Landing at the airport in St. John's, Newfoundland, fear began to set in. What the heck was I doing?
My friend Shauna and her husband had advertised their 2013 Mini Cooper for sale on Facebook and I bought it. Sight unseen, except for a few pictures, I bought it! Not only that, but I lived in Edmonton, Alberta. After picking up the car there was a solo drive of over 6000 kilometers to get home. When you're in your twenties, hey, no problem. You're invincible! Nothing's going to happen to you. But being 62, with a lot of life under my belt... I knew better. I thought of every horrible thing that could happen to me including flat tires in the middle of nowhere, to dying at the hands of a serial killer. The drama queen in me was in full flight. She'd taken over.
What a relief to see Shauna's smiling face at the airport. We headed back to her house where the Mini sat patiently waiting for me. I was so nervous, I just walked around it a few times not daring to sit in it. Pretty soon this big adventure would begin and there would be no turning back. I knew it was a standard, but I learned to drive in an Austin Mini so I figured it would come back to me easily enough. Fingers crossed anyway.
We had supper and then it was time to take possession of my new traveling companion. Noel, Shauna's husband, took me for a test drive. Hoping that my stomach jitters would subside shortly, I made him take the wheel first. Then it was my turn. Please don't stall the darn thing Lorna and for Pete's sake, do NOT grind the gears! He was patient and encouraging and we made it safely back to their house. By now it was dark. I didn't even have to reveal my inner terror about finding my AirBnB in the dark, on strange roads, in a strange car. Their whole family jumped into their car and said, "Follow us, we'll get you safely to where you're going." Sigh...
And my adventure had begun.
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