Country Drive

Never have I been so grateful to live in a rural area. Any day I choose I can get in my car and find a lovely country road to drive.

Country roads lead to building-free areas with beautiful skies and tall trees. No, I'm not driving and taking pictures! Remember the words "country road" during this post. I only saw one other car on this road. I was free to stop, roll down the window or get out to take pictures any time I wanted.

Country roads often lead you across country bridges. I often wonder how safe some of these old bridges are. This one creaked and clanked as I drove across it.

At the far end of the bridge was a large gravel area where I could pull off and walk back across the bridge. Even that was a little scary, with holes where you could see the water below. The bridge was made with large metal plates covered in asphalt and bolted on a frame. In the picture above, I'm looking between the gaps in the plates and could see water and the limbs of a large fallen tree.

I walked down a short dirt road that led to the creek. If I'm not mistaken the frame of the bridge is made from the bottom of old railroad cars.

It was a pretty creek. This tree is the one I saw looking down through the crack in the bridge.

Country roads lead to log buildings. I'm not sure what this building was used for. It could have been a barn with a lean-to or even a small house. I certainly wasn't going to get closer to find out. No, not me with the possiblility of ticks, chiggers, and snakes.

I'm not sure how warm this barn would be in the winter, but at least the tin roof kept the animals dry. As I child I remember visiting a family whose home had a tin roof. No ceiling or attic, just the tin roof over your head. I can still remember the deafening sound of rain falling on the roof during a storm. If you wanted to be heard, you yelled!

I almost missed this barn. I glanced back to look at the gate and saw it.

And then, of course, there's the red barn. Two red barns in fact; one behind the other. I've wanted to take a picture of these barns for a long time, but this one was on the highway coming home and there was no safe place to pull off until now. Someone must be going to build on the land. There's a huge concrete driveway. I so hope they don't tear the barns down!

When Jerry comes home from work he always asks "How was your day?"  My answer was "Amazing, relaxing and just plain fun!"

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"There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets." ~Samuel Johnson