I've got too much time to ponder....

I can tell when I leave even one minute late for work in the morning. I don’t even have to look at the clock. It starts when I leave Braham. There’s a white Colorado of East Central Energy’s with headlights that are aimed slightly too high, so I can’t help but stare at them as I pass by him. It’s funny how headlights that are too bright just entrap a person. I meet him as I round the curve out of Braham on Hwy 107, and when I meet him there, I’m on time.

When I’m about a half mile north of the intersection of County Roads 1 and 6, I can see two girls waiting at the end of their driveway for the bus to come. If they are still there I’m on time. If I can see the bus stopping at the intersection to turn onto County Road 1, I’m late—and I’m even later when I get stuck behind the bus. That’s when I make a game-time decision to turn and go another way.

About half way to Princeton, I meet a black Ford Edge (my dream vehicle, by the way). The driver is a woman, always dressed in a suit jacket and always has her window open a crack because she’s smoking—ALWAYS. I picture this woman working somewhere stressful—maybe at the school district? I’d be stressed if I had to work with kids and numbers all day!

About a minute behind her is a black Saturn Aura (a vehicle I was going to get, but I bought a Grand Prix instead) driven by a man. He’s always in a button-down shirt and a tie. I picture him as some sort of administrator at Cambridge Medical Center.

I continue driving west through Princeton, and about 10 miles west of Princeton I meet a girl, at least I consider her a girl because I think we’re about the same age. She drives a Toyota Yaris, silver in color with black hubcaps—the ugliest hubcaps. I remember this car from the first day I started driving Hwy 95 to St. Cloud because of those hubcaps. This girl has brown curly hair and usually wears sweaters, from what I can tell anyway, but never wears sunglasses. I was later than usual one day and found out that she turns south onto Hwy 169. So, I picture her working at the hospital in Princeton because turning there would be faster than turning onto Rum River Drive from 95, and if she worked somewhere like Elk River, she’d take Hwy 10 south from St. Cloud. I know she comes from St. Cloud because some afternoons when I think she leaves late from work, I see her driving west on Hwy 23 into St. Cloud. Some mornings I wish I could wave to her and she’d realize that she sees me every morning without fail, and we’d become commuter friends, or something like that!

Shortly after I meet the girl in the Yaris, I meet an older man in a black Lincoln Town Car. He has white hair and a full white beard. I have no idea where he comes from, but I’m pretty sure he goes to Cambridge each day, if not further east than that. On my way home I meet him driving west between Princeton and Cambridge. I think he commutes from St. Cloud to Cambridge, though I have no idea why. He seems too old to be working, so I imagine him in sales or real estate. I think he’d make a good sales person, and I don’t know why.

Finally, I meet the TEAM Industries semi, usually when we’re both stopping for the four-way stop at the intersection of Hwys 25 and 95. Sometimes the truck is a little east of there and sometimes a little west of there. There’s two drivers of this truck, and they seem to alternate every other week or every two weeks. I laugh to myself when I pass one of the drivers because he always has his moth hanging open slightly, so it seems like he’s aimlessly starting ahead of him and completely unfocused. The winter of 2008-2009 the truck didn’t run every day. In fact, I don’t remember seeing it much at all that winter. Either their schedule changed, or they cut back to save money.

On my way home each day, I meet a white Buick Park Avenue about 15 miles west of Princeton, the exact same car that my father-in-law drives. I always have to look twice to make sure it’s not him, even though I know that he’d never be driving that direction at that time of day.

There is also a white Suburban that comes from Princeton, I think, and lives (the driver, not the truck!) at a yellow house between Princeton and St. Cloud. This truck doesn’t interest me at all; I remember where I usually meet it, and that’s about it!

Sometimes I wonder how I got home or to work because I sit and day dream while I drive. I don’t remember stopping at stop signs or slowing down for turning vehicles, but I know I do because I get home and to work safely each day. It’s weird…. but I guess that’s how I create characters for the people I meet on the road!