Lost in the Station Wagon with a Shifting Map

Lost in the Station Wagon with a Shifting Map

I was on a road trip with my college roommate, Dave, but instead of his old sedan we were driving my dad's station wagon from when I was a kid. We were trying to make it to a wedding reception in the town where I grew up, but every highway exit led to an unfamiliar gravel road through tall pine trees. We stopped at a diner that looked exactly like my high school cafeteria, and my current boss was working the counter. I asked him for directions, but he just handed me a paper map where the roads kept shifting every time I folded it. Dave said we had to hurry because it was getting dark, but when we got back to the car, one of the tires was flat and neither of us had a jack. I remember this intense mix of panic and pure excitement, knowing we were totally lost with no cell service, just trying to navigate using old landmarks I hadn't seen in fifteen years.