At a couple of our jobs so far, we told our hosts that we aren’t pros at driving a stick shift, and because of this, we’ve walked distances we wouldn’t’ve chosen to walk since we couldn’t take the car. Well, Jan left her manual car and it’s the “dirty car” that goes to the beach for walking the dogs. The dogs go for a swim, sometimes roll in poop, and get all sandy, so we didn’t want them in our spotless, lovely Nana. We are in the middle of nowhere right now and we’ve seen around two other cars in the past four days, so Kasey had a great point when she said, “This would be the best place to just go for it.”
The dogs hopped in, so excited to be going on an adventure. Kasey was up first. It took a few minutes to reverse, and once we did, a truck pulled in the driveway. I jumped out and he said, “We’re here to check on the beehives.” So our car was now in the way of his truck and the beehives, so I said, “OK. We’re trying to learn how to drive a stick shift, so we’ll try to move quickly.” He looked at me like he had never heard the term “stick shift,” so I said, “we’re trying to learn how to take this car out.” He still looked confused as I hopped back in and Kasey got it going like a pro.
I told the girls about the conversation with the bee man and we laughed because it probably looked like we were taking the car. I should’ve told him we were the dog sitters.
Holly was a bit anxious, but there was no need.
Kasey did great. We did stall on the main road while trying
to turn out, and two cars came down the road as we were blocking their lane. I
rolled my window down and put my hand up like a crossing guard. Luckily, I was
a patrol at Garrison-Jones Elementary, and that experience might’ve saved our
lives. Neh, the cars were going slow and we were fine.
My favorite part of the five minute drive to the dog beach
was when Kasey said, “When I get back, I might research 1st, 2nd,
and 3rd gears…” and at one point she said, “I might be in 2nd
gear, or 4th, or heck, reverse.”
Holly was her biggest encourager:
beth of fresh air 