{"id":11820,"date":"2014-08-28T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=11820"},"modified":"2014-08-28T16:44:57","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T20:44:57","slug":"its-never-too-late-to-get-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/08\/28\/its-never-too-late-to-get-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s never too late to get lost"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Every<\/a>

Every time we see this sign welcoming visitors to Mazeland on Rt. 12, my wife Cassie laments missing out 20 years ago. Photo: Andy Bates<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a scene familiar enough to any family vacationer. As you approach your destination, as your child sits in the backseat of the car\u2014his mind lost in the limitless possibilities to be found in a week far away from home, his eyes darting back and forth between the passenger and driver\u2019s side windows\u2014he catches a flash of roadside attraction, locks onto it and slowly lets it consume him.<\/p>\n

The possibilities no longer seem so limitless because this<\/i> is the thing he\u2019s decided he most wants to do. Forget about going out on the boat, or going out to eat, or making s\u2019mores, or doing any of the other things you\u2019ve planned. If visiting that one place doesn\u2019t make the cut, it\u2019ll be the only thing he truly remembers about the whole trip.<\/p>\n

For my wife, Cassie, vacationing in the Thousand Islands as a child, that place was Mazeland, and any time we\u2019ve ever passed it since, she gazes at its sign compelling visitors to \u201cGET LOST\u201d and laments, \u201cIt was the only thing I wanted to do, but we never got to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, to be fair to my in-laws, they did take her. It was just that, by the time they\u2019d visited Heart Island and had lunch and fudge and perused the shops along Alexandria Bay\u2019s main drag, Mazeland was closed (or they were too tired to get lost and told her it was closed…the details are a little hazy).<\/p>\n

\"Sometimes,<\/a>

Sometimes, a trip to a maze is all it takes to feel like a kid again. Photo: Andy Bates<\/p><\/div>\n

Regardless, Mazeland was put off with vows of a return that never came, and for as much as Cassie and her mother laugh about it 20 years later, that missed trip wouldn\u2019t keep coming up if it didn\u2019t conjure those small doses of guilt and disappointment we tend to accumulate in life.<\/p>\n

So, with Labor Day looming and the dying days of summer in full swing, my mother-in-law finally decided to make good on her promise, and as we wandered through the cedar hedges, looking for hidden letters to complete our scavenger hunt, I could hear that childlike uptick in my wife\u2019s voice, urging us to come on, and the contented giggle of my mother-in-law as she dutifully followed.<\/p>\n

For my part, I was simply along for the adventure, scraping my arms on stray branches and squeezing through shortcuts I\u2019ve long since overgrown. Before long, the narrow paths and twists and turns started to nauseate me, the heat crept up my neck, and I began to feel old with every step. But then Cassie came to a tree in one of the maze clearings, and rather than seek out the bench in its shade for a quick break as I wished to do, she climbed. She found a thick branch and sat, swinging her legs and wondering how high she could go, and I\u2019d like to think it was more than just a lost experience she was able to capture up there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a scene familiar enough to any family vacationer. As you approach your destination, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11820"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11841,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11820\/revisions\/11841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}