Breathtaking!

When my daughter was attending American University she decided to spend a semester of her junior year abroad. In January of 2004, she headed off to London to study dramatic arts at the British American Drama Academy. I thought spring break of that year would provide a wonderful opportunity for the entire family to visit Great Britain.

After we arrived and met my daughter at the school, we piled into the rental car to begin our excursion. Our itinerary was full! I had planned a route to the north that allowed for a visit to Hadrian’s Wall and would take us through the scenery of Scotland before we arrived in Edinburgh. Then we would head south again towards Stonehenge to round out our five day trip.

On our way north, we stopped at a nice little hotel along the way. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and had a good night sleep. I should have seen it as the calm before the storm. In the morning, we were up bright and early for our siteseeing adventure. The first stop at the historic Roman site was a fabulous history lesson for us. We visited a Roman encampment and walked along the wall itself. Then the drive through the hills of Scotland was breathtaking. We stopped for lots of photos and I enjoyed immensely visiting with the sheep and the lambs who roamed the hillsides. The problem with the scenic ride was that it was taking much more time than we had allotted.

Our itinerary for that day also included a visit to the Edinburgh castle. The guidebook told me that the last tickets sold for visits to the castle was at 5:15pm. The castle itself did not close until 6:30, but there was no admission after 5:15. As we spent more and more time on the winding roads, my husband’s grim prediction was that we would not make it to the castle in time. Our late arrival would throw off the rest of the trip itinerary. “Just go a little faster,” I said from my seat at the right—my navigator’s seat. “We only have about that much farther,” I said as I held up my fingers to show the half inch distance that remained on the map. “I’ll do my best,” he said. That’s always his response if he doesn’t want to let me down. I married a man who has a very difficult time telling me no.

He did do his best and we arrived at the castle parking garage at 5:05pm. We had plenty of time. So we casually got out of the car to look for direction signs for the entrance to the castle. When we had exited the garage itself, we noticed that the castle was essentially directly above us. It was a straight walk up hill! “Run,” I yelled, “or we’ll never make it.” My family instantly took off in an upward direction. In my advanced age, I too set out at a rapid pace.

It wasn’t long before the thought crossed my mind that I was going to die trying to reach the Edinburgh castle. This would be the end of my life. News agencies would be reporting the death of an extremely out of shape crazy tourist woman who tried to run up the hill to the castle. I heaved and heaved as I watched my family inch closer to the historic site. My son was out in the lead, closely followed by my husband and my daughter. Would they enter the castle, visit and just worry about my dead body later? I could only guess.

Somehow, by some miracle, I made it to the top of that great hill. There stood my family proudly waving tickets for admission to the castle. I glanced at my watch. It was 5:15 exactly. We made it! And I was still alive!

On the road

Why is it that we Americans think multi-tasking is the great way? In Europe, they stick to one thing at a time. For example, driving. In Italy, they drive a bit more wildly than we do here in the U.S., but when they drive, they are focused on driving. Italian drivers tend to look up when they drive. So while their driving skills might not be as focused, their drivers are much more so. In Europe, the car is for driving.

The other day on my way home from work, a Honda CRV pulled onto the highway behind me. I glanced in my rearview window to check safe following distance. The driver, a young woman - probably about nineteen years old - was looking down. Not up at the road, but down...at her cell phone. The driver was clearly in the midst of a texting conversation. When I checked my rearview mirror again, she was right on my tail - not a safe following distance, so I sped up a bit. When I checked again, she was way behind me and riding on the shoulder of the road. She was obviously quite engrossed in her conversation as she was still looking down, not up at the road.

The traffic in front of me began to slow, and I tapped my brakes gently. I checked my mirror to see where my otherwise occupied driving counterpart was. Her vehicle was once again right on my tail. I became a bit panicked thinking that if I had to suddenly hit the brakes because of the traffic situation that she would be in my backseat. The traffic obviously didn't phase her. She was concentrating on her phone.
I noticed a State University banner sticker across her rearview window. She was probably a student at that college. Then I thought about her parents. I wondered if they knew the risk their daughter was taking. Not only with her own life, but with all the lives of the people sitting in that traffic. I wondered if she had seen the recent television ads where young people were dying in the accidents because of preoccupation with texting.

For the next ten minutes or so I was continually checking my back window for the safety of myself and this young woman. Then the next thing I knew, she was in an exit lane. And then she was gone.

I hope she made it home safely. When I got home, I turned on the news and watched the segment about automakers putting touch screen computers in the dashboards of cars. And I shuddered.