Saturday we celebrated Easter at our house. My oldest granddaughter Adelyn has a driver’s permit now and so I was excited to go for a ride with her around Madison for the first time.

Do you remember getting your driver’s permit? How excited you were to drive a car. I do. I don’t think things have changed much. Adelyn always wants to drive now and you can tell she is excited to get behind the wheel. My first driving experience happened on my grandfathers farm outside of New Richland, Minnesota. I don’t remember the make of the car, but it was red. I hadn’t received my driver’s permit yet, but I was close to getting it and grandpa wanted to teach me how to drive a car. I remember this well. How exciting it was and how fun it was to get behind the wheel. I do remember grandpa telling me a number of times to slow down! Learning to drive a car somehow makes you a young adult now and not a kid anymore.

Earlier in the afternoon, Adelyn drove Seth my son in law and Gretta her sister around Madison and they stopped at the Madison Mercantile for coffee and went to the Dairy Queen. They were enjoying the nice Saturday afternoon driving around Madison. When they got back to the house, Eli my 5 year old grandson was upset to find out they went to the Dairy Queen, so later Eli, Adelyn and I jumped in the SUV and off we went with Adelyn driving me around for the first time. It was an odd feeling getting into the passenger’s seat and my granddaughter getting behind the wheel. Eli was seat belted in the back seat and I think I heard him say. “I’m scared”

We made our way to the Dairy Queen and Adelyn didn’t know if she wanted to use the drive thru. I told her she could do it. We pulled up and Eli ordered a small cone and Adelyn pulled around the corner to the window perfectly. I told her, “Great job, you lined the car window up with the DQ window!” She smiled. We then proceeded to drive around Madison and Eli wanted to know what house I grew up in. So I directed Adelyn to turn here and turn there to show Eli and Adelyn where I grew up. We drove by the house and I showed them the upstairs window that was my bedroom. I don’t think they were impressed.

The next stop was fun. I asked them if they wanted to see where grandpa kissed grandma for the very first time. They both laughed. So, once again I directed Adelyn to turn here and there to get to the spot. It is across the street from the Madison baseball field, it is actually in the alley behind the house Roxie grew up in. I told Adelyn to turn into the alley and little did I know the alley was very muddy and soft. The vehicle started to bog down and almost got stuck. Adelyn gunned it and the mud started to fly. We drove by the telephone pole where I kissed Roxie for the 1st time when we were in high school. I told Adelyn don’t stop, go faster I didn’t want to get stuck, the alley was very muddy. Adelyn did a fantastic job of driving through that alley as muddy as it was.

We arrived home safely, but Brandon and Katies SUV was a little dirty and was in need of a car wash. I was very proud of Adelyn, she is going to be a very good driver. What I noticed was Adelyn was always smiling while driving me around Madison. It was a good grandpa and granddaughter bonding time.