As we travel along and see people, places and things, we often find ourselves saying, “I wonder….” I thought it might be insightful or maybe just fun to track the things that we wonder about in the course of one day’s drive through multiple states. Sometimes we goggle questions and get unexpected answers but for this one day, we decided to be content with the mystery and the wonder of it all without the need for an instant answer. It was like “before internet”. Here’s the short list of things we wondered about on this one day of traveling along listening to the soundtrack from Forest Gump. It’s a great soundtrack by the way.

Several oversized tractor trailer bed trucks carrying some sort of giant metal connectors passed us on the highway. The contraptions looked like submarines; huge tanks of some sort with hatches. What could they be? We wondered aloud about how much of the infrastructure that powers our lives is hidden from us. There is a whole world of engineering that makes life smooth and easy that we are not even aware of. We wondered how many people are involved from design to building and transporting and installing such monster lego pieces. We wondered what those contraptions will do when they reach their destination. 

Why do toilet plungers have yellow handles? I wonder.

Isha’s Market in PA advertises Food, Fuel and Fun. Across the street is an establishment advertising Live Dancers. Is one a day job and one a night job for the same people? We wondered who wouldn’t want Live Dancers? Dead ones would be boring.

We saw caravans of electric company vehicles and wondered at the sheer enormity of the response to Hurrican Irma and the plight of the people affected. There were endless streams of utility company truckers driving north towards their home states after providing mutual aid assistance to the folks in Florida. They gave up time with their own families to respond to the need of fellow citizens who desperately needed their help and it was much appreciated. These guys are the true pole dancers!

Another caravan that we witnessed was a long line of brown vans marked  Law Enforcement. Possibly they were  transporting prisoners who had been evacuated ahead of the storm. We wondered about who they might be and what the losses in their lives might have been that put them in this place at this time.

We wondered if those trees were waving at us as we passed by? They seemed  to be. Their leaves fluttered like thousands of hands at the passing parade of cars whizzing by. The horse trailer that passed by us had two brown tails sticking straight out of the slats on one side blowing in the breeze. They also seemed to be waving to us as we all headed home south.

“Where does that pond go?”, we wondered. “Where do you think that road goes ?”, we wondered. “Where does life go? It seems to be flying by like the highway.” 

We wondered who thought of the camping sign that we have been seeing in camper windows that says, “I love it here!” What a great message! Wherever you go, there you are and you can just love it there. This short statement  communicates  contentment with our  present situation. It always amazes me that just one positive thought can lead to the insight that can transform how we feel about where we find ourselves. Saying it aloud, helps it to be so. I love it here.

I really do. I love it here.