Flying Trolley

I had a choir performance last week. True to form, I had no idea where it was.

Ok, I had SOME idea. It was taking place in Florence, Nebraska as part of Historic Florence Days. I drive through Florence every day on my way to work. The place is all on one street, maybe 4 or 5 blocks long, with a big park right off the way. We'd probably be performing in that park, I thought, but just in case we weren't I had my blackberry with me so I could pull up the directions in the email our choir director had sent. I always have a contingency plan.

I arrived at the park with plenty of time left. There was already someone in the park playing instruments and they didn't look like they were leaving any time soon.

"Maybe if I park here and watch, I'll see some of the other members pull up". I parked and waited. No one came. I started to worry. Time to pull out the directions. (Like a guy I always ask for directions only as a last resort, but unlike a guy I don't wait until the situation is hopeless.)

I found the email in my blackberry but when I scrolled down for the directions they were in an attachment instead of in the body of the email where I could have easily read them. "No problem" I thought, "I'll just open the attachments". But the attachments wouldn't open. I looked at the clock and my extra time was starting to melt away. What to do? I called the director but he didn't answer. I considered driving in to the office, logging in, and checking the email and I even started driving in that direction but quickly realized I'd never make it in time.

I parked my car and walked to a sidewalk book vendor who was part of the festivities. Before I could even ask I heard her say to one of her customers, "I'm getting ready to go hear the singers." Great!

"Where are the singers going to be?" I asked.
"Over at the old depot" she said.
"Where's that?" I asked. (You mean there's more to this place than only one street?!!)
Another lady, a customer, started explaining the directions to me, but my mind was racing too much to absorb what she was saying.
"Look" I said, "I'm one of the singers and I need to get there quickly."
"Oh, you're in luck" said the owner. "Here comes the trolley. He'll take you."
Great!

I stood at the curb and waited for the trolley. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to the directions but I had listened enough to vaguely realize he was pointed in the opposite direction of the depot.
"No problem" I thought "I've got plenty of time for him to circle the block and take me back. How big could Florence be?"

I got on to the trolley and explained my situation to the driver. He wasn't real clear but he did say he could take me and I made it very clear that I only had like 20 minutes. You can drive clear across the entire city of Omaha in 20 minutes.

I took a seat, smiling and saying hello to the other passengers, happy people with children and ice cream cones. The driver continued on his tour and it didn't take me long to realize that, despite my obviously desparate plea to go straight back to the depot, he was going to do his ENTIRE tour.

We went to a church, past a school where we stopped for someone to get off and buy fresh baked goods, and then turned down a dirt road. Oh dear.

I cautiously made my way up to the front of the trolley, not easy to do when it was wobbling around on the dirt road and I was still wearing the skirt and high heeled sandals I had worn for church that morning. "Sir", I said, "I really do need to get to the depot immediately." He said nothing." On my way forward I noticed he had a tip basket. I fished throuh my wallet. I had about 4 singles, a ten and some twenties. I only had a few minutes left. "Please, sir, if you could get me to the depot, I'm in a huge hurry and I'd really appreciate it." I dropped the ten in his basket to show him just how much.

The trolley lurched forward as he floored it. As we flew through the streets of Historic Florence I was pretty sure we were making history right then because it's safe to say that trolley has never gone that fast before or since. Oh, and he got me there on time. I even had time to warm up.