It’s about the journey not the destination.  I learned that on a short trip.  Life:  It’s all about the ride!  Read on and Ride ON!

My man says, “You need a vacation.”  "R u crazy!?!  I’m too busy.” He says, “Because u have too many things to do you have to stop and take a break. Just for a weekend. Come on!”

My best friend said, “No need to pack!  Just   throw in some essentials in a bag. Have FUN!” OK -small bag, essentials.  I have to take it con takeiteazy.  Blow dryer, mary j. bilge cd, bikini.  Those are essentials! :)

“Give me the keys – I’m driving.” “U know how to drive stick?” I wanted to DRIVE. Now I have to take a back seat.

I step into his BMW M3. Nice. “WAIT stop the car!”  “Huh?”  “I forgot the essentials- I mean – my CD’s.” We pull over to put in the CDs in the CD player tucked way in the trunk. I take out a CD from the pack. He says, “No! You can’t take that out! That’s El Mayimbe!” “Who?” “Fernandito Villalona.”  I don’t know his music but I know enough not to tell a Dominican anything against “El Mayimbe”!  “Fine. But this merengue mix gotta go…

”I pumped up Mary J. and we’re over the bridge.  “…. I see the future, baby...and it is what it is...” I can’t drive but at least I can RIDE!

Everything’s right with the world. “…If u looked into my life…. ”.  It didn’t feel like we were going fast at all.  A super smooth ride. He’s hitting 100 mph. 105, 115 122!!!!! Whew!

It was an open highway, Mary’s playing on a super loud crystal clear sounding system in a car engineered for racing.  Can u blame him? He went  down to 85 when we see lights flashing behind us.  Uh –oh.  “Well, what did you expect?”  “Damn!”

He gets a fat ticket. But hey! We still got Mary!  Soon it was time for “Mayimbe” ur… excuse me, “El Mayimbe”. I was surprised. Ladies get yourself Fernandito Villalona’s greatest hits and listen to him siiiiiiinnng. Not sing. Siiiiiiiiinng. …El perfume de esa noche, se quedo dentro de mi …”

After the fear of the ticket subsides he speeds up again to maybe 75.  Doesn’t he know? If u are passing everyone, including a Porsche 944, there’s probably state troopers lurking.  Lights behind us again. OH NO! I said, “Go to the center lane.  Just do it.” The cops pass us.

“See? They forgot which car!” The state trooper goes to the right and gets back on the highway – right behind us. I guess an M3 is unforgettable. “Do u know why ur being stopped.” “No officer. No idea.” I’m thinking, “Because our music is too loud? :) ”  “u don’t have a license plate in the front.” “Really?”  “License and registration.”

“Officer, this is my cousin’s car. She's in the army in Iraq.  Here’s the registration.  Here is my license.  Here is my brother’s PBA card. He’s a cop in New York.  My other brother is an attorney in Jersey.” I sat there biting my lip, praying that will work. “Wait right here, sir.”  I said, “You should have added that ur passenger is La Diva Latina!” The officer came back with a warning, “Don’t drive around here w/o a  license plate!”

We drive for  another 2 hours. The road is dark only 2 lanes up a winding road. The car starts acting funny until finally the car is simply DEAD. It won't move.  If it’s about the ride then why aren’t we moving.  It’s cold.  It’s dark.  I don’t know where I am.  He sighs and says, “Come on.  Let’s go.”  “Where?”  “There was a police car we passed, so let’s walk to them before they leave.”  “You want me to walk in the middle of the night on a curvy road, with no lights and with my stilettos!?!”  “Well, you can’t stay here.”

I’m thinking- I can’t get mad. It’s all about the ride. It’s about the journey not the destination. But is this a journey if the car doesn’t move!?! I take a deep breath.  It’s a journey on foot now.  I look up toward the road we were about to take when off in the distance you can see a cop car coming towards us. The officer says, “Maybe you ran out of gas.”

WHAT? The cop looks at him again, “It sounds like you ran out of gas.”  All of a sudden I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The cop says, “I’m calling a tow truck for you and he just might have gas.”  The tow truck arrived right away.  He says, “You ran out of gas in an M3?”  “Yeah, the gas light didn’t go off or anything.”    “u were waiting for the light to go off, huh?  And then after a few miles the light is supposed to blink and then after that you still have a few more miles left, right?”

The tow truck guy explains that the road is extremely icy and there have been accidents all night. “If you wouldn’t have run out of gas coming off that curb, you surely would have crashed.”  My man looks at me like, “See?” I say, “Am I supposed to say ‘Thank you God for us running out of gas in the middle of the night, on a lonely road, with stilettos’?”

We get to our destination and he goes to check in.  He returns, "I don’t know what is going on but my card is not being accepted.  U have a credit card?”  “That’s a joke right.  First we get a speeding ticket, then we get stopped again by the cops, then we run out of gas and now we have no money???”  He looks at me like stop playing. “Look,” I say.  “I don’t have one.  I only packed – a few essentials... And one essential is playing in the car.”

“If worse comes to worse I'm selling the BMW.”  Nice to see he has a sense of humor in the face of potential disaster.  But I had to laugh.  “For reallllllllll, I don’t have one.  Hey, it’s all about the ride so if we just have to make a U-turn to ride back – we have a full tank of gas now…. It’s all about the riiiiiiiide!”  He goes back inside.  I just couldn’t believe it! Did essentials include cash and credit cards??? Oh well!

He comes back. I don’t know what happened but I don’t want to know.  I take the keycard and we drive to our room. He says, “Room 323”.  We walk up to the room and I try the key.  We finally made it.  Stopped by the cops twice, ran out of gas, no credit card – little cash but somehow we're here. The keycard is not working. I try again.   I try the card and the door handle at the same time and pushed the door. Nothing! All off a sudden there’s a knock from inside the room.  “Sorry! I meant 328 not 323!”

I start running down pass all the doors until I get to 328.  “I can not believe THIS!!! This place better be NICE!” He opens the door wide open and wow! It was beautiful! Fireplace AND Jacuzzi!  Hey, I don’t call him my ‘Dominiking’ for nothing! :)