The Road Most Traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
                                        – Robert Frost

I am like anti-Robert Frost. In the last 2 days I have traveled some 750 miles (a.k.a. 14 hours) on roads well-traveled. At least by me.

Yesterday was the Up North Route and today was the Pioneer Route... as in, take Carter back to UW-Platteville.

It happened that he had to get back for a meeting at 6 p.m. and the other Platteville Pioneers home for the weekend were not leaving early enough today. Being the nice mom I am – OK, a mom who wants any time with her son – I said I'd take him back.

Ideally, we could have have left at noon and I could have driven in all daylight hours. Hey, I get tired when it gets dark. But there was dilly-dallying by College Boy (saying that so kindly), so we didn't hit the road until after 2. And then with some urgency because he found out his meeting was at 5 not 6.

So yeah, there isn't a short way to Platteville. Any route we take is going to get us there in about 2 hours and 50 minutes. He needed to be there in 2 hours 45 minutes – and that included unloading stuff at his dorm first.

Good thing his mother is a borderline lead foot. Unfornately, there was road construction (surprise, surprise) so that slowed down part of the progress. But we got there, ran his stuff up to his room and I drove him across campus to his meeting.

He exited the car at 5:02 p.m. Not bad.

Thankfully, we did visit a little bit on the way down before he napped. But after such a rush and quick turnaround, I had to stop to stretch my legs and fuel up for the 3-hour return.

No judging. I needed energy in any and every conceivable form. And it worked and I made it home safely with no pitstops.

I was actually hoping for some photographic pitstops but there was no fall color to be seen. That better change by this coming weekend when I hit the road again for sister weekend in southwest Wisconsin. But first a roadtrip tomorrow to Madison to take my nephew to some appointments.

Thank god for cruise control.

Still, I do hope to go all Robert Frost and take a road less traveled. When I have time some day. When I am not beating the clock or the sun dial.