I have the opportunity to travel for my employer, Southern Arkansas University, on an increasingly regular basis. I returned to work this morning from a two day trip to Little Rock during which a co-worker and I met with Capt. Robbins, the education service officer for the Arkansas Army National Guard, at Camp Joseph T. Robinson. Our goal is to foster a relationship with the guard that could eventually lead to SAU enrolling more soldiers. That’s a whole other story.

So while meeting with Capt. Robbins, he told us about another program offered through the base and offered to drive us over to meet with the coordinators. We accepted. He told us to wait for him in front of the building. “I’ll pick you up in my Prius,” he said.

Now I had been meeting with this gentleman for at least a half-hour. He knew how tall I was, so I thought he was cracking a joke about my height. (Some people are just jealous!) Sure enough, when it came time to get in his car it was  a Toyota Prius. It was the tiniest car I had ever seen.

I doubled over once and then twice, but I got in! He laughed. He said he didn’t realize how tall I was. My legs were supporting my chin. My head was turned sideways. The Prius was the largest car the captain had ever owned. He said that he thought the car had a lot of head room. It didn’t.

When we were leaving our second meeting to return to Capt. Robbins’ office, he mentioned to one of his co-workers, “You wanna see something funny, watch Langley get in my car!”

I thought he would have at least had a Hummer.