By Bruce Schlabaugh

There is quite an assortment of wild animals in this issue of Life After 50. Lions, tigers and bears (oh, my) as well as a Kenyan rhino and sheep about to be sheared.

Somehow this made me think about German shepherds and pickup trucks. As you may know by now, my mind works in strange and wonderful ways!

But I digress. If you have parked your car in a big parking lot and, as you are walking toward the store, you might glance at a pickup truck with a German shepherd patiently sitting in the driver’s seat. As you glance his way, he glances back. He shows little or no emotion. He may be a bit bored. His expression reflects the question, “What are you lookin’ at, Jack?”

It seems to me that if he was given car keys he may fire up the engine and take off. My imagination is now running away with me. But still his driving off almost seems possible, doesn’t it?

Enter driverless cars. My mind wonders how I would react if I saw that same German shepherd sitting in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck heading down the highway. You laugh, but it could happen!

One day in the future, all cars could be driverless. And that will be the day that I head for home to park my car in the garage for good. Obviously I will not be able to deal with the strange (and somewhat terrifying) sights of such a modern new world.

One of my advertisers is Kris Monroe. She is the owner of Quality Cruises and Travel. She is pictured this month next to a friendly Rhino. You can ride along on some of her travel adventures this month. And who knows, perhaps even join her on a vacation in the months to come!

You readers have been seeing more features on our wonderful advertisers. Many of them have been in Life After 50 as long as I have – for more than 20 years.

This is our way of thanking our advertisers. Without them, there would be no free copies of Life After 50 each month for you to enjoy. We get to know these advertisers pretty well over the years and we thought you might like to meet them, too. So one by one they will be introduced to you.