A Walk to Remember

“I’m going to be a terrible father!”

Yep, I said it. And I meant it (at least at the time).

Those are the words that pretty much wrapped up our unintentional and VERY long walk this weekend in Palm Springs.

It all started out pretty simple. Melissa and I were going for a short walk on the golf cart path next to our hotel. Turns out pedestrians aren’t allowed. Apparently, our lives were at risk from an errant golf ball or so the old man in the golf cart told us (he actually told us he’d been hit by a ball or two and I guess it really hurts).

So around the 6^th hole, we left the course and entered the country club neighborhood. This place was a maze. One turn looked like the next, which looked like the next. Pretty soon we felt like we were (and we were) walking in circles.

Like Moses wandering in the desert, we eventually found our way (in this case to the main gates). Unlike Moses, we couldn’t get them to part. We were trapped. Luckily, we only had to wait a few minutes for a car to leave and we followed them out. That’s when we realized we had no idea where we were.

So here’s where my bad parenting comes in. We were only going to take a short walk, so we didn’t take WATER or a CELL PHONE. I took my pregnant wife on a walk in Palm Springs, in a neighborhood neither of us knew, without WATER or a CELL PHONE?!?!

The good news: it wasn’t that hot… yet.

The bad news: we were still a long ways from home.

Eventually and with the help of the Holiday Inn Express we figured out where we were and more importantly how to get back to where we wanted to be.

In all, we probably walked 5 or 6 miles. Let’s just call the bad planning a bump along a very long journey into parenthood. Even longer than our walk in Palm Springs.

Don't let the picture fool you, you don't want to be lost here.