From One Extreme to the Other

It’s been six months since we took a road trip. We have been very cautious since the pandemic due to our age and the general trends. The last time was at Thanksgiving to visit our family in central Virginia. So we were looking forward to spending time with them for the weekend. Our grandson just finished his first year at college and wouldn’t be around this summer so it was good timing. It’s about a three hour drive if all goes well. The time to travel is shorter now since we live in northern Virginia instead of Capitol Hill. Just getting out of the city is at least a half an hour more. What we like to see most is the total difference in surroundings - from construction zones and heavy traffic leaving and upon our return compared to the tranquility of the more rural landscape. And no where is it more obvious the further south we go - from I495 to I66 to 29S through Charlottesville and one hour more after that. The flat land, congestion and freeways turn in to rolling meadows, farmland, mountains, and tranquility. The time went by very quickly and the ride back was just there hours flat on a Monday morning. We missed rush hour and it makes a big difference. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another six months to visit. It’s like night and day in more ways than one. 

From the Back Roads to the City

When I retired three years ago we took a cross country road trip from DC to California along a southern route. The next year we took another cross country trip from DC to Washington state on a northern route. Now we can say we have been in all of the 48 states and really don’t have any desire to see Hawaii or Alaska. Depending on who is driving, I sometimes miss interesting photo ops. More often than not it seems that  the best scenes I see are when I’m driving so I can’t take the pictures. It’s a wonderful time driving from point A to point B - both my husband and I love driving around. So when we went to visit our family in mid Virginia last weekend, we stopped at Walton’s Mountain in Schuyler and have since watched the first episode of the series to refresh my memory of it. We were on the back roads getting there, but I was driving and missed several great shots. Driving back home we took in the sights of the road primarily on US 29. We didn’t have a chance to go the back way this time. But there are always scenes of interest - farms, cows, corn, shops, homes - a very different vibe from what either of us are used to. My husband always says he would go crazy in a small or rural place. I’m not so sure. I suppose it all looks “nostalgic.” I wonder how the folks who live there really feel about it.