Back Roads

A few days before Christmas, I went to the cemetery where so many of my family are buried to take flowers to place on the graves. It was a somewhat cool and gloomy looking day as I travelled the country roads where I came from. Reminiscing and not wanting to get back to town and the hustle and bustle of grocery shopping and finishing my Christmas preperations, I drove the back roads for a while. Alone with my thoughts and a few songs playing on my iPod, I slowly wound my way down a few back roads that I haven't been on in many years.

Not a soul in the world knew where I was at that afternoon. Farmall Man knew I was going to the cemetery and grocery store, but I took a road less travelled as I took the long way around to get to where I was going.

We had received a nice rain the night before, and as I turned down the road, I began to wonder if it was paved the whole length of the road or if it might possibly turn to mud somewhere. I drove a few miles without seeing a single house or driveway and knew if I came to a washed out spot in the road, I would have a long ways to back out of my predictament. At one place, I finally saw a fresh set of tire tracks and knew the road had been travelled once that day.

I enjoyed my afternoon of back roads and memories, even if it only lasted for an hour or so.