Taking the ‘long walk up there’

You’ll likely find me doing a little work when the opportunity presents itself. The adage, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,” has been ingrained in me since childhood.

At work, this takes the form of playing music in my office or treating myself to a fancy coffee. But at events, it takes the form of endlessly taking pictures, hoping they may become a story someday. 

What I thought would be a leisurely day at the Warner Robins Independence Day Celebration turned into an unexpected mini adventure, and a bunch of pictures for the paper.

Our simple plan was to park at Commercial Circle, enjoy some ice cream, and watch the fireworks. Little did we know, this plan was about to take a detour. 

My husband Devon, my nephew Leo, and I arrived at Commercial Circle around 8:30. After about 15 minutes of sitting in the car, I blabbed: “The concert down the street has food trucks.”

“How far is it from here?” Leo asked.

I pulled up Google Maps, “About a ten-minute walk.”

I could feel Devon starting to be annoyed with both of us.

“I don’t mind walking to the concert,” Leo said.

“Me neither. Let’s go,” I said.

I had a brilliant idea: “We should park at Sacred Heart Church next door. That’ll cut down our walking time.”

Devon was more on board with this idea. 

“Okay,” Devon said, “Let’s go.”

The first order of business was getting out of the grass. We were packed in like sardines, and driving an SUV there proved difficult. I didn’t hit any cars — or people, thankfully — but we were pretty squished trying to find a spot to leave. 

I took a wrong turn and found myself at a curb. Going off the curb would have put me on S. Davis Drive and on my way to the event. But my husband was not so keen on me jumping the curb. 

If I had driven slowly enough, I could have gotten us out without any damage, but with Warner Robins traffic, inching my way onto a busy street would have been a recipe for disaster. I understand entirely Devon’s apprehension.

Thankfully, a good Samaritan was able to move his car forward so we could get out without curb-hopping. After missing my turn and needing to flip around, we finally made it to Sacred Heart.

The parking lot closest to the event was packed. We would need to cut our losses and return to Commercial Circle: there would be no more food trucks or vibes from Scott Stapp.

Thankfully, the other side of the building had plenty of space.

So Devon, Leo and I made our way to the concert. On our way up to the Sacred Heart building, we were stopped by a man wearing a red shirt.

“It’s a long walk up there,” he said, “My wife and I just got back from there and…”

I started zoning out.

“That sounds rough, but we want to check out the food trucks,” I replied. 

I can’t quite remember what he said after that. We marched on.

Several times, I said, “I don’t know what that guy was talking about. It’s not that long.”

It was in the Georgia heat, though. I got a small break when I ran into Sandra (our reporter). She was leaving the concert and wanted to watch the fireworks in a less crowded spot. She had the right idea.

Finally, we made it to the concert. We had one lawn chair between the three of us. Leo didn’t mind sitting on the ground and neither did Devon. I was wearing a white dress, so I took the lawn chair.

The funny thing is even though we were excited about the food trucks, we didn’t go to any of them. We were so beat. The only thing we could muster enough energy for was a snow cone. Snow cone in hand, I thoroughly enjoyed Scott Stapp’s performance. I even texted my mom to tell her to listen to him. She is a massive fan of Christian music.

“I think you’ll like this guy, Scott Stapp,” I texted her. “He’s the lead singer of Creed. He just sang a song called ‘Jesus is a Rockstar.”’

“Creed is a Christian band,” she replied.

“It is!?” I replied.

That was a revelation to me. I couldn’t help but bombard my mom with texts about the songs he was performing:

“OMG, he’s singing ‘With Arms Wide Open.’” 

“Now he’s singing ‘My Sacrifice!’”

“He’s singing ‘Higher!’”

I’m not the biggest fan of ‘Dad Rock,’ but hearing it live was much more fun. I could practically feel the New Balances spawning on my feet, and I had a weird urge to mow the lawn.

Finally, the fireworks. The dazzling colors made my sore feet and the possible start of heat stroke worth it. This is when I went into ‘work mode,’ incessantly taking pictures on my phone. After about 10 minutes, my phone said, “Nope, storage full.” God told me to enjoy the show with my eyes, not through a phone screen. 

It was a long walk back to the car, but I was beaming after how much I enjoyed myself. I would advise, “Enjoy the moment, and pack more lawn chairs.” In the end, it’s the joy of the moment that matters most.