Wherever the Road Takes Me

I recently declared a Me Day, which means “A day when I can do anything I want.”  (I declare them from time to time, as needed.)

The first part of the day involved leaving the house at 5 a.m. and driving through the darkness for two hours. Great fun!  My plan was to leave the house early enough to catch the first minutes of a sunrise in the Smokies.

I was glad to have caught a wisp of fog at the bottom of the photo; that’s always been one of my photo goals.

I had wanted to take my Nikon along because I haven’t used it for a long time and was getting a hankering to shoot with real gear again. But alas, my propensity for misplacing things struck again. Although I found my camera bag containing the camera and every lens and accessory known to man, inexplicably, there were no batteries present.

I searched in every logical and illogical hiding place and finally did a panic buy from Amazon; they delivered batteries (free shipping!) in about 4 hours. But alas (yet again), in my hurry to order, I got the wrong size.  So it was just my iPhone and me on our 12-hour journey through the hinterlands of North Carolina.

I was a little ahead of peak color, so I didn’t get any leaf shots that I absolutely loved. I was mainly just happy to be out roaming the back mountain roads of our beautiful state.

I followed this car for a while. Isn’t it great? When I showed Steve the photo, he said it was a 1950 Cadillac.

I have a soft spot for barns of any shape, size, or color. Interesting that the sign says 1946; I’m assuming that’s when it was built.

Most of my driving was just on backroads, but I did spend about an hour on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I stopped at a few overlooks/parking areas, and this one made me smile.

I looked it up later and found that, in addition to the famous Grandfather Mountain, there is a smaller Grandmother Mountain, hence the sign. That was sort of disappointing to read; I was sure they had made a little ol’ parking spot just for us little ol’ grannies.

In the twelve hours I was gone, I spent one hour napping, one hour listening to music, and the rest in silence.

I know that much stillness would drive a lot of people crazy, but for some reason, driving in silence is therapeutic for me: thoughts, memories, songs, and prayers are free to flit in and out of my head as they will.

And then sometimes my mind just goes completely still and allows me to fully inhabit the wonder of the moment I am in: the cobalt sky, the grand peaks, the God-tinted trees, and especially the privilege of being able to take a day to drive–wherever the road takes me.

What about you?

If you declared a Me Day, would would you do?

Are you a person who likes alone time or are you happier being around other people?

Do you enjoy a random drive by yourself?

What are you looking forward to this week?