From the backroad

 

 Do you ever need to clear your mind?
 

Get away from people.

Take a drive.

 Lose cell phone reception.

 Make people wonder if you'll be back in 30 minutes or 30 hours.

Blast the radio as loud as it can go.

Sing along to every single song to the top of your lungs.

Make the fish jump when you laugh.

Simply enjoy the peace and quiet as you sit with your toes in the water.
 

Point your truck back down that gravel road and head back to the real world

Only to feel exactly like this sad looking tree in the bean field: a little random and misshapen yet still in the absolute perfect place.

Bambi's Momma

Warning: Don't read this post if you're one of those people who can't stand to see a dead critter on the side of the road or if you cried when you realized where hamburgers come from.

It all started Saturday night around six o'clock when I realized I had no plans whatsoever for the evening.  To rectify the situation, I sent a text to my friend Samantha asking her what was going on in the county.  She informs me that she, her husband Stephen (who has literally known me since my diaper days) and our friends Cori and Jake were hanging out at there house where they were grilling burgers and hotdogs on the bonfire. 

Game on.

It had been a couple weeks since I'd been down there and figured that was just what I needed for the funk I had found myself.  So I climbed into my truck, fired it up and headed 15 miles south to the one-stoplight town where Sam and Stephen live.  After a few hours of girl talk inside on the couch with Sam and Cori while the guys sat outside listening to music, a couple of us jumped in the pool for a bit and Cori and I even attempted a game of one on one volleyball while the guys sang along to old school and outlaw country music on a local radio show.  Before I knew it, The clock said it was 1 am.  That left three of us sitting outside talking, carrying on and having a little fun texting someone who mistakenly believed my cell phone number belonged to someone else.  We are an easily entertained bunch. 

But next is when the fun began.  Well, actually, it wasn't fun at all.

Around 2 am I decided it was time for me to head home since I had to be at church in 5 and a half hours.  AS I'm leaving Samantha and Stephen's house, Stephen tells me at least 4 times to call him when I got home so he knew I'd made it in one piece.  "There's a front coming in and those deer are gonna be moving!  I know how you drive and you need to slow down!"  I couldn't argue with him - a cold front was moving in, the wind was picking up and I do have a lead foot.  The last thing I needed was to mack a deer.

I pulled out of his driveway and waved goodbye as I reassured him that I'd be fine. 

Thirteen miles later, on the rural highway where I learned to drive with the windows down, radio on and a speed of 40 mph (I promised Stephen I'd go slow), something happened.

A big bodied doe came running across the highway from the corn field to the east.  Sure, I was able to slow down some, but he went splat.  Immediately, I stop the truck and grab my mag-lite to check on the damage, but the deer is nowhere in site.  I ran it over!  I felt the thump!  It has got to be dead.  Upon further examination, its fate was realized as my light hit the edge of my grandfather's corn field down an embankment.

Poor girl!  (Yes, she's a girl, I just covered up her girl parts since you don't wanna see those)  But check out those legs.  Dadgum!

But I know what you're really concerned about....

 

 Bubba the truck is on bedrest.

 

He's got a busted up lip

 

And a big ol shiner on his eye.

But it seems his nose is gonna be alright.  

Thank goodness for insurance and a good auto-body repair man, huh?

Keeping occupied

Mayberry is a small town.  Ok, so it's not so small that there is only one barber shop and a handful of stop signs, but some days it feels like it.  We do have a Wal-Mart (rumored to be the smallest in the state), five or six stoplights (two of which I question the validity of on a daily basis) and a handful of law enforcement officials who make countless trips from the previously mentioned Wal-Mart to one of the questionable stop lights countless times a day in order to make sure I live in a safe town.  Thank you, law enforcement officials.  Oh, and thanks for making me laugh my hind end off, too - but that's another post entirely.

Anywho, one funny thing about living in a small town is that sometimes you run out of things to do.  We have no movie theatres or super nice restaurants.  There are no hot clubs or bowling alleys.  Nor is there a racetrack or casino.  So what does one do when the television has gotten old and the internet is down?

We make our own fun.

