Pardon Me While I Locate My Brain

"No, no....you DON'T want to keep going!"

Something happened on my way to visit my mom in the nursing home.  I went one way and I think my brain decided to go a separate way.  You see, I was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike just one stop over from my town.  It should have taken me about 20 minutes.  Well, you know how your brain kind of goes on automatic pilot when you're driving sometimes?  Maybe that's what happened.

"Maybe I need one of these smart cars to tell me what to do."

As I approached the exit, I noticed police cars set up at the exit ramp with flashing lights, a long line of cars and trucks sitting on the ramp and lined up all the way through the exit terminals and down to the road I wanted to go on, and a temporary electronic sign set up by the exit saying "Caution...accident.  Expect long stops."

"No problem," I thought.  "I'll just go on to the next exit and get off there and take the back roads over to the nursing home.  That way I'll avoid getting stuck in this jam."

So I sailed right past the exit and got about 200 or 300 yards past it when I suddenly realized......oh, no......I'm on the Turnpike, not Interstate 81.  The next exit isn't one mile down the road.  It's 22 miles down the road.  It's like being in a cattle chute.  You can't just turn around and head back.  You have to stay the course and keep on going until you reach the next official exit before you can loop around.  It wouldn't have been so bad except that it was a gray, rainy day, most of the leaves have already fallen off the trees, there was a mist hanging around so that there wasn't even much of a view to see, and I had lots to do at home.

I called the Commander to get some sympathy.  "Hey, it could be worse," he said.  About 10 minutes later, he called me back.  "Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm heading back now.  I finally made it to the next exit," I replied.

"Oh, too bad," he answered.  "I was just thinking that you might want to take Route 11 back when you get off the Turnpike because the exit you want will probably still be blocked."

He was right, of course, but it was too late to do anything about it.  I did the logical thing.  I sailed past the exit I wanted AGAIN and just headed on home.  I'll try again tomorrow.

"Hey, brain....where in the world are you?"

Guess my brain was lost in space today.  Thankfully Mom wasn't expecting me so she wasn't disappointed.  Luckily, I had gassed up the car the other day, too, because my tank had been rather low.  Let's hope I can figure out what road I'm on by tomorrow.  Oy!