Taking a Backroad

photo by Bill Wakely

I think I've established over the years of writing this blog that I am a country girl. A farmer's daughter who just wants to return to the life of serenity.

I've been reflecting on this last year and the journey that has led me to the place I find myself. I feel like I'm so far off the main road in this journey that I may never return to it. However, someone said something that smacked me over the head. Bear with me for a minute here, okay? 

What if I'm supposed to be off the main road? What if I am supposed to be cruising the backroads of life with the windows down and the music up? Isn't that where most of the fun happens?

I have a lot of memories of getting in the car and simply driving with the windows down and the music up. My parents were always ones to do this when I was younger. As I reached my teen years, my best friend/sister of my heart and I spent many hours and more tanks of gas than I can count, driving on the backroads. Those were always times of laughter, singing with the radio, and the best conversations! Even as I've begun my life over again (more times than I can count), this is still one of my favorite things to do...drive the backroads.

It is the backroads where you find the neatest places. Fruit and veggie stands run by old men with a million and one stories to share, little Mom and Pop shops with unique items, diners with regulars who give directions by telling you to "turn left at the Hopkin's farm, go past the gnarled maple that was struck by lightning, then head east past the old apple orchard." The backroads are where all the interesting characters enter your life. And sometimes these characters are merely a butterfly wing's brush over your life. However, on occasion, one of these characters may set up shop and become a big part of your life.

So, I'm beginning to think that is what I'm doing on this life's journey at the moment. I've got the windows down and the music up, driving as slow as I can, savoring the smells, the peace, and the characters who show up to enhance my life. Learning to live, laugh, and love as I go. Maybe, just maybe, that backroad will lead me back to the girl I used to be.

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country...

But you can't take the country out of the girl. At least, that is what the old saying says and I have a feeling that it might be right.

See, I was a farmer's daughter and granddaughter. I was expected to work. Fun was something you did after the work was finished. I wasn't the kid who hung out at the mall with her friends. In fact, my friends seldom wanted to come over because I had chores to do. I was raised with this whole work ethic that you rarely find today. I've got to be doing something or I feel like I'm being lazy. And I HATE being lazy. 

Then, there is this whole country way of thinking. I love those quiet nights of sky watching. The stars filled the skies and shone around the beautiful moon in all the phases. Spending nights inside seems blasphemous to me. However, city living makes it impossible to simply enjoy the stars. When I take Diesel out for his evening walks, I get to observe the stars through the filter of street lights, but I'm also having to listen to the cars drive up and down the street, the buses running past the house, and deal with the neighbors who live too damn close.

I will admit there are  benefits to living in the city: my favorite is I can call for Asian food anytime and it will arrive at my door. (So far that is the only benefit I've noticed...food on demand.)

The other day, I had to take a drive. I was off to look at a different space for Diesel and me to live. I had to leave the big city. On this drive, I left the city limits and hit corn fields. CORN FIELDS and I cried...like literally cried. That is when I realized that I had lived in the city way too fucking long. This year is my second year and I am worn out, depressed, and so much less than I used to be. This new space was in the city, but a much smaller, quieter city. I drove across the bridge into this small town and took a deep breath. It felt as if I'd come home.I didn't get it, but I have decided to keep up my quest for new place in this small town. I would not be far from those back roads when I need to recharge my batteries. And I'd get to take that drive every single day when I return to the big city for work.

I'm a country girl, tried and true. I love being outside in nature. Taking walks through fields or forests is sooooo much better than the city parks. I would trade the smell of bus fumes for cow manure any day. And the country men are better, too, at least for me. They hunt, fish, play in the mud, know how to make things grow, and aren't afraid when their woman orders whiskey neat. 

Once upon a time, I had a boy tell me that he was going to add a level of sophistication to me. I tried. I tried hard. I'm not a sophisticated kind of gal. I don't drink martinis or Cosmos. I drink my whiskey straight, no ice, no water. I had a man tell me that I was his kind of woman because I come from a country background and I'm not afraid to put on some blue jeans and get dirty. He understood where I came from.

I'm a hard-working, hard-playing, hard-loving woman who loves to take a back road drive down a dirt road. And I'm not afraid to admit it! Give me a bonfire with a good bottle of whiskey over a club any night of the week!

What kind of girl are you...country or city? Tell me the benefits from your point of view!