Exhibit A:

We let our niece and nephew make a mess in the family room floor when we have absolutely no intention of picking it up.

Exhibit B:

We go a few miles down a backroad to the river so we can be at our happy place.

Exhibit C:

We also tend to travel threee hours into another time zone to see our favorite singer perform..

Exhibit D:

  

Oh yea, we burn stuff (those are my feet).

Exhibit F:

Do they really let exhibits go this far?

We drive UTVs blind folded.  Heck yea!

Exhibit G:

We hand three year olds explosives.

And last but not least....

We let lawnmowers fall out of the bed of our trucks and break their axles...  I couldn't make this up.

Now tell me we don't know how to have a good time in the sticks!

Dadgum Allergies

I had every single intention of posting pictures today... Everything from the mess my niece and nephew made in my living room over the weekend to a concert a few weeks back and also some random snapshots from summertime in Mayberry.

But, instead my body decided to have an allergic reaction to a couple of adorable four-legged canine friends.  Have no fear, I've smeared cortizone on my hives and have returned to normal breathing after using my inhalor.  Oh, and I'm strung out on Benadryl (such a lightweight, I know) and falling asleep as I type this. 

If I'm not awake by 4:30 someone please wipe the drool from my face and stick me with a cattle prod.  

Over and Out.  Or just goodnight.  It's whatever.

Mayberry in July

Today's list

1.  It's hot

2.  It's humid

3.  Don't even try to straighten your hair

4.  But the corn is growing nicely

5.  The river is nearby

6.  But on a Friday night, pizza and wings are awesome

Not much to say

I'll just let this picture speak for itself as a moment, even though brief, there wasn't a care in the world.

Why call it a phone?

 

I like this picture

 

And this one.

 

This one, too.

And ya know what they all have in common?  They're on my phone.

But wait.... there's more....

 

 My last oil change

 

Having fun with a guy who goes to my church.

 

A nasty storm we drove through on the way home from my sister's wedding.

Oh, by the way.....

 

She got hitched.  On the beach.

I have proof on my phone.

Whew!

I'm a bad blogger.

Very bad.

Why have I not said a peep in the past month? 

Well.... Mayberry has been kinda busy.  What am I talking about?!  I have been busy!  In the last month, my older sister walked down the aisle (ok, there really aren't "aisles" on the beach); my kid sister received her high school diploma; my darling grandfather had a pretty bad fall which left his hip broken, requiring surgery in the hospital a county away; flood waters rose and fell, leaving much devastation in their path; my lawnmower's clutch broke and it was out of commission for a week (which is never a good thing when 5 yards need mowed); our swimming pool exploded (did you know they could do that?); my college roommate and I may or may not have scared some teenage girls on a gravel road late at night and in a seven day stretch I drove 2200 miles.  Whew!  My brother has been informed that he's not allowed to pull any stunts in the next month.

With that said, I will now sort, upload and edit the coinciding 750 pictures I've taken since May 1st.  Expect to see some soon.

-Rach

In the city

You know the fun thing about leaving Mayberry and going to the city?

It means we go to the mall.  Which means we eat at the food court.

It's not this.

This would be what my kid sis ate for lunch.

I've never been a fan of Chinese food for some reason; the mere smell of it makes me nauseous. 

My niece has better taste, as you can tell.

But I prefer to stick to a refreshing drink.

Yes, I realize I can get a large Mt. Dew in Mayberry, but I like pronouncing "Sbarro" repeatedly in my head.

Rain isn't always a good thing

This is Mayberry and the surrounding area.

That tree has never been surrounded by water, and that pond behind it is supposed to be a field of freshly planted corn.

 

And the same goes for this gravel road.....

And this state highway.

A couple nearby towns, in particular, are completely closed off because of all this water.

Levees are being closely watched, the river is at the third highest level in a hundred years and many homes are submerged in several feet of water.

Schools have been cancelled all week, people whose roads have been covered in water are stranded and floodgates are being closed.

Churches have opened up as shelters and volunteers have been filling sandbags like crazy in hopes to keep water from doing more damage than it has already.

I guess this is what two weeks of rain will get you.