Our Shrine To Santa Garmina

Click on the pics to see them bigger

So, if you have ever tried to navigate in Europe, especially the parts of Europe that have roads and streets from the Medievel times, you know that it is not easy. Spread a big map out inside a tiny car and try to make your way around a rabbit warren of streets inside a walled hill town in Tuscana, where some streets are one way only, others are pedestrian only, many are too narrow for any car to fit down, and no one, I mean no one speaks English AND the signs are either not in English or not there at all! Go ahead, try it...I'll wait. Ok, your back. Now you know. So, at the urging of our pals Mike and Tori, we borrowed their Garmin GPS navigation system with European maps. Ever slammed your head against the wall over and over and over just to feel what it is like when you stop? That is the relief we felt when Santa Garmina took over and told us where to go, where to turn, when to stop, when to "enter the roundabout and take the second exit" and so forth. This thing saved our prosciutto (would have said bacon, but hey, Italy) more than once. Only once did Santa Garmina test us by trying to send us down a road that was literally washed out in a flash flood...we stopped at the edge of the rushing water in pitch black.
So, when we returned to lovely Roswell, where many people speak English, most of the signs are in English and we sort of know our way around, we decided to build a little Catholic type shrine to our new Patron Saint of travel in France, Italy, Monaco and Switzerland, Santa Garmina. Mike and Tori are coming to dinner here tonight (really, they just want their GPS back) and they will bow down before the sacred shrine. All hail Caesar and Santa Garmina!

The top of the photo of the GPS system in the shrine says "Santa Garmina, Save Us." There is a prayer to Santa Garmina under the photo which reads as follows:

Traveler’s Prayer to Santa Garmina
O Thoust who ever guides our path, brighten our journey with your ever present hand. When we were lost in the wilderness, you intoned your gentle direction. When we were hungry, you brought us to the feast. When we were naked, you looked the other way. O Santa Garmina, we beseech you, guide us to our destination, save us from bad food, and deliver us from evil and wrong turns. Amen