Color Challenge : SkyBlue Friday - What you're missing

deanlogic (61)in #colorchallenge • 9 years ago (edited)

This morning @offgridlife posted Remember to enjoy the ride..... A quick reminder that there is more to focus on than the destination. I replied to his post with a comment about my maternal grandmother, who passed away at the age of 92 last Christmas. When I was a kid, my siblings and I would visit our grandparents at least once in the summer and then in the winter time.

When we visited Grandma T. in the summer time, she always found something for us to do. She would pile us in the car and take us to see something or go do something. But, most times, the adventure was getting to the destination. Whether it was to keep us occupied or because she liked it, Grandma T. would give us the map and tell us to navigate. This was actually something my father would do as well, when we took our road trips.

And as I type this, I wonder if my son and daughter will be able to enjoy the fun of unfolding a map, trying to figure out where we are, where we are going and what possible things we could see on the way.

On one of our trips with Grandma T., she gave us the map to get us back to her house from a trip to probably the northern part of The Mitten (That's Michigan, for those who don't know). As we looked through the map, we found a spot, which was a small town, not too far out of the way. We would tell grandma to go left, go right, straight through. The trip took us down back roads, some of the paves, some of them not. As far as grandma knew,we were just trying to find the shortest route back to her house. All of this planning was so that we could tell our parents that we, "Went through Hell to get back to grandma's". My paternal grandfather had a great sense of humor, which apparently rubbed off on us all.

I told this story at my Grandma T.'s funeral. I reminded everyone there, to not think about grandma in her final destination, but remember her for the adventures you had with her on the way.

The first picture for today's challenge was taken while I was driving over the bridge to Sunset beach. It is a reminder that you should look around while you are on your journey. Try not to just focus on the traffic, your music, what your kids are doing. Take a look around. More so for the passengers. Look out the window, enjoy the scenery. See things that you wouldn't see in your backyard.

The second picture is of a house in Van Wert, OH, a small town near the north western edge of the state. This the last town we pass through on the way to seeing my parents. After detouring through this town on one trip, my wife and I always try to pass through Van Wert as part of the trip. In the middle of Van Wert are these beautiful old houses. Some have been kept up and some are in need of a lot of love. But, we would have never seen them, had we stayed on the most traveled path.

Camera: Canon Power Shot SX700 HS