Stained glass windows

I drove to Columbus this afternoon. I love driving to Columbus from Griffin. The road through Pike County and the eastern part of Meriwether and on through Harris into Muscogee is quite picturesque. I particularly enjoy driving along the spine of Pine Mountain from just north of Warm Springs to the country store at Callaway Gardens. The remainder of the journey down US 27 into Columbus can be gorgeous. Today, as I drove across Pine Mountain, I encountered the changing leaves of Fall beginning on the sweet gum and poplars among the pines. A lot of the leaves are falling and you could catch glimpses of the valley to the south. Later, I drove through Hamilton, which is one of the smaller county seats, but the old courthouse still shows some of its late Victorian charm.

It made me think of some of the memorable drives I have taken over the years. I thought about the first drive that I can still remember. When I was around five years old, before we had moved from Indianapolis to Huntsville, Alabama, my parents travelled with Frank and me west to Illinois, where we visited some friends. Somewhere along the trip we passed a fallow field, in early Spring, covered in an orderly fashion with rows of the tiny mint-green sprouts of the crops planted there rising from the loam. Alongside the road upon which we drove there was a row of tall, thin trees running along the road to the left and the sun was shining down on the fields ahead of us. I don't exactly know what it was, but there was a simple beauty about that scene that caught my eye. I don't know where it was other than somewhere in central Illinois. The scene just remains in my heart. Like bits of color in stained glass, it remains a part of my life.