DON'T ASK WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS...I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!


I don't remember the year...it was sometime around 1986 or 1987 I think.  In fact,  I don't remember for sure what the holiday was,  maybe July 4th.  I just know it was a holiday and we had a long weekend and wanted to do something.   I told the girls that we would just get in the car,  go eat breakfast and decide over pancakes what we would do and where we would go.

  We were living in Mableton at the time and headed for Atlanta to have breakfast.  Why downtown Atlanta for breakfast you ask?  I have no idea.  Only thing I can think of is maybe in my mind I thought we might go to Stone Mountain or maybe Callaway Gardens.  Possible even all the way to Chattanooga Tennessee, and downtown would be a good starting point no matter which direction we headed.  After all,  gas was only about 93 cents a gallon so a day trip was fairly inexpensive.  Now as I think about it,  sometimes we would just ride around for hours at a time and never think of how much gas we were using.  Times sure do change don't they.  Anyway,  back to the story

  As I said,  first thing on our agenda was breakfast and I decided that IHOP would be a good choice.  Back at this time IHOP was a pretty special place for young girls the age of Cindy and Vicki.  I only knew of two IHOPs in metro Atlanta and both were downtown.  As we were eating at the IHOP on Peachtree Street in Buckhead,  I would mention different places we could go and every place I brought up was exciting for the girls.  Like most kids,  they just wanted to go.  For some reason, and I have no idea why,  I said  "If we had brought our swim suits,  we would go to Florida."  Peggy looked at me with that gotcha look on her face and smile on her lips and said......." I packed them because you always are saying,   We shoulda brought our swim suits."

Now what?  When I was younger with no responsibility,  I often did things on the spur of the moment.  But back then the only person I was responsible for was me.  I now was married with a wife and kids.  In my mind I started to think of all the reasons we  couldn't go to Florida.  We didn't bring any clothes with us.  All we had was what we had on our backs and our swim suits.  How about money?  I think I had seventy or eighty dollars on me.  And time...What about the time we had...It was late morning on a Saturday and  I had to go to work Tuesday morning. 

You know the little cartoons when the person is torn between doing a good thing or a bad thing and on one shoulder is an angel and on the other shoulder is a devil.......Well that's kind of what it seemed like to me.  It wasn't an angel and a devil but there were two powers of some kind.  The power with the common sense would say  "But you didn't bring any clothes."  Then the power with the sometimes you must live outside of the box attitude would say,  "But you have swim suits and the motel will have a washing machine and dryer."...And then the common sense power would say..."you only brought  money for the day,,,not enough for gas,  motel for two nights and food for three days."  And then the Good Time Charlie power would counter with  "But you have money in the bank and an ATM card in your wallet.".....And then ol' common sense power said..."Time...think...Time...It's gonna be a fast trip...You are gonna be so tired when you get back home...you need to think responsibly.....Your a husband...your a father...think...use your head."  Then the you only live once power said to me ....." Ol' common sense is only partly right..you are a father,  but sometimes you have to be a daddy first....Get in that car and drive south..play road sign games..sing songs..laugh and run on the beach..watch the sun set together  go and build a memory."

It's been over 25 years since that spur of the moment trip.  We still talk about it sometimes with smiles on our faces and a warmth in our heart.  As I look back over my life and recall some of the many mistakes I have made, I often ask myself why I did this or that, and my only answer is " I have no idea."   But then at other times, as was the case this afternoon, when our family is together,  and everyone is laughing  and Cindy, Vicki, and Josh are talking of things we've done and places we've been. Of things we have experienced together. When our children are sharing with our grand kids good times of years ago,  all I can do is look at Peggy and say..."You know....We did build some memories.   Some good memories.  I'm glad sometimes we got out of the box.

When I started writing this post,  the first thing I did was title it.  I usually don't decided on a title until I'm through writing.  On this post I honestly had no Idea where I was starting and where I was going but I knew  for some reason something would come out if I sat down and started typing.  The inspiration for this post came from a comment I received yesterday on my blog.  It was from a lady I have grown to admire.  A lady I've been acquainted with for many years but a lady I feel has become a very good friend only over the last couple of years.  She is a published author and is gifted by God as an encourager.  Her name is Beverly Shealy Rollins.  She has a web site  that you should visit: http://www.beverlyrollins.webs.com/  Oh,  and her comment that inspired me was short and believe it or not I'm sure  she didn't make it to inspire a post but when God gifts you....Well...It just happens....Her comment:

            "It's funny how, as we grow older, the fantasies of life are not nearly as wonderful as the realities of life!"

Thanks Beverly for allowing God to use you to inspire and encourage me and others.  
God Bless