My White Board Adventures

      Ever since I was younger, I dreamed of having a white board in my car. I know that sounds like an odd dream, however let me tell you, it is quite a logical dream!

     Haven't you ever been driving, and wished you could somehow communicate with the cars that you are passing by? Maybe its just me, I don't know...but that is something I have wanted to be able to do for YEARS.

  So, this September I purchased a white board while on a roadie with Emily and Nate in Newfoundland. It has turned out to be my best purchase of the year. It has brought me hours of entertainment. So let me tell you a few stories about my White Board Adventures.

   Some of the best times of using this white board have been on the road trips I have journeyed over the past few months. While in NFLD I asked for directions and the fellow drivers on the highway were very helpful in answering my questions via my little 'which way is highway 1?' sign. It was wonderful. Nathan, on that trip decided it would be good to tell cars passing by us that Santa does not exist...He however, did NOT like the idea of writing 'call me maybe' on the sign.. what a protective brother he is. We got some good reactions with our signs while traveling back to NS, it was fun.

  I have used the sign to pick some of my friends up for the air port (like a snazzy limo driver) or just picking people up from school, with my arm out of the sunroof, white board in hand with their name on it. Its fun writing their name on the white board, and seeing people's reactions to my waiting around with the sign in hand. I love it.

  One day, while dancing to Bieber on my way to a wedding I wrote "ITS WEDDING TIME" and held it up for a car beside me at a stop light---they LOVED it and lost it laughing. I don't know if it was the fact that I had a white board message for them, or the fact that we were dancing our feet off to Bieber, who knows. It was still so much fun having a 'moment' with someone in a car beside me. It was brilliant.

NOW, let me tell you a story of what happened with the White Board this past weekend while driving up to camp for a retreat with Matt and Kate. Let me set the stage for you.

  I was driving our little civic up to camp, Kate was my shot-gun passenger and Matt was in the back with his guitar and lots of other little goodies which are good for a weekend at camp. We were excited about our little journey up to camp, and like any good road trip we had some good tunes playing (T.Swift and of course, the Biebs). Three young people on an adventure on a Friday afternoon.

  Since Kate and I were dancing in the front seat (I was still being wise and watching the road), Matt was writing messages to the cars we were passing by on the little white board. We discovered the people who appreciate our notes the most were those who were around the same age as the three of us. We had a few good reactions from some other young folk who seemed to be on a roadie themselves, which was fun for us!

  But there was a car of two young guys. They were in their early twenties I would say, just having a little journey enjoying themselves. Now, Matt decided to write a note saying that the car stunk like old cheese, and had an arrow pointing to the front seats...(kate and I). The boys LOST it laughing, Kate and I not knowing what he had written were flustered but went along with it. We played a little bit of car tag and kept switching positions as to who was passing the other.. At one point they were ahead of us for a little bit, so I told Matt that we were going to pass the boys so he should write a note to them.

  As we passed them, all of a sudden the boys lost it laughing AGAIN! They were in hysterics. Kate and I had NO idea what was going on, so we asked Matt to tell us what the sign said! Do you want to know what it said?---------"RATE FROM 1-10" with another arrow pointing to us girls. Sigh. Oh Matthew. We played another few 'rounds' of car tag, and then Matthew held up another sign in the mean time that said "7.5?" followed by another round of laughter from the boys. At this point, they passed us, but took their time looking in the car, while Kate and I were starting to get so flustered we even got the sweats! (adding to our attractiveness of course)

  We passed them again, but they stayed behind us for a little while, not passing. I was wondering what was up, so I kept checking my review mirror, and noticed that the passenger of that car was either texting for a loooong time, OR he was writing a response to us. I started laughing because I thought it would be SO funny if they actually responded to us. Then it happened. They pulled into the passing lane, and drove by us for long enough for us to read a note pad and pen response that said " DRIVER 7 PASSENGER 9"---at this point we all LOST it laughing. It was SO good. We just kept laughing and laughing. Who does this! Really though, it was awesome.

  After their response, I told Matt to write Hey Dude! The passenger is my sister! (which he did) so we passed them again, showing them our message---which led to another eruption of laughter from the boys. They stayed behind us for a few more moments, writing another response. *I have to say, it is so fun having to wait for a response from a complete stranger in a car convo situation like this--because really, they could say anything!

  They pulled up one more time with a note that said "Sucks 4 U"--for Matt. (since Kate, the passenger, their 9, was his sister) We all lost it yet again. They pulled in ahead of us and then were signalling to exit the highway and take the next exit. We were continuing on to camp, so our little car convoy was ending, however I DID pull up one more time to pass them, we honked and waved to one another and went our separate ways. It was the best way to end such a special friendship.

   Matt, Kate and I were slightly saddened to see the car leave, but it did bring us 45 minutes of laughter while we were on a normally dull portion of the highway. In our minds we would like to believe they pulled right into the Giant Tiger to purchase their own white board for their car..but we will never know. All we do know though, is that it was a perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon on a little roadie to camp.

  I love my little white board, and I strongly suggest that you go out and purchase one for your own car. It will change your driving experience like you never even thought was possible. Who knows! Maybe you could even have a little list of adventures and funny moments like I do with my little dollar store white board.

  I hope you have a good Thursday!

the driver. alli.