A Perfect Getaway

           The road was spacious, and busy, and forking gradually away from the interstate toward the neighboring hills.

           Max dug diligently under both sides of the front seat, while Kathy struggled to keep up to speed limit each time Max bumped her leg. A truck honked and veered around them. Max bumped her leg again.

           “Forget the map. I'll look it up again for you on Google Maps™ when we switch off,” she said.

           “Well I like the real maps,” Max grumbled. “I like the feel of the paper in my fingers. I like the fact that you can mark a spot on it and it doesn’t run and hide off the side of that little phone of yours.”

“Oh, relax. I just accidentally zoomed too far. I found it back, didn’t I?” “We stay on this road until we reach Turkey Gulch. Then we turn left. We can check it again when we get to the corner.”

           The road was a blacktop with two lanes. They waited patiently for a tractor and hay wagon to make its way from the pasture gate to the farm using both lanes.

           “It’s nice out here, going 20 miles an hour,” said Marty from the back seat. “After the week I had, this getaway is just what I needed.”

           “I’m never sure if you’re joking or not about these things. You’re the most impatient driver in the city,” said his wife Amy as she rummaged through a bag and produced chips. “Anyone care for chips?” No one answered, so she crunched a mouthful and put the bag back.

           “There’s the sign,” three of them shouted. Amy only crunched. A beat up sign with weeds and branches holding it upright declared Turkey and a second word might have been Gulch. Most of the second word was chewed up by various calibers of bullets.

           “Are you sure that’s it?” asked Max. “I thought we had a longer drive before the corner.” Max moved to the driver side while Kathy scooted over and turned her phone on.

           “That’s just because you remember this place as a boy. How long has it been?” asked Marty. He didn’t wait for an answer. “When you’re a child everything is bigger and time goes on forever. Say, where is all the sunshine?”

           The road was winding through the bottom of a great gorge with steep walls full of tall deciduous trees and vines and trickling water.

           “Kathy, could you check your map again?”

           “Sure, no wait, we’re out of cell phone range. We don’t have any intersections anyway. I’ll check when we get through the gulch,” she said.

           “Well it sure is quiet. We haven’t seen a car or even a tractor for at least an hour now,” said Marty. “Say, I didn’t think it was close to sunset, but the sky just seems to dim out. And look, if I hang my head out the window I can see a few stars above.”

           “So where is this campsite Max?” asked Kathy.

           “It’s not a regular campsite. That’s the beauty of this place. There are no other campers, nothing to scare the wildlife away, and no trashcans to bring in too much wildlife. There’s a small private beach next to a stream.”

           They all chimed in as he said for the hundredth time this week, “It’s the perfect weekend getaway!” They all burst out laughing.

           The road arrived at a T intersection. To the right were reedy grasses and cattails. The road appeared to be dry until it disappeared between the grasses. To the left was a dirt road on a gradual incline. They collectively decided to go left.

           The road had no sides, only watery ditches speckled with rotting tree stumps. Eventually it flattened out. The trickling walls had settled to a meandering stream, snarled full of centuries of deadwood. The black walls were gone and the sky was covered with stars on a moonless night. The horizon contained black outlines of distant hills.

           “I’m tired.”

           “So am I.”

           “Lets camp here, we can find the beach in the morning.”

           “Sounds good, help me pull the tent off the top.”

           A hoot owl serenaded them to sleep. Song birds and mosquitoes woke them up.

           With morning sunrise came campfire coffee. They sat in silence arms draped over their respective partners admiring the view.

           They cleaned up breakfast and broke camp. They walked about the area one last time looking for any leftover items and once again just to admire the scenery.

           Max drove for awhile. The day was fine and the stream was near. It wouldn’t be much longer until they found the beach for their second night.

           The road was bumpy. Small and medium size rocks appeared. Max drove easily around them. The rocks were bigger. Max drove carefully over and around them, one wheel at a time inching over. Boulders lined the road. Max attempted to turn around. At one point he had the other three at the back bumper bouncing it until he managed to clear a medium boulder and smacked down onto another. Oil dribbled down the side of the boulder.

           “Kathy get your cell phone out, I think we just poked a hole in the oil pan.”

           Kathy dug through her purse. She dug through her bag. Amy joined the search. After pulling almost everything out of the car, going through every pouch and pocket they gave up.

           “Marty, can you help us pull the luggage off the car?” asked Amy.

           While the three opened everything searching for the phone, Max grabbed a piece of paper he found poking up from the back seat. “Hey, all this digging around is really helping. I found my map,” he said.

           He sat down on the ground and spread the map out. “Hey guys, I think I found something. That wasn’t Turkey Gulch Road. It was Turkey Creek Road. Our turn was another 40 miles. I knew it was farther.”

           Kathy jumped up from her rummaging. “I found it!” she yelled.

           “Great,” said Max. “Be sure they know we are on Turkey Creek Road.”

           Amy and Marty started putting everything back into bags and coolers. Kathy fumbled with the phone frowning. She tried again. She looked at the others and said, “I think the battery ran down. I don’t think I turned it off when we were in the gulch yesterday.”

           Max looked back at his map. Marty fumbled with a zippered pouch. Kathy punched the phone with her finger as if she could will it back to life.

           Amy said, “I have a question. Where do your work friends think you are this weekend?”

           In unison they said, “Turkey Gulch Road to the perfect getaway.” Then four people listened in silence.

           The road was ended.