East Deliverance, TX

Oh my gosh...if the 'events' that happened in my 'life' didn't actually happen to me, I wouldn't believe that one person could be such a drama magnet.

Lucy went to a Girl Scout Camp in Palestine, TX, approximately 2 1/2 hours from the superbly suburban part of NE Dallas that we call home. Because the campout wrapped to a Sunday, I told her that I would pick her up Saturday night. So, armed with my mapquest directions and my navigation, I was good to go...or not.

About an hour into the drive, the landscape begins to change from suburban to rural to Deliverance. If you haven't seen the movie, either your husband has or he can make enough casual conversational reference to it that he can explain why a particular area could be deemed 'Deliverance'.

As I drive down barely navigable roads in Hillbilly Hell, the few people out are staring at me (in my foreign-made vehicle no less) like I'm encroaching on their territory. Random dogs - big ones - chase my car down country roads. A bunch of guys on 4-wheelers seem to be chasing me at full speed (circa Mad Max http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max). The local roadkill? Coyotes. I'm lost, and I SERIOUSLY don't get out and ask for directions for fear that some of these guys may not have seen a real live woman in a really long time and that my body would never turn up OR that I would be mauled to death my the rabid-looking dalmation.

THANK GOODNESS my cell phone still has reception... After calling my patience-of-Job husband, I get back on the right track, retrieve my daughter from a LOVELY (seriously) camp surrounded by post-apocolpytic backwood Hades and high-tail it home. There is a REASON I consider myself a concrete girl...

And, of course, my lovely Lucy had a dashing time. Her leaders were lovely and nurturing. Lucy was excited about riding a horse all by herself, making projects, turning down tea even though she was very thirsty, seeing the stars, and going to bed really late. On the LONG drive home, she speculates that she: feels closer to God in nature, has learned to respect people and what makes them different than her, won't complain on short family walks because she had to walk so far to the cafeteria, and doesn't need to get something in return to feel good about giving... Wow. What great experiences to reflect on. Needless to say, that made Deliverance worth the whole journey.