We’ve hit a bit of a challenge lately going from place to place here in our little corner of the DFW Metromess. Seems that the most efficient ways of getting from point A to point B are unavailable at this time. The better half and I found out the other day on our way home from running errands in nearby McKinney.
The big errand was to head to Costco. Usually, we parallel the big road to the north, making a nice little drive which puts us in Costco’s parking lot without having to be on the big road. Unfortunately, the city fathers in McKinney decided to upgrade one of the roads we usually take – putting the road out of commission at least until February 10th. With the ice storm last week, it might be a safe bet to say the road will be closed well past the stated deadline. We managed the big road as best we could and made it to Costco safe and relatively sound.
Our second stop was a few miles to the south and east. We figured we would make good time by taking the southern parallel to the big road. All went well until we encountered the flagman. No one behind us and we were close to catching up to a line of traffic headed in our direction, but we were the ones stuck waiting for the better part of five minutes waiting for traffic coming from the other direction. Other than that, it was clear sailing until another detour took us on a barely improved country road leading in an almost direct line to the house.
Later, we headed into town to hit the gym. The two most direct routes to the gym were again, under construction. We had to use a detour. We took the long detour this time as the shorter detour took us on a short stretch of dirt road (inside city limits) which, at last look had one of those speed monitor signs reminding us of the speed limit and telling us what our actual speed was at the moment.
Our city has numerous detours which lead the casual visitor to believe that you can’t get there from here.
When you get right down to it, the situation with the roads here in our little corner of the DFW Metromess is a lot like life. We have all sorts of little detours we take while we travel the road ahead of us. Some are minor annoyances, others, major problems which require patience and understanding. Sometimes detours take us places we never thought of going in the first place – the roads less traveled mentioned by the poet Frost. We never get to go directly to where we want to go. And that’s okay. Sometimes the detour is a whole lot more fun.
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