I knew better.  I told him, “don’t park there – we won’t be able to get out”.  Nah, we’ll be fine, he said, so against my better judgement, I said ok.  We parked in the last row where there were just a few spaces left, then went inside the restaurant to have a lovely dinner date.  Now I should explain, it has snowed a lot this season.  A. LOT.  So, with a packed out parking lot, we chose a spot where the lane behind us was half covered in a mountain of plowed snow.  The Beetle is small, so, how hard could it be to get out later, right?

About an hour later having had some great food and a little fun, we walked back out to the car thinking, our little car we won’t have any difficulty getting out, right?  Except now parked on the driver’s side was the biggest pick-up truck you’ve ever seen and on the other a full sized conversion van.  I’m not even sure how they got into those spaces unless they off-roaded it over the mound of snow.  For those of you not living in the frozen tundra, the mountain was up to my windows.  We were not going to drive over this. 

I won’t go into the details, and I would love to tell you I was kind and didn’t say “I told you so”, but I did.  There was a lot of trying to figure out just the right angle to get us out of the parking spot, but we couldn’t back straight out because of the mountain behind us.  He starts saying things like “the car parked in front of us was there when we pulled in, so maybe they’ll come out soon”, so I offered to try because it’s my car and I know how it feels.  He gets outside to guide me and the Laurel and Hardy episode begins.  

The plan was to get as close to the van as possible so that I could back out (hopefully) angle it just right and back out the lane.  Even if I got out to the lane, there wasn’t enough room between the back of the truck and the mountain to fit between, so I would have to go in reverse.  Yay.  Forward, back, forward, back – over and over and over again.  “Don’t turn the wheel so far”.  “Gun it” (in my Beetle – over snow – right).  The little bug complained as we spun out several times. So many instructions.  Fifteen minutes later and a high five with my partner in crime,  I backed out of the lane and out of the parking lot.  “It was an adventure” he says and I say, “I told you so”. 

Over the last 40 years, we’ve had a more than a few misadventures.  The night our car died in the shopping center parking lot. We were newly married, Doug has just started his first job, so no money and we had to leave it there and climb up the hills (ok, may one hill) in Northern Kentucky in a cold rain to our apartment.  Getting lost on the way to our honeymoon happened because surely we knew how to get there – we had been there on a band bus before!  We were several hours late to our destination.  When the van died on the south side of Chicago while we were showing the kids the United Center and the five of us had to ride with the driver in his tow truck because it was getting dark and he had heard a gunshot and didn’t want anyone to stay behind.  The great people allowed us to come into the United Center and the boys got to see the arena with their beloved bulls logo on the floor. The kind mechanics played with the boys while we waited for the van to be fixed and we grabbed fast food at a little mom and pop place up the street.  Have you noticed everything revolves around cars?  It gets better.  

Moving to Nebraska, the tires on the trailer towing our car caught fire, so Doug and one of the boys poured bottled water on it to put it out.  We spent the night in a hotel less than 45 minutes from the house we had just moved out of and while waiting on a new trailer to be delivered, a tornado came through, hitting just a ½ mile or so from the hotel.  We watched the wind blow sideways and prayed that everything we owned that was in the Ryder truck, our van and car didn’t get blown away. Maybe we shouldn’t have moved?  Nah.  It was an adventure.

We’ve watched through our window at 2:00 a.m. to see strange lights in the sky, seen a bright red ball of light zip across the road in front of us while wandering through Kentucky on a “short-cut” during the wee hours of the morning.   We’ve worked together to figure out where we were so many times I’ve lost count.  Let’s try this road and see where it goes, has been our mantra.  And yes, on occasion, the unexpected happens, but that’s part of life, right?  These misadventures have produced a few arguments, the occasional tears, a lot of laughter and some great stories. I’m always looking out for things that could go wrong, but the truth is when I have a great partner, we’ll figure out whatever surprises us.  Unless it’s in my car. Then I’ll decide where we park next time.