Yesterday, I took some time to do something I haven't done in awhile. While out in Philadelphia, it felt like every trip out of the house afforded a chance for me to explore and see new sights. What I seem to have forgotten in all of this is that there are so many sights and adventures that I've always loved back in West Virginia. So, I set out yesterday to rediscover some of these.What I love about this area is that I can literally think of a point A and a point B, and I can make it from one to the next without ever encountering a stop light and sometimes I can even avoid encountering other drivers! There's a place that a good friend and I used to always go almost a decade ago, called Oklahoma Road. This road, probably more so than any other road I'm aware of, holds a huge cache of memories for me. I hadn't been on it for upwards of 7 years. The route to Oklahoma Road is called Stone Church Road. This was a place I spent lot of time as a child. My father's family was from up this road, out in the quiet and still of the country, and I also spent a lot of time out here because it was where my close friend, Cindy, was from. I love it that this was a place you could hit golfballs and never have a further thought of where they could have gone...but this does demand an endless supply.
Anyhow, I came to Oklahoma Road, which is a dirt/gravel road, so I turned onto it and set out on a blast to the past. While it may have always just been a road before where many memories are stored, yesterday there was something more to it. What I realized was that this road connects two very familiar areas for me--Stone Church and Dallas Pike. These are places that I could navigate probably blindfolded. However, towards the midpoint of this road, there's literally nothing but trees, grass, wildlife, etc. No houses. Barely traceable tire tracks. So, what's held in this road for me is a whole slew of memories and familiarity, but it also houses this unknown and unrecognizable aspect as well.
So, the country roads of West Virginia are nice for several reasons. They can take you home, as John Denver would argue, or they can lead you to places of serenity and still where it seems nothing exists but the road.
