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Sunday
Drive
by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 1996. All rights reserved. A Sunday Drive usually begins after breakfast, but before lunch, and often just after church when the sun is still laying shadows across the fields. It can happen unexpectedly, like one of those soft summer showers that seem to emerge magically from a clear sky, or it can be a planned outing with a picnic carefully packed in the trunk. Sometimes whole families will take a Sunday Drive, just like they used to back when gas was cheap and travel was recreation. More often, though, it's just a couple or a lone driver who decide for no particular reason to go wandering.
You'll know these folks by their sun-bronzed forearms resting atop drawn-down windows and their willingness to wave at passersby. Sometimes they'll be stopped side by side in the middle of the road facing opposite directions and jawing at each other across the center line. Most Sunday Drives have no map or destination to guide their course. They begin on a whim and follow chance more than design. Someone says, "What's down that road?" and a new track is taken. If you plan your route or plot the direction of your travel then you are preparing for a tour, not a Sunday Drive.
Can you plan for the cast of sunshine across the land or the chance meeting of an old friend along the way? Despite its name, a Sunday Drive can happen any day of the week and in any season of the year. Some even occur at night, especially when the moon is full and the crickets are singing. The only requirements are a vehicle, a calm hand at the wheel and a thirst for adventure. "...light-hearted I take to the open road," wrote a wandering Walt Whitman setting forth on a 19th century equivalent of a Sunday Drive. "Healthy, free, the world before me, "The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose." |
Rural Delivery Commentaries and advice on rural living by Michael Hofferber Visit the Rural Delivery Blog  Sunday Drive Audio CD  Out for a Sunday Drive  Sunday Drive by Guillermo Forchino  HO scale Sunday Drive by Woodland Scenics |