There are some out there who probably think that minivans and the people who drive them are dorky, even more so when it’s a guy driving a minivan. Well, there are some advantages, chief among them, your height above the roadway compared to cars. You can see all kinds of things from up there, let me tell you.

Which I will now do.

After an uneventful drive in this morning, my exit came up. For those of you who live around here, it’s the 22nd Street exit ramp from I-59/20 southbound. For the rest of you who don’t know, when it was built it was probably intended to be a single lane--but it’s a wide lane--and over the years, since it does split into two at the very bottom, habit and convention has molded the behavior of drivers to start queuing up into two lanes as soon as possible at the start of the ramp. Again, the lane is wide for only one car, but is not truly wide enough for two--you’re basically door-handle to door-handle as you wait on the light at the bottom to change.

So, if you’re in a dorky minivan, and you pull alongside a regular undorky car, you have the opportune circumstance of sitting up high, right next to a vehicle over which you command an almost bird’s-eye view.

Just like this morning.

I pulled into the right lane, next to a little compact car, and absent-mindedly looked over to see who might be my wingman. Youngish, professional-looking lady, quite fetching, unconcernedly tapping on the steering wheel keeping time to something she must have been listening to on the radio, wearing some sort of a preppy-look sweater and open collar shirt, and sporting a demure skirt that had managed to slip ever so much up to her mid-thighs. So, I must confess, I stared.

Legs, you know. And obviously, I got caught.

The lady looked over, and despite what you might think she would do, with a devilishly arched eyebrow and mischievous leer, she took her right hand off the steering wheel and reached down and tugged the hem of her skirt EVEN HIGHER! I wolfishly wiggled my eyebrows up and down and then we both began laughing.

Because, you know, it’s not everyday that I manage to catch up with Miss Reba on her way to work. Since we leave at different times, and have slightly different routes, a chance meeting like that doesn’t happen often. But, we do take the same exit ramp, and sometimes, I get lucky like that.
posted by Terry at 8:15:00 AM