I am working up places to go on Saturday. Gorgeous, flowery, woodsy places, where nobody much goes but my wife, myself and our dear friend G. Places in out of the way state parks, lost in east Texas.
I used to take drives from Little Rock up north into the Ouachita National Forest, on a remote gravel road nobody but me seemed to travel. I'd gasp at the beauty. I took my friend Tim along once, and he was as enrapt as I was. The road came out just outside Hot Springs, where the woodlands cling to fold mountains, and everything is just lovely.
I like that sense of driving down roads so obscure that only a few people drive them. I like the scenes of departed towns, decaying barns, staunch little churches that only a very few still attend.
Giant swallowtails. Blooming wildflowers. Good company. Deep woods. Staring off in the distance, just relaxing.