I have a confession to make.
I love my dirt road just the way it is and I hope it never, ever, ever gets paved.
There, I said it. Now I’m ready to receive the backlash.
The dirt road leading to our house is long and winding, has a hill or two, crosses a creek or two and gets notoriously mushy and soggy and borderline scary when it rains more than an inch. Any time our county gets a significant amount of rain, people stop me with comments like, “Man, I’ll bet your road is some kinda terrible right about now!’ or “Man, I’ll bet you need a boat to get to your house!” or “Man, you need to trade that convertible in for a mud-boggin’ truck if you wanna get home tonight!” Then comes the big one: “Man, I’ll bet you wish they’d go ahead and pave that road of yours!”
I always cave in to the peer pressure and agree with them but deep down I feel like I’m betraying a good friend. I love my dirt road. And I hope it never, ever, ever gets paved. Here’s why:
My dirt road takes me on a slow, approximately two mile trek away from the hustle and bustle of my day and into the private little hunting club we’ve lived in for the entirety of our 19-year marriage. When you turn off the paved road and onto that loose sand you have no choice but to hit the brakes, both literallyand figuratively. Tall pines and scrub oaks form a canopy overhead and Spanish moss hangs in clumps like Mother Nature’s lace. Its not unusual to catch a glimpse of a few deer bounding across the road and I always slow down to see if our neighborhood gopher turtle (which my sons have named “Tommy”) is peeking out of his hole.
As I make the turn onto my dirt road I can literally feel the stress leaving my body, as if whatever got under my skin that day can’t make it beyond the pavement. Sometimes I like to roll down the windows and stick my arm out and do “the wave” in the wind. Remember the wave? That awesome dance from the awesome 80′s where you’d hold your arms straight out to the side and pretend a wave was passing through your body? Yeah, I never quite got the hang of it but that didn’t stop me from trying. And on my dirt road I’m the wave queen.
My dirt road holds a ton of memories, too. It's where we taught our boys to ride bikes. Where our oldest son learned to drive. Where I’ve walked a thousand miles trying to get/stay in shape. Where I’ve picked up pretty glass bottles to use in my stained glass projects. Where we love to ride our ATVs on lazy weekends. And its where I learned how to run over rattlesnakes with such skill that I earned the nickname “the rattlesnake slayer.”
I think it might be impossible to have road rage on a dirt road. In fact, almost every time I pass a vehicle I get a cheery wave and sometimes the driver (usually a neighbor) will roll down the window to chat.
It's been said that if someone drives up in our yard they’re either really lost or they really wanted to come see us. For some crazy, unknown reason, most people don’t see the beauty of a dirt road. But not this ol’ gal. I love my dirt road just the way it is. And I hope it never, ever, ever gets paved.
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