Reminds me of a story...
Hello Vegematic,
Reminds me of the journey we took over the Twins and Galehead last summer. Atticus and I left the car at the trailhead for North Twin and made our way up and over the Twins, onto Galehead and then down to the Gale River Road. I soon stuck out my thumb on this particularly hot and humid day and was so looking forward to getting a ride back to the car because this had been, by far, our longest hike.
No one would stop...until one woman eventually pulled over on the dirt road, rolled down her window, assessed this little hairy dog and this large sweaty man and said, "I'll give you a ride, but not the dog."
I looked at her in disbelief, waiting for the smile to crease her lips. But there was no smile, no punchline delivered. This driver was abrupt, almost to the point of being rude. She had an edge to her and with an answer like that I was surprised she had stopped in the first place.
I thanked her for her offer and assured her my hiking partner's character was far more intact than mine and back home in Newburyport if someone pulled over they would have said just the opposite, "I'll give Atticus a ride, but not you." It didn't matter, she drove on and departed in such a huff we were left coughing and hacking in a cloud of dirt road dust.
So Atticus and I walked all the way out to the main road and then mile after hot mile down the road. My thumb was getting tired, my feet were sore, and the sun was beating down on both of us but was worse on Atticus' black coat. He was really starting to feel it and his tongue was hanging out like never before. I felt badly for him.
After a while a car pulled over with three women in it...a mother and her two adult daughters. They were lovely ladies from Paris, here touring the states. When they offered us a ride I was apologetic when I got into the car with the way I smelled for they had the scent of three who had just applied perfumes and oils.
What an oasis this proved to be between the lovely scents and the air conditioning. I was thoroughly enjoying our rescue and the conversation when I looked to my left and realized someone was enjoying it even more.
Atticus was between myself and the younger daughter. He's not all that cuddly with anyone other than me and can be pretty stand-offish, but before long here was Atticus sitting right up against this lovely young woman, his nose nuzzled deep in her cleavage as she whispered sweet little somethings into his floppy ear and held him close.
When we finally pulled up to my car, I opened the door and got out. Much to my surprise, my hiking partner, who doesn't like to leave my side and hates getting left with others, didn't appear as though he wanted to leave the air conditioned car...or maybe it was the perfumed cleavage, the soft purring voice, or the gentle petting.
Eventually he did join me and as we bid adieu to our saviors and watched them drive off, I could have sworn he gave me a look that said, "Did you have to interrupt that?"
