By Lindsay Fisher
WWKI
“Your connecting flight has been canceled. The earliest we can get you on a plane is Monday night.”
When Bruce-the-flight-desk employee uttered these words to a newly married couple at the start of their honeymoon, we simply thought: “No problem, we’ll drive and make it a road trip we’ll always remember.”
We even naively told Micky Maurer, a former Male Call guest, and his wife who we ran into at the airport: “Oh, we’re going to get some shoe polish and write ‘Just Married’ on the back of the truck and have fun with it.”
That enthused idea only lasted until Seymour, Ind. Shortly after we downed our Jimmy Johns – the food of choice for our first date, when we played the first-of-many games of Scrabble – our eyes tired and our adrenaline trended downward. The result? We turned back and spent the start of our honeymoon within the walls of our own home. As we awoke to the realization a honeymoon spent reclining under rays of warmth was separated by too many miles, we did what we know best: Get out a pen and paper.
Right there on our couch – the scene through the window full of snow, not sand – we started jotting down all the places we’d said “Hey, let’s stop there sometime.” Or “Remember that one place we drove by on the way home that one time?” We gathered a list of little places in even littler towns —- scattered all over the state we were raised in – and then we made time for them.
We ducked into little restaurants, paged through books at historical libraries and strolled through antique malls – whose owners were always in pairs and had as much pride in the little pieces that completed their store’s puzzle as they did in the marriage advice they gave us.
Every day we lived a new adventure right here in our home state, where tiny towns’ slogans boasted pride – no matter how small the population – and the people who gathered at our small-and-simple stops wanted to talk and listen. We made a lot of friends we’ll likely never find again, but because our flight was canceled we can cruise by “That place we drove past on the way home that one time” and have a fond memory tucked away in our back pockets from “that one time we thought our honeymoon wasn’t going to work out.” Moral of the story: Things that look like disappointment are, often times, something incredibly special. The truth is, finding little pieces of us in an antique mall; or talking to that guy, who thought his dogs were dating; or stopping in a yarn store where the lady told us: “The best part of life is the story behind it;” was far more fulfilling than basking on a beach.
Even better, the small-town slogans that welcomed us to their little part of the world sparked the idea for Monday’s Male Call, which was all about funny town names and their silly slogans. So, have a listen to our Male Call podcast and don’t forget to make time to stop at the little places once in a while.
Hear the Male Call show that was inspired by Lindsay’s story.
