The Christmas Joy Ride Read Online Free

loaded-up cars and trucks. The only image she could come up with looked like a scene from The Grapes of Wrath , but that worked. The Joad Family would’ve used Route 66 to get to the West Coast. Although it was probably just a two-lane highway back then.
    After about an hour, Miranda felt considerably calmer. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. At least they were still on the road, and the sky was still clear, and Joy seemed to be in her element behind the wheel. And sitting up high in the passenger seat looking out over everything was rather nice. “So tell me, Joy, who are we going to visit and why?”
    â€œWe have six stops to make,” Joy began, “to see people I selected from a contest I held on my website.”
    â€œWhen did you do that?”
    â€œMid-November. About the same time you went to assist your sister with her children and the new baby.”
    â€œI can’t believe you set that up all by yourself with no techie help from me,” Miranda said. Joy usually depended on Miranda for new additions to the website. But Miranda had been trying to show Joy how easy it was to do some things herself.
    â€œI just followed the directions you’d written out for me,” Joy explained. “It took me a lot longer than it would take you, but I eventually got it up.”
    â€œGood for you!”
    â€œThe contest wasn’t anything fancy,” Joy continued. “I didn’t know how to put up any of the fancy extras you’re so good at. And no photos. I simply announced that I had a lot of great Christmas goodies that I wanted to give away. I called it the My Route 66 contest, and I invited any deserving folks who lived along that route to contact me with their story.”
    â€œAnd you got a lot of responses?”
    â€œA couple dozen altogether, but only six that qualified.”
    â€œWell, six sounds like plenty.”
    â€œYes, six is more than plenty. I have it all scheduled in my book there.” She pointed to the red and green notebook on the dashboard. “I had originally planned to leave a few days sooner than this. But there was so much preparation to be done. I can hardly believe it’s already mid-December. So we’ll need to stick to the schedule and keep this road trip moving whippity-snap in order to accomplish everything before Christmas.”
    â€œYou said the people were deserving,” Miranda said, pressing for more info. “How so?”
    â€œWell, they’re all different. Kind of like apples and oranges and bananas and pears. I guess you’ll just have to see them for yourself and decide. But mostly they sound like regular folks who’ve fallen onto hard times . . . for various reasons. Just everyday people who are not feeling too cheerful about Christmas this year.”
    â€œKind of like me.” Miranda folded her arms in front of her.
    â€œYes, I suppose so.” Joy’s voice lilted. “Which is exactly why you are perfect for this trip, my dear.”
    â€œHow’s that?”
    â€œYou know how it feels to suffer, Miranda. You have developed great empathy.”
    Miranda wasn’t too sure about this, but at least it sounded good. She leaned back into the comfy seat and attempted to relax. Maybe she’d been wrong to be so concerned about taking a trip like this. Maybe it was just what she needed. Well, that and a good cup of coffee and some chocolate. Because if she allowed herself to focus on the sorry state of her life, she would probably slip into a total meltdown.

3
    A fter about three hours of driving with only one short rest stop, Joy didn’t want to admit that she was feeling a bit weary. She glanced over at Miranda and was pleased to see that she appeared to be snoozing comfortably. Apparently she was over her earlier panic attack. Well, it wasn’t exactly a panic attack, but Miranda had definitely been on edge. Joy was tempted to pull over and take a short