Are We Close?

Traveling in the southern part of our province is exciting for about the first hour or so and then it all becomes a repetition of much the same. Looking at the mountains on one side and the vast desert on the other. Every once in a while there will be small sprouts of green grass popping and slowly multiplying until there are bushes and trees until you realize you are in the midst of a lush oasis. Ten minutes of green beauty with a small village and farmer inhabitance is all you’re allotted until the same progress starts fading away in reverse. The trees disappear, the bushes shrink in size and suddenly you realize there aren’t even any slivers of grass to be seen poking up through the sand.

Recently a group and I were driving along this vast desert highway, almost bored by the hours of mountains, sand, and occasional grass. When we could tell that we were drawing close to yet another oasis town. One of the guys in the vehicle planned on meeting up with a friend in an upcoming oasis. We had no idea exactly how far we had traveled or how many small villages still lay between us and our final destination.

In a moment of inspiration he asked to use my phone to call his friend. The friend of course inquires about how close we were to his home town. My travel companion with total honesty responded “ Well looking out the window I see the desert, a few trees and a couple of donkey carts. So do you think we’re almost there?”