On the Road Again

Wednesday, January 20th 2010 10:15am

The misleading title may make you think as though I have been summoned to some far corner of Honduras and am traveling a long way to get there. This is, in fact, not the case. Really, I just was privelaged enough to drive around this wonderfully designed city yesterday.

Freddy picked me up in the morning just as usual. The roads, however, were unusually full of crazy drivers. When I say that, I mean, of course, that there were even more crazy drivers than usual. We even saw an accident happen and saw the aftermath of another collision all in the 20 minute drive to the office.

Shortly after getting to the office, Freddy asked me if it would be ok for me to drive everyone home because he had to go somewhere else after work, and would not be able to do so. I reluctantly agreed, with the memories of the insane drivers and multiple wrecks fresh in my mind. The work day passed fairly quickly, as I was charged with updating a lot of statistics from the previous year. I sorted through power points, packets, and brochures to make sure that we were up to date.

The red truck sat outside the window all day, taunting me. I don´t really know how it was taunting me, I just remember feeling taunted by it.

Everyone piled into the vehicle after work, and I took my position behind the helm. My concentration could not be broken. I tuned out the chatter of my co workers, balanced the right way to sit without the sun hitting my eyes, and anticipated the maniacal taxi drivers, who seemed to surround us at every light, turn, and lane change. I think that when Plaza came within sight, someone yelled "Land Ho!" but that could have just been in my mind. We weighed anchor and docked alongside the parking lot.

Marisela stayed in her seat as everyone else stepped onto land again. I was confused by Marisela´s decision to stay, and asked,

"Um, did you want me to drop you off on the other side of the mall?"

"No, I want to go pick up that plaque that I was telling you about on the ride over."

"You told me that we were going to pick up some plaque?"

"I´ve kind of been talking about it for the past 15 minutes or so."

"Oh..."

I may or may not have been very caught up in my sailing/pirate style of driving, and missed an entire conversation that someone was having with me.

The rest of the drive seemed more like driving, as I was called back into the reality of the streets of Tegucigalpa.

After I dropped Marisela off at her house, I couldn´t stop thinking of Scally Wag Tag (Pirate Themed Laser Tag in Cincinnati) and was somewhat disappointed to find that Pirates of the Carribbean was not on TV when I got back.