Micky Ds and the Motorhome

Twenty years ago I was folk singer. I used to travel up and down the Eastern Seaboard to different folk festivals and sing and play my guitar.

The year that my daughter was 12, we took our mini motorhome up 95 to the Altamont Fairgrounds in New York State to attend the annual “Old Songs” festival.

When I first got the info in the mail for that year’s festival I carefully looked at the dates and sent in my check. (Check? What’s a check?)

We left on the Thursday before the folk festival and drove up to the fairgrounds, about a 5 hour drive. When we arrived there, late in the afternoon, it was obvious that I had done something really wrong. There was no folk festival! There were no cars! There were no arts and crafts booths and there was no music! There was a handy man there, just where we pulled in and he told us the festival was next weekend!  Well, I just couldn’t believe that I would make that kind of mistake!  And it seemed to me that way back when I got the flyer it had said it would be this weekend “They must have changed the date and not let us know.” I told my daughter.

So, we turned around and headed back home. With another 5 hours of driving before me I thought I’d better get a cup of coffee and seeing a Micky D’s up ahead on the right I pulled up to the drive through. I placed my order and the lovely young woman passed my coffee to me through the window.  I had to reach down pretty far to reach it from my high perch in the motorhome. I put the coffee in the cup holder and gently hit the gas.  

Nothing happened. I tried again. No budging. I thought maybe the motorhome had stalled, so I turned off the radio and listened carefully. No, I hadn’t stalled. By now there were several cars behind me.  I got out and looked up and saw that the top of the motorhome juuuuust fit under the drive through canopy, but not the AC unit on top! I wasn’t going anywhere any time soon!

To make things even worse, the lane that led to the drive through window was a hairpin turn!  Seriously? The cars behind me started to back out and around the hairpin, while I stood there looking up and trying to figure out what I was going to do! I got back in the drivers seat and put it in reverse. 

Now, I don’t do backing up well, generally speaking, because of an accident I was in years before. But I put it reverse and slowly started backing up.  

The absurdity of the situation was not lost me and I had begun to laugh, uncontrollably. I think my poor daughter thought I must have lost my mind! Here we sat in the entrance to the drive through in a situation that neither of us could find a solution to and I was laughing my head off! So I tried backing up again and got about ten feet back and couldn’t go any farther.

Enter my angels!  As I sat there bubbling over like an idiot, two dusky young men ran up and told me to get out of the motorhome and they would back it up for me. By that time the other cars had already backed out.  No one seemed angry, for which I was truly grateful!  

So my daughter and I stood to the side and watched these fine young men back my motorhome out of that hairpin turn and into a parking space in the parking lot! We stood there and applauded! Then they jumped in their car and drove off!

Maybe they were angels. Could they have been angels?  Whoever or whatever they were, they turned an awful experience into an event with a happy ending!

The Lord has given me such a gift! In most desperate circumstances I can find the humor. I have the understanding that Jesus is going to get me out of whatever ridiculous situation I find myself in. And there have been so many! So, I just trust Him to solve my problem. And you know what? He solves each one! Thank you Lord, for the day, for the 5 hour trip up and the 5 hour trip home, for the coffee I purchased at Micky Ds, for the people behind me who didn't lose their minds because I was in the way, for my two dusky angels, showing up at just the right time to help two damsels in distress! 

​Thank you.