Country Cruisin'

I'd like to reminisce for a few minutes. Country cruisin', as folks from the country like to call it, is something me and my family use to do together all the time. When there was nothing to do we'd all pile in the car, fill up on gas (back when gas was still cheap), and travel way out into the rural areas of the tri-state area where we lived. We lived in an area where we were right on the border of two other states so anytime we wanted, it only took a few minutes to cross the state lines so we'd go country cruising all over the place. My dad would spend about 2-3 hours driving around and we'd all look at the pretty scenery.

Along the way you'd see several farmers that had little tents set up on the property next to the road or they'd have signs in their driveway that said "Pull on in, we've got fresh veggies!". So, we'd almost always stop and buy some local grown fruits and veggies. If we were out during the fall, we'd stop and buy some of that dried up corn in those pretty fall colors and my mom would take me to the craft store later that week and buy me some supplies so I could make us a fall door wreath or some kind of decoration out of the corn. We'd also stop and buy a bushel of hay, a few pumpkins, and some corn stalks to set up Halloween decorations for upcoming trick or treat.

Along the way, it doesn't matter what state we were in or what roads we headed out we'd always eventually come to a small town somewhere and almost every town had a little ice cream and burger shop usually called The Dairy Boy, The Dairy Delight, or something similar so, we'd stop and get us an ice cream. That was the part of our country cruise trips that we all looked forward to, the ice cream. My parents took me out on trips like that my whole life until I moved out on my own and even then, my dad would call me every so often and ask me if I wanted to come over and go out on a little trip with him, my mom, and my sister. I also have two brothers but, they're much older than me and my sister and they were just getting ready to graduate from high school by the time I was born (I'm the youngest) so, they didn't live with my parents while me and my sister were growing up.

Last night, me and hubby decided to take a little country cruise of our own. My husband and I have known each other since I was in 8th grade and he was in 9th so, you could say we kind of grew up together because spent our entire teen years together and then got married after high school. We are a rare couple because we've stayed together since high school and that doesn't happen much these days. Anyway, when we were teens we'd go cruising all the time. Me, my hubby, and a few of our friends would travel the back roads and sometimes it was just me and him so, this has kind of been a tradition for me since I was born, and since it has been a few years since me and hubby did this, we stopped at a convenience store and got us some snacks and drinks and went riding around. It's a good thing too because where we live now, we've only been here for about 3 years so we needed to familiarize ourselves with the back roads and short cuts around here.

The above photos are examples of what our local country scenery looked like. Did you and your family ever do something like this? If so, share your experiences in the comments section. I was raised as a country girl and lived in small rural towns my whole life up until a few years ago when I decided to do what I've been wanting to do all along, become a city girl. I did, and I love it here. As beautiful as the country was, I wouldn't ever live there again, at least not by choice. Although, when I was 4, 5, and 6 years old we did live in Florida in a city near Orlando while my dad was going to college to finish getting his degree but, I've lived in the country about 97% of my life.

For the Love of Autumn

Autumn (or fall) is my favorite time of year. I love the slightly warm days with cool air breezes flowing through your hair and the beautiful red, yellow, orange, and brown leaves all over. Several bushes wait until this time of year to bloom and I find that those bushes are the prettiest with their white, purple, and fiery red flowers. Then you have the rainy days where it's overcast or cloudy and slightly dark out. Not so dark that you can't see but, dark enough to make it feel comfortable out with no sun glaring down on your eyes and blinding you, and dark enough to make your home feel all cozy and dimly lit inside which is perfect for a mid-day nap!

Oh and then there's the holidays. To me, Autumns arrival is a reminder that "Hey, the holidays are coming up, get ready!". Also another reason why I love this time of year because shortly after Autumn arrives there are back to back celebrations. Halloween and Trick or Treating for the kids or, Samhain for those who are Pagan/Wiccan. Samhain is pronounced like sow-in or saw-in. Many people do not know this and they pronounce it like Sam Hayne. Halloween is a big deal for my family. We have all kinds of fun. A big Thanksgiving-like dinner, lots of yummy homemade snacks, a horror movie fest, and a trip to one of our local haunted houses.

Then you have Thanksgiving, a time for families to come together and feast until you're so full that you feel like you either want to fall asleep or get sick. And there's always plenty of leftovers to eat over the next few days. By the 3rd or 4th day after Thanksgiving usually all of the leftover food has been consumed and at that point you are so sick to death of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and stuffed celery that you don't want anything to do with it again until next Thanksgiving, LOL.

Then about a month later there is Christmas but, I won't get into that subject right now. I'll leave that for a future post that I'm going to make about the Winter being my 2nd favorite season. I'll probably make that post sometime at the end of November or early December.