Moxie Man!!

I am lucky to have my power wheelchair on this trip and so, when it came time to decide to roll or ride, I decided to roll. We'd just had lunch at the mall, who knew that the Cheesecake Factory also manufactured veggie burgers and pasta, and wanted to head across the street to the grocery store. I could either get in the van and ride over or I could just make my own way there and meet up with Joe.

Now, I knew getting there would be daunting. I would have to head through a huge parking lot, travel along the side of the road, for there weren't any side walks, make several turns and cross one very large street. But  I was up for the challenge. The first thing to get over was an enormous speed bump but that done, i was on my way. The parking lot was fine, there was lots of room for other cars to get round me. I was lucking when I got to the slip roads that connected the parking lot to the world of roads. Then, when I got to the main turn onto the road that crossed the big road, traffic was hugely busy. I went into a parking lot on my right trying to see if it had an exit that would allow me access to the crosswalk. It didn't.

I went back and had to dive into traffic. I found that most drivers simply ignored me - and I was really good with that. Some were annoyed with me, one pointing to me indicating that I should be on a sidewalk that didn't exist, I took a hint from the other drivers, and ignored the suggesting. But there was a third group of drivers.

These were mostly youngish men or older women. They were flashing me 'Have At It' grins mostly accompanied by a thumbs up gesture. One darkened window rolled down slowly beside me and I saw a wealthy older woman who called out, "I love a man with moxie!" Moxie!! I haven't heard that word in years. I loved it. I have moxie!! Who the hell needs Macho when you can have Moxie instead? That's the superhero I want to be Moxie Man! As I waited for the light a young fellow on a bike waited along side me and chatted. He told me that he found that intersection intimidating and usually just carried his bike over the grass to the cross walk. "That took guts," he said referring to my ride.

I didn't want to tell him, like I'll tell you, it didn't take guts, it took having no other option. The rest of the way was easy, sidewalks and cut curbs made the end part of the journey easy. I crossed over into the grocery store parking lot and was up on the sidewalk and waiting for Joe in moments.

Joe however had his own set of challenges. He is a man of good sense, except that I happen to be his sense of direction. He got hopelessly lost and ended up having to park, go into a restaurant and have someone give him express directions to get to the store. He had his adventure, I had mine.

Mine was more fun.