Last week our family made the eight hour trek to North Carolina, but my wife had the brilliant idea to stay overnight halfway through the trip, which landed us right in the heart of West Virginia, the city of Beckley. We arrived at our hotel around eight o’clock in the evening and decided to check out the local Super Wal-Mart because that’s what our family does for fun. Leah punched the address into the her handy dandy iPhone and away we went through five miles of windy roads. The iPhone map app did not take us the most direct route, so I told her that we would use my GPS on the way back to the hotel. After an eye-opening experience at the Beckley Wal-Mart, we headed back to our hotel and the GPS was already taking us another direction. Next thing I know, we are on a really dark, unpaved road. I wanted to turn around, but Leah told me to go ahead. I think we passed the house where Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed. Lexi was freaking out in the back seat and I believe Ty was attempting to hide under the seat. I was minutely scared, in a guy sort of way; however, when I saw the “no trespassing” sign, I made an executive decision to turn around. West Virginians love their guns.
We made it back to the hotel unscathed thanks to the directions from a man with the last name Krueger. Although it wasn’t fun at the time, we are now laughing about our unexpected detour in the hills of West Virginia.
It reminded me that sometimes we go through experiences which are tough in the moment, but release joy in the end.
