life and other curiosities: Which way did he go?

Inspired by the last two posts, and thinking about my sweet husband, I thought I might post another cute story about him.

Years ago, my husband's parents had a house on the lake. It was lovely. For many years, they let my family use it to gather together and celebrate Christmas.

It was on a return trip from one of these visits that I noticed a turtle in the road.

I have a soft spot for turtles. I like their disposition. Never in a hurry. Never stressed or anxious. I even get a kick out of when they hide their faces, but don't close the other end of the shell. You can see their booties. They are wrinkled and cute. They're endearing little buggers.

Needless to say, when I see one in the road, I'll stop and move it safely to the side.

That day, my sweetheart and I were traveling a twisty and hilly little section of road that lead back to his parents lake house. In the middle of the crazy section of the road, I spotted a turtle right in the middle of my lane. After I gasped, held my breath and passed safely over the turtle, I quickly stopped my vehicle and hustled back out to the road. I picked up the turtle and in that moment had a momentous choice to make.

Where do I deposit the little fella? You see, on my side side of the road were trailer homes with lots of cars and people, and pebble gravel covering the ground. On the other side was a lush green area with a shallow lake inlet. In my mind, the choice was obvious. I hustled to the other side of the road and deposited the turtle in the patchy grass area right next to the inlet.

When I got back to the car, my husband said in an extremely frustrated tone, "why did you put him over there"? "He was almost across the road!"

You see, the turtle was facing the trailer park with the pebbly gravel. He had crossed the left lane and was halfway through safely the right lane. In that moment, my sweet husband sympathized with the poor little guy. I believe he mumbled under his breath "now he's just going to have to start back over."

To this day, I wonder what became of that little turtle. Did he rejoice when he saw the grass and water thinking "sweet! This is what I was looking for!" "Did his turtle family happily exclaim "Oh good! I'm so glad you made it. We were so worried about you. We thought you might have gotten lost!"

I like to think the turtle led a nice long life and didn't choose to cross the dangerous road. I like to think he looks like this today: