Take The Backroads

I drive a lot.

Easily 3,500 miles/month.

I always try to take the backroads, which luckily, I can do more often than not.

There is something refreshing about making your way through cornfields, strawberry fields, horse farms and peach orchards at 50mph or so. It is much more relaxing than driving on the Interstate at 75mph and being passed by 18 wheelers.  I might have to leave 10 minutes earlier to get someplace on time, but I still haven’t encountered a closed, county road, but Waze has had to keep me away from several interstate incidents.

 

Stopped at 9:04pm on SC 4, just South of the Orangeburg County/Aiken County line. 

 

The smell of freshly tilled soil or even cow pastures is good for my soul.

This evening, as I made my way the thirty-two miles from the meeting back home, I drove, windows down,  through a large cornfield as the sun was setting. The air was fresh and sweet and since there was little traffic, I was able to drive well below the posted speed limit, breath deep and take it all in.

When I was younger, I never would have done that.

I probably should have.