Buying Thyme

I needed some thyme. I had decided to make 40 Cloves of Garlic roasted chicken for dinner and the recipe said to lay fresh thyme over the chicken. Simple enough, the car was in the garage, it was early in the day, I'd just run to the grocery store get some thyme and while I was at it, I would go into Springfield to my favorite store for produce and load up on some fresh veggies.
On the way to the store, I had to stop for a "wide load" exiting the freeway. A huge (maybe 40 foot long and seriously more than one lane wide) beautiful boat was in tow. This was not a "let's go wakeboarding on Table Rock Lake boat." This was a "let's go to the ocean because I've never been to Bora Bora in October" boat. And it had taken the off ramp to Ozark which is 1,000 miles from the ocean.
I had to see where it was going, so I made a U-turn and fell in behind the trailing escort car. The leading pilot car cleared the road and I joined the caravan, meandering over back roads (NN for you locals) and back to the highway some miles later (Highway 60, eastbound). I gave up, its destination would remain a mystery.

But boats! The sight and thought of boats inspired a revery of good times we had on our boat. Outstanding in my memory was an autumn day when we all decided to play hooky from our daily routines. We kept the kids out of school, called in sick to work, and headed for the river. We traveled down the Sacramento River with the boys either on wakeboards or in tubes the whole way. It was a glorious day, just like the recent autumn day when I followed the boat in tow.
Autumn! I drifted back to the present and looked around at the glorious fall color. I wandered and wondered over more back roads taking in the splendor of it all and then headed for home.

And I forgot all about buying thyme.