Sunday Morning Drive





You have probably always heard about those "Sunday Drivers". I grew up quite familiar with the term never dreaming that I would become one of them. Yet here I am, finding myself on a regular basis heading out on Sunday afternoon with my camera to do just that, going on a Sunday drive.

I am not the kind of guy who wants to spend his whole Sunday watching football from pre-game to post game and not be bothered with the world around him. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a little football and I absolutely love baseball. That we will talk about in another post. I have found that I thoroughly enjoy getting out on a Sunday and just driving. Most of the time you will find me on the backroads, the old caliche county roads that are like a maze. You absolutely just never know where you will end up when you go with me. Sometimes my wife goes with me and sometimes she just says go have fun. She knows that when I get that itch, there is only one cure for it. When she does go with me she always takes a book along as a safety blanket just in case I get caught up in a photo session that runs on and on. I have to admit, sometimes I do get so caught up in looking for a specific photo when I have found some old abandoned farmhouse or whatever I have stumbled across.

This past Sunday proved to be a great Sunday drive. Instead of going on my traditional Sunday afternoon or evening drive, I went on an early morning drive. I am an early riser, I always wake early in the day. This past Sunday morning as I lay staring at the dark ceiling, I decided to be out driving when the sun came up. I rolled over to mention this to my wife, and needless to say, she really didn't care what I did as long as I let her get some more sleep. So I loaded my camera and my two grand puppies into the jeep and away we went. I chose to stick to some of my more frequent and familiar haunts. One of them is this old abandoned falling down house with an old fifties model Chevrolet wasting away in the tall grass out in front of the old homestead. You have to know about this house, you can't see it from the road and there is not a road that leads to it. I pulled up along side where I knew the old homestead was, looking for a place to pull off the county road. I slipped the jeep into the 4x4 mode and pulled off the road and eased up the hillside until I reached the old overgrown lane that I knew was there and drove on up to the old place just watching for any picture opportunity. The grass was four to five feet tall and you had to know where you were going or you could get in trouble in a hurry.

I climbed out of the jeep and began to just wander around and just slowly enjoyed the morning as it unfolded. I kept looking for that special photo, but it managed to elude me as it often does. I did take the many obligatory photos that you do when you are in this setting, hoping to stumble across at least one that you like, but this morning it was to no avail. The grand pups looked at me like I was crazy as I slowly and carefully worked my way around the deep grass and the old homestead. They were smarter than I and stayed in the jeep where it was safe. The air was crisp and cold and the sun was making a beautiful entrance into the day. It truly was going to be a beautiful Sunday.

After I felt as though I had exhausted all of my angles and photo opportunities, I slowly headed back to the jeep and put my camera on my lap and slowly drove around the old place for a few more minutes and then headed back down the old lane until it faded away. Then I drove across the ridge that led to the old county road and I turned on it and headed East in search of something, not really knowing what it even was. The sun was rising nicely by this time and the dogs were thoroughly enjoying themselves, my wife was soundly asleep in her warm bed at home and me, I was just out for a "Sunday Drive".