I had the adventure of driving to Newport last evening to do a presentation for the Newport Lions Club. Driving towards the Newport Bridge was awe-inspiring. The white lights lit up not only the bridge, but the sky around it, making it surreal, almost extra-terrestrial. Zipping along at a good pace, it was great fun to zip past the traffic with the EZ Pass sitting proudly on my dashboard. As soon as the car cleared the toll area, red and green lights seemed to multiply. It seemed a little early to decorate for Christmas as Halloween was not even over! Then the lane narrowed; narrowed to the size of a parking spot for a small car. Frantic, with the white lights from above not reaching the skinny roadway, I slowed to a crawl afraid of scraping the sides of my car on the Jersey barriers. It was soon evident that the bright red and green lights overhead were to monitor which lane was open. It seemed superfluous because I didn't have any choice, the narrow road would not allow me to escape into a red light lane even if I wanted to. A little bit further down, a bright yellow arrow pointed for me to move over into a lane which was littered with strewn orange safety cones. Fortunately this part of the road was a little bit bigger because I had to weave back and forth to keep from hitting the obstacles. Up ahead there was one, lone safety cone standing tall and straight. I had to hold my aggravation in to keep from swerving over and flattening the offensive orange piece of plastic! More red and green lane lights, yellow caution lights, orange lights on the construction trucks and then the workers were flashing purple-lighted sticks at me.

Red, yellow, green, purple and white lights flashed around like fireworks. Relief washed over me when the bridge came to an end and I exited onto Admiral Kalbfus Road. But then...total darkness. The over stimulation of the lights on the bridge was a stark contrast to the lack of lighting at the end of the exit. It was a complete shock that the Newport Grand Casino was closed. Nostalgia set in, although I had only visited the casino once or twice, my dad had loved the Jai Alai that played in the original building. Alas, to his disappointment, that betting sport went the way of the dog races.

I passed the building to get to the Newport Lions Club meeting. Once at the banquet facility, the elderly Maitre D instructed me to go to the room "on the right” and I entered the banquet room full of about 100 people of all shapes and sizes. Being a guest speaker for a group, which I have never met can be a challenge, but this seemed to be especially daunting. Asking a well coifed woman to point to the president, I boldly walked over to him and said, “Hi, I'm Linda Petersen.” The president looked me right in the eye and said, "So what?" and walked away. By now everyone sitting nearby was paying attention, whispering, "Who the hell is Linda Petersen?" Mortified, I quickly exited the room and sat in the lobby, almost in tears. I texted the man who had arranged for my presentation and explained my predicament. Within two minutes, a tall, slim gentleman dressed in a Halloween shirt with orange suspenders and wearing a pumpkin hat came towards me. "Are you Linda?" he asked, and I shook my head. "They moved our room; we are over here now." Relief washed over me as I followed him to a room where I was greeted by a sea of smiling faces and appreciation that I had traveled "so far" to come speak with them.

Long story short, the presentation went very well and I left with a smile; a smile that lasted throughout the treacherous drive back across the Newport Bridge. "All's well that ends well!”