One night we were driving around Honolulu, looking for a specific restaurant. I was at the wheel, and we were all on the lookout. Someone noticed that we had just passed it, and so I turned down a side street so that I could turn around and find a place to park. If you've ever been to Honolulu, you may know that there are a lot of one-way streets in the city. A lot.
After turning down this particular road, I immediately noticed all the cars that were parked on the street were facing me. Crud... wrong way on a one-way. Luckily, there wasn't much traffic on this side street, but I immediately noticed a car coming towards us. I decided I would pull over, wait for it to pass, and then I would turn around and no one would be the wiser. As the car approached, however, I realized that it was one of the fine Honolulu Police vehicles, and that it was slowing down so the officer could have a little chat with me. Just my luck. Of all the streets in Honolulu, I chose to drive the wrong way down one that had a police officer on patrol. He pulled up next to us, and we had the following conversation:
Him: Good evening, sir. Are you from out of town? (Gee... wonder how he guessed that?)
Me: Yes, Officer. We made a wrong turn.
Him: Yes, you did. Where are you from? (At this point he was poking his head into the van to see how many of us there were and, no doubt, to see if there was any trace of an alcohol smell.)
Me: We're from Utah.
Him: Utah? Are you Mormons?
Me: Yes, sir, we are. (I'm also an idiot, but thanks for not pointing that out.)
Him: Go to BYU?
Me: Some of us do.
Him: (Chuckling) Well, you're obviously not drunk, so have a nice evening and pay closer attention to the road signs from now on.
Okay, now fast forward a few years in my life to just a couple of years ago. The end of tax season for me perfectly aligned with the end of winter semester for my wife. Since this rarely happens, we decided to take full advantage of the timing, and we planned a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, and the surrounding area. It was one of our most favorite trips we've taken.
One of the friends we went to Hawaii with -- Camille -- lived in D.C. at the time, and we arranged a day when we could meet up with her and spend some time together. We decided to spend much of the day in Richmond, Virginia, taking in many of the Civil War and Revolutionary War historical sites. We met her at a shopping center parking lot, and she rode with us for the day.
At some point in the day, we were looking for the Maggie Walker National Historic Site. I had directions and I had the address, and we were driving around Richmond trying to find it. As we were moving along a street, we noticed we passed it so I turned onto a side street to turn around and find a place to park.
Yep. One way. The wrong way.
This time (thankfully) there wasn't a policeman to discuss the situation with. There wasn't even another person within eyesight to see what a moron of a driver I am. That was nice, especially because we discovered that Maggie Walker was closed that day. It would have been a shame to get a ticket on a wasted effort.
To my recollection, those are the only two times that I have gone the wrong way on a one-way street. I think Camille might be bad luck.
2 comments:
Camille is totally bad luck. Or maybe it's just that you can't talk and drive, like me. One-way streets freak me out a little. Maybe it's just the signs, but I always have to stop and think a little extra when I come to one.
The problem is definitely not me.
It's very much Camille.
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