Vanishing Point

I mean, this is one of my very favorite songs of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUmnTfsY3hI Perhaps I should have gotten an inkling when I tried to figure out what route to take to see the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River that inspired the song. Turns out the song was actually inspired by a drive down Clopper Road near Gaithersberg, Maryland (source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Home,_Country_Roads ) not too far from where I'm staying here in Rockville. I plan to take a drive down the roads in that area while I'm here. I'm concerned that it will all be D.C. suburbs now, but it's worth checking out. Back to West Virginia... alas, I did not care for it. I sort-of noticed while I was there, but I really noticed when I crossed the border leaving West Virginia for Maryland. My experience in West Virginia included lots of road construction, really short vistas because of how numerous and tall the hills were, surprisingly intense traffic fo

The last couple of trips in my van, there were things I could not do, or could only do with considerable difficulty, because I was in a tall, long vehicle. There were other things I couldn't do because my foot was injured. Unfortunately my foot is still an issue, but on this trip I'm in a regular car so that I can get around better in metropolitan areas. I hit the road at 10:00 a.m. today, feeling a bit wound up from all the preparations, getting ready to drive a familiar stretch of road for the first hour and a half or so. Slightly wound up and slightly bored. At the first traffic light, a dragonfly darted around my car, reminding me to pay attention to the details of where I am, even if it's familiar. I started noticing the puffy white clouds, the different greens of the trees, and the joy of just being out on the road. I stopped for lunch in Louisville and got back in my car, back in a "familiar territory" frame of mind. Before I started driving, two dragon