Dinata Misovec

We were deciding what to do for the day. When we narrowed it down to the museum or a drive through the mountains, Christopher decided a journey and a picnic would be perfect. We packed a bag of food and snacks and a bag of drinks. Then we headed to the grocery store to fill out the menu. Finally, we headed uphill on a road we had not taken before. Christopher is quite familiar with it, though.

Christopher and Andy were in the front, and I sat in the backseat where it is was difficult to see the road ahead. Eventually, I moved to the center. I could see the scenery better but not the road. Christopher was driving much faster than I would, and I was apoplectic when he went around the tight curves with a dropoff at the edge and I could not see the road ahead.

The scenery was gorgeous, mountains, trees, sky, cattle, and, rarely, a house. At first, the road was paved and lined. Then it became paved with no lines. Pretty soon, the road was narrow with no shoulder. The pavement became gravel. The gravel road turned into some gravel on dirt. I was terrified that we were going to meet an oncoming vehicle and wondered how long we would roll before coming to a stop. From my vantage point in the back seat, the road did not look wide enough for Christopher’s pickup truck, much less wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. We did encounter a couple vehicles and passed with no trouble.

We had gone a long way when Christopher said we might see goats around the next bend. Sure enough, a large herd of, maybe, fifty or more goats was ambling across the road. We stopped to watch them pass. They were small goats and even smaller kids. This was before the road got narrow.

The scenery was of brown grass and scattered trees when we were at the higher elevations.

We often saw mountain ridges in the distance.

We were all starving and decided to stop for lunch. There were not many places to pull off the road. Christopher pulled into a wide shoulder, but there was no shade. This stop was probably someone’s driveway, and it offered shade a few yards off the road.

That is the road there at the end of the blackberry-lined drive.

I whined about Christopher driving so fast while we ate, so he slowed down for the return trip. That enabled me to take a few more pictures. He would stop when I asked him too.

Next time, I will ask Christopher to wash his windshield before I try to take pictures through it.

I kept the canister of cheese balls tucked safely between my feet.

We saw a small shower in the distance.

That rockslide is over the narrow road we had to pass.

I was relieved when the road turned