Just A Little Driving Around the Countryside

I never want to take for granted the views and scenery I am fortunate to experience here. Spring is such a beautiful unfolding of colors. Yesterday on my way toward Biltmore Village, in our rural area and in the city brilliant purples, pinks, greens, yellows and white blooms abundantly color the palette. The delicate white blossoms of the pear tree are beginning to morph into mint green leaves. Red bud trees are in full bloom and dogwoods are just now beginning to bud. Forsythias display bright yellows along the road or line the driveways. It truly is an unfolding and colors and the display of spring at its finest backed by brilliant blue skies as nature changes a bit everyday and the color extends for weeks instead of days.

On Saturday afternoon, after taking care of the remainder of our to do list we head out for the great unknown. Okay, most of it was known and roads we have been on before but we did have a little adventure of having no clue where we were driving because GPS was just the indicator arrow of us and we were in the midst of a green background on the screen. But I am getting ahead of myself. We picked up some lunch and headed out on one of our favorite drives. We stopped along the way for Roy to take photos and then we got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove on it for a while. We turned around because we actually wanted to go farther south and then pick up this little road that on the map, this should tell you it was wrong, looked like it was just a short distance from the parkway. On the first pass we totally missed the turn...on the return trip, we missed it again but was able to turn around and finally make the right turn onto a road that looked like it had seen better days, like in the 1950's. We knew we were on the right road because we saw the sign that said to 281. We drove past Christmas tree farms and just regular farms. The telephone and electrical poles were nearly bleached white. Roy told of his time working at Western Electric in the summer during high school and college and said, those poles have been out here a very long time without replacement. I think we were both a tad nervous but didn't let on but we both were quick to notice 'life indicators' along our way. Oh look a school bus sign...oh a lived in house...there were plenty houses and trailers falling in on themselves. We got the bright idea to use GPS to find the nearest gas station to see if we were still on the correct road. That gave us some assurance because by that time we were only four miles away from  Jimmies Gas and Go. Yes, in Canada NC we found 281 which took us to Cullowee and past Western North Carolina University. There was a baseball game going on and it was tempting to stop and watch it. A beautiful campus though. By this time we were needing a snack and we blew off downtown Sylva. We found a Shell station/Dairy Queen, filled up SequishShawn and we got ice cream. While waiting on our ice cream I watched a police traffic stop happen. No I was not videoing it or anything but the officer did call for backup so he could search the guys truck. I was ready to move on and just about that time here came Roy with the ice cream. Goodbye Sylva, see ya later. 

When we got home we both vegged for a bit. Riding for that amount of time in the truck without a stop had my hip hurting and Roy was ready to sit in front of the TV. So, I will sound self righteous and let you know I finished the book I was reading, Dime store, by Lee Smith. It is kind of an autobiography only it is done in short story form. I am going to reread it again this week.