Colorado Mountain Passes

Husband and I didn’t really go out on dates while courting. We lived 200 miles apart. (I would get gas and reset the odometer before I drove to his city; from the Hess just down the street from my place to his garage apartment driveway, it was 202.8 miles.) We didn’t see each other except on weekends, and even then it averaged only about every third weekend. Well, we started dating by phone and talked every day, usually in the evenings. My cellphone minutes freed me up to call him at 9…if I could last that long.

Well, we planned to spend Labor Day Weekend together at Center Hill, and I was excited for several reasons. First, I’d see my new boyfriend for the first time! Second, I’d get out of Central Pennsylvania. Third, I’d see Grandma and Papa for the first time in about three weeks. It would be my first Weekend at Center Hill, and I was pretty excited!

Well, I left from school that Thursday (we had Friday off in addition to Labor Day, for some reason) and got to Center Hill about three hours later, at about 10pm. I spent Friday chillin’ at Center Hill, and I was excited because he was coming up that evening! I talked to Mom and Dad, and because Dad did not grow up going to Center Hill, he recommended that Husband and I meet at the local Wal-Mart parking lot. (Really, I grew up going back to Center Hill every summer, and just knew the roads. Husband got driving directions from Papa, but Dad still highly recommended this approach.) anyway, Walmart is a pretty big landmark in the country, and it was right on the way from where he was coming. It’s just on the right if you’re headed north on that highway. It was hard convincing Husband, and it might have developed into a really bad start to our time dating, but I told him it was Dad’s suggestion! Dad had not grown up going there, it was nighttime, and the roads are so poorly marked that far back in the backwoods, that I really insisted.

I left Center Hill in time to meet him, took a wrong turn because I was really nervous, and finally made it. I drove into the parking lot and found him, and I got out of my car and we hugged and visited for a few minutes. I asked if he was ready to go, but he looked a little sheepish and said he locked his keys in his car! Poor guy! He just wasn’t thinking…nervous, too, I suppose…and just shut the door, with his keys in the ignition. He was waiting for Triple A to come and unlock his car. So we stood by my car and chatted. It was awkward and a little odd, but it got less and less unnatural. Finally we decided to go walk to his car, and I looked in the back and said, “Why did you bring your computer along?” He just looked at me, gave me That Sly Grin (as I’ve come to know it), and said, “It’s not mine.” I put two and two together and shrieked. He gave me a computer on our first date! What the world. A girl is expecting flowers and gets a computer. What a doll. (That’s the very computer I’m on now. What a good gift!)

So, we waited around in the parking lot until the locksmith came. He came, unlocked the car, and Husband and I drove to Center Hill. It’s about 20 miles and 30 minutes from that Walmart, and about five little backwoods highways and township roads and county roads…he did admit that it would have been impossible for him to have made it just with directions.

So, that was our first date. Walmart in the parking lot, waiting for the locksmith, receiving a computer. Wow. It doesn’t sound like much, but it worked for us. I love him, and that was the weekend I started loving him.