Thanksgiving Survey 2018: Roads - responses

Just for fun, I’ve put all of the responses, including yours, in a word cloud.

I loved reading everyone’s responses.  Some of us are currently traveling real or metaphorical roads that are difficult, but nearly everyone had fond memories of some road they have traveled.    

For blog reader's responses, please see comments on the original post.

Here are the responses of my extended family.

Question 1. Name or describe a road, path, or highway for which you are thankful.

1. The tunnel under the street that connects the warm Justice Center to the cold parking lot

2. Hudson River Park

3. Crystal Springs Path.

4. The shortcut through the woods

5. I think I’m most thankful for Centre Avenue. It contains one of my favorite places on earth right now.

6. The two roads that are always diverging.  In a wood.    As in, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."   Yogi Berra also said, "Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't go to yours."

7. Lake Shore Drive.  Not the one in Chicago, but the one in our own local park.

8. /Our Street/ Drive. Because without it where would we live?

9. Mandarin Duck Road

10. Death Road to Canada

(The respondent informed me that this is a video game, not a fanciful description of the Airline Road in Maine.)

11. The Giant’s Causeway (in Northern Ireland)

12. King’s Highway in Haddonfield, because it had wonderful shops, like Rosen’s meat market where we could get a free hotdog.  And Neumayer’s sold comic books!)

13. The Appalachian Trail

Question 2. In your childhood, how did you travel to school?

1. School bus, where I was the first stop on and the last stop off

2. I walked.

3. School bus.  Car pool.  Walk.  Bicycle.  Drove a car.

4. I walked!

5. I traveled over plains, and mountains, going uphill both ways through 15 feet of snow until I finally reached the 1-room log cabin where they held school lessons for all the young’uns around.

6. We were told,  "You must always go down to the light at Strathmore Avenue, to cross Park Heights Avenue", to walk to school.    But we never ever ever did that - it was a full two blocks out of our way!  We always just ran across all 4 high-speed lanes of Park Heights at Pinkney Ave, where there was no light.

7. For elementary school I vaguely remember being in a car pool with other kids.  This involved mothers driving station wagons full of loud children.

8. I walked 10 miles each way uphill in the snow, just like everyone else.

9. #48 bus

10. Silently

11. By my feet and by my bicycle, carrying my violin in my left hand.

12. By foot and by bicycle, carrying my violin in one hand.

13. By walking, and then by bus

Bonus Question:  What is your favorite expression which includes the word “road”?

1.  Keep in the middle of the road

2. roadable plane

(that is to say, a flying car) 

3. And when we both have had enough,

    I will shake him from my shoe,

    saying "Meet your new road."

4. (no response)

5. I like ‘Hit the road, Jack!’. It’s a good song.

6. A voice cries:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

 Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

7. “You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll get to Scotland before you.”   (For the dark side of this seemingly light-hearted song, listen here.)

8.  Road hog!

     King of the road

     Road to paradise

     Road warrior

     On the road again...

9. I'm on the road.

10. The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

11. “I used the road less traveled.”

12. “May the road rise to greet you.”

13. “If you see a fork in the road, take it.”

Two chocolate roads diverged in a gingerbread wood...

Prayer of Thanks

The cyclists* have arrived, safe and in good health.  

The first day of school is complete.  

The bathrooms are clean.  

There is steak on the grill 

and beer in the fridge**.

All is well.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

* My brother and nephew biked 300+ miles over the past 5 days to our house.

** This (the beer part) only occurs when one of my brothers visits.

Bike Ride, in the Boy Scout Way

Yesterday I went on a bike ride with the Boy Scouts. My main fear, beforehand, was that these adolescent powerhouses would leave me in the dust and that I would be carried off to the hospital on a stretcher. That, and dogs – those were my main fears.

There were 8 scouts, 3 Dads, and me, Lone Mom-of-Scout. It was soooo good to get back on my bike again! My task was to ride at the back of the group, keeping my Mom-eyes pealed for injured Scouts, so that I could leap off my bike wih a flourish of my super-Mom cape, and attend to the injuries (by calling 9-1-1).

But as one parent astutely pointed out to me, I forgot to bring a first-aid kit. We didn’t have even a single band-aid with us. It just never occurred to me that it would be useful, since I was imagining things like broken legs, bloody spokes, and especially dog teeth embedded in human flesh. A first-aid kit is no good for things like that. Plus, all the Boy Scouts have been trained in administering first aid using random things that they find lying around in the woods, or by ripping their $40 scout shirts into tourniquets and cloth strips for binding wounds. It’s just the Boy Scout Way. (So is calling 9-1-1.)

We had no injuries. Not even a scratch. Given the impetuousness of many teenage boys, and the huge number of people in the park, I consider this to be a miracle from God. I had a most enjoyable ride, since I was riding with a younger scout who had a smaller bicycle and less robust muscles than the rest of the group. He did not complain, whine, or quit. He just kept going, at a pace that was easy for me.

We had perfect weather. This meant that it was also perfect weather for joggers, walkers, super-fast cyclists, skaters, one unicyclist, and (gasp) people with dogs. Lucky for us, the dogs all obeyed the law, and were on leashes. The guy who was riding the unicycle was also trying to walk two dogs, but wasn't having great success when we passed him.

Here comes my pet peeve. The joggers just couldn’t stand going single file, even on the part where the biking/jogging lane is right next to the main road. They just had to go two or three abreast. This meant that we cyclists had to pull out into the car lane in order to pass them. This is not trivial when some of the cyclists are 11 years old. Share the road, joggers!

This was our troop's first bike ride. I can’t wait until the next one. It will probably be next year at about this time of year.