Lesbian Road Adventures

My husband and I both worked extra hours last week. The slightly bigger paychecks enabled me to pay all but two of the January bills. With the breathing room and the positive energy I have a bit of time for reflection today. I am dreaming of a real vacation. I have never been out of this country and long to one day have the extra money to see the world. At this time I would settle for a week in a ratty motel in a state I've never been to before.

Don't get me wrong we have traveled before, however they are usually brief dual purpose trips that put us into debt. We have taken a brief vacation to find housing before an out of state move. We have gone on weekend camping trips that we counted as vacations. We have traveled to see relatives with failing health. That's it. We have never taken a real vacation just for pleasure and without an extra agenda such as job or housing searches. I have joked with my husband that moving is the poor mans vacation. And let me tell you, I am ALWAYS up for a move.

I have a friend who is in a similar boat financially as myself. Years ago we were working for the same company and living two counties away. We were always busy and got together infrequently. She called one day and said that she was planning to visit her mother in Wisconsin and asked if I would like to come along. She said she would be driving and we would stay at her mothers house so all I had to take care of was food. I thought about it (for two seconds) and replied "Woohoo! girls road trip it will be like Thelma and Louise, well, without driving off a cliff, or killing anybody, or getting busy with Brad Pitt."

Later that week she called and asked whether I was Thelma or Louise. I told her she could have Brad Pitt and I'd do the killin' hey, what can I say other than she asked after a bad day at work.

We filled a cooler with deli meat, drinks and yogurt. A bag in the backseat bubbled over with a plethora of snacks as we each did our separate shopping. We were ready to go, so before we said goodbye to our husbands she grabbed a gift box from her room. She worked for a video store so she used one of the old advertisements for the pictures and comments and quotes from movie reviewers to decorate the box with a Thelma and Louise theme. Inside was my very own "Louise" shirt. She had gone to the flea market and had Thelma spray painted on one shirt and Louise on another for herself. She said the foreign man who had painted them kept asking which one was her name. "You Thelma? You Louise?"

We had a blast on the way up, stopping for gas and snack breaks along the way, having long conversations, and playing all kinds of music. It was nice to get away from the struggle of everyday existence for a brief period. We stopped at state lines taking pictures there and at any odd sites along our route. Wisconsin itself was a whole other world to me. Every three miles there was another whole entire store devoted to nothing but cheese. Luckily, I'm quite fond of cheese.

My friend told me I would be amazed once I was out of the South and heard some people speaking because they didn't have accents in Wisconsin. I managed to make it into the parking lot before bursting into hysterical laughter after speaking with a sales clerk in a store. "Ya ye betcha," I said,"There were no accents there."

One morning on the way up we stopped for breakfast at a truck stop diner where we realized people were giving us strange looks. Some stared as if shocked by looking at a strange insect. Some men outright leered at us. It finally occurred to me why we were getting the extra attention.

"Thelma."

"Yes Louise."

"Um, I believe people think we're lesbians because of our matching t-shirts."

We had a big laugh, enjoyed the rest of the trip, and filled the cooler with cheese, before making our way home. Hope everyone out there is finding joy and laughter in their lives. If you were intrigued by the title and are now disappointed by reading through my story ha ha ha you dirty pervert. ;)