Words for Wednesday: Sunday afternoon surprise

Road trips.  Sunday drives. If you’ve been a follower of this empty nester blog, you’ll know for certain that the two of us love to travel by car.

I recently read this quote somewhere: “Sometimes all you need is a great friend and a full tank of gas.”

I agree with that sentiment but would amend it to needing my spouse along with that full tank of gas. He does most of the driving on our adventures while I survey the scenery from my passenger front seat.

Being retired has its definite advantages. We usually can just pick up and go whenever we want with little time restrictions. And that’s what we did one recent Sunday afternoon.

That day was a pleasant one for a change – sunshine, warmer weather, NO RAIN. We came home from church and as sometimes happens, we just felt the need to go somewhere. When you’re retired, you can get a tad weary of being at home a lot.

So, we jumped in our vehicle, ascertained we had a full tank of gas, and headed down the highway. Where should we go?

We discussed that but had no destination in mind. Just take a Sunday drive which we haven’t done much because well…gas prices tell that story.

The afternoon was ours for the taking. No schedule. Nothing needing our immediate attention. No babysitting our nearest grandchild. We were free for the entire rest of the day and evening.

We drove through some familiar areas in another county and then ventured farther where we hadn’t been in many years. Let’s just take this road. Let’s see where we end up. Let’s check this out.

On we traveled. But little did we expect to find a surprising sight. We came to a T intersection on a country road and our eyes popped wide open because there was a waterfall directly in front of us. A gorgeous waterfall not where we expected to see one.

But you know, the RAIN…we’ve had so much of it across our state this spring. And even though we were out of our own county, we saw signs of an abundance of rainfall everywhere.

However, we never envisaged a rushing, gushing waterfall right there in front of our eyes. We never even knew one existed in that county and I imagine it’s not normally so full of cascading water.

Oh, it was so pretty crashing down over the rocky cliff in that very wooded area. And the roar of it (okay, not even remotely comparable to huge waterfalls like Niagara Falls) was just so exciting to hear, somehow making me happy.

I didn’t think to grab my camera before we left the empty nest, but I did have my cell, so I snapped a few photos.

From there we traveled into a small city that I haven’t visited in almost 50 years. A few aspects seemed familiar but most of the town did not. Changes, progress maybe, but also some signs of deterioration and disuse.

But then I spied some church buildings that begged to be photographed. Old churches, time worn, but still lovely in their own ways.

Ethnic churches. Some no longer used for services. Some still hanging on.

And this one, with its beautiful entryway.

I captured a couple photos, we drove on, and took the long way home. A pleasurable Sunday drive along the scenic route provided surprises along the way.

Road trip adventures. I’ll never get tired of them.

“Always take the scenic route, you never know what adventures you will find.” ~ Anonymous

©mamasemptynest.wordpress.com 2024