet outhouses and readjusted my route to head in the right direction.

Later that day...

After a rousing game of mini golf (which I won by a whole 6 points... not that I need to rub that in) and supper, I noticed that the sky was darkening ominously. I stopped at the Co-op in Boissevain for gas and casually asked if anyone had heard what the weather was like between Boissevain and Brandon (I was headed north of Brandon for night). I was told, very succinctly, that if I knew anyone in Boissevain I should stay there. Under no circumstances should I drive that highway up to Brandon. Tornado warnings were in effect. I heeded their advice somewhat. Looking to the west, I noticed that the sky was clear. I ended up driving around the storm and reaching my original destination only 1 hour after my E.T.A. (that's "Estimated Time of Arrival"). Here's what I missed (yeah, I don't know how to post video on my blog):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEUXr6FMtWk

Yikes. I'm glad I got home safely.