We just spent the weekend in Virginia Beach for a brief getaway vacation. All in all it was a good trip. If the trip down was any indication of the upcoming weekend I think I would have turned around halfway there.
I am a typical male. When my stomach is on empty so is my temperment.
We were cruising around Richmond and of course missed an exit...fortunately we just caught another road over to where we were supposed to be going...I breathed a big sigh of relief...thinking if we can just get around Richmond all will be well.
At some point, as always, I got hungry. Not good. We picked an exit with lots of food items, merged off the highway only to notice the food joints were like 3 miles away. I said, "Forget it, we're not driving 6 miles round trip just for a little food." So I got right back on the highway-- big mistake.
I would like to, at this point, ask the Virginia Dept. of Transportation why the mileage for the food places is located just beyond visual range of the highway. I suspect it is a conspiracy among the fast food chains to get you to exit then expect you to just suffer those 6 miles. I'm going to start taking binoculars on my trips to verify distances prior to exiting.
So that exit was a bust and we continued awhile to another exit showing a Hardees...by this time I am showing signs of stress and other forms of grouchiness. We exited, and it said about 2 miles. This time I'm thinking, "2 miles is nothing...I'm starved...show me the food" we go right like it says and drive, and drive, and drive. Finally, we come to an intersection and agree that we must have missed it. At this point I want to cry...I ask my wife if there is another way to get back to the highway...so she navigates us back to interstate where we continue our search for food. Any food will do...I am thinking of pulling over and searching for berries and grub worms.
We come to another exit with signs for food. I struggle to hold back tears of gratitude. The sign says only 0.4 miles to the right. We exit and go right. We are all looking for anything that might resemble food. We crest a knoll and I can hardly believe my eyes. We find ourselves entering a military installation complete with guards, guns, and gates. I frantically started looking for a place to do a U-turn but currently none was available. I was trying to think of something to say to the guard like, " Howdy, fine weather we're having. You wouldn't happen to have a spare hamburger laying around would you?" when I noticed a small place to make a quick U-turn and that's exactly what we did.
I continued back to the highway in a state of shock. I was beaten.
We finally found a place to eat at our next exit but I was sure it was going to vanish as we were walking up to the door...like a mirage in the desert.
As I look back on that experience I think of how silly it was of me. When am I ever going to grow up...
