A Yankee has Landed in Texas

My kids think I am crazy sometimes!  I put myself on automatic pilot, especially when I am driving, and some funny things happen when I do that!  When I told my then 13 year old daughter one day, that I missed turning on her friend’s street because I was on automatic pilot and was thinking we were driving to the grocery store instead, she actually thought it was a button in the car that I pushed to turn on ‘automatic pilot’!  I guess I used that phrase an awful lot at the time to explain the many mindless mistakes I made.

One day, I picked my daughter and her friend up from dance practice and they asked if we could go to Taco Bell and get food from the drive thru.  I said sure and off we went.  I drove up to the window and didn’t realize that there was only one window at Taco Bell.  Most drive thrus have 2 windows, one for paying and then one for dispensing the food.  I have driven thru many, many fast food drive thrus being a working mom with two very active young girls. 

So, that day, I ordered the food through the intercom at the drive thru, then proceeded to the window to pay.  There was a young man, a teenager, working the window at the time.  I paid my money, he gave me the change, I said thank you and I drove forward to go to the next window.  But there wasn’t a 2nd window!  I continued to drive forward, not realizing that I should be stopping at a window for the food but instead was driving out into the parking area toward the street to head home!  My daughter and her friend sat in the back seat quiet, watching me.  They sat there for about 30 seconds until my daughter finally said, “Mom, we didn’t get our food.”  I looked back at the restaurant drive thru and the young man working was hanging out the window watching me drive off.  I burst out laughing and did a huge U turn and headed back to the drive thru window.  Thankfully, no one else had driven up yet.  The young man watched me, without even cracking a smile and as I drove up to the window dying from laughter, he calmly said “Want your food now?”