Take a left, then right, then a left and another right

In a couple of hours, I'll get in my car and begin the 90 mile drive to our family's cabin southeast of here on the Colorado River. The drive will take me off the freeway about a third of the way there and then along country roads and farm roads, through small towns with single stop lights or four-way stop signs. I'll pass enormous round bales of hay dotting pastures, and idle farm equipment spilling out of the barns. I'll pass local grocery stores that are one tenth the size of my grocery store, where teenage cashiers greet customers by name. I'll drive by a John Deere Farm Equipment facility and a lone chemical plant that sullies the countryside view but is one town's main employer, and therefore provides the livelihood of many. I'll drive a lazily winding road with enormous Live Oak trees in the fields to the left and right and a few with branches reaching across the road. I'll pass a Sno Cone stand and a trailer with "Best Bar-B-Q" painted on its side and if the number of people there in the summer is any indication, the sign might be true. The roads will take me through the familiar and I'll mentally note what has changed since my last drive, where the progress is and where time has seemingly passed by. It's a drive that is as comforting and enjoyable to me as the destination.

And if I do not stop here, I'll be late for the start of my journey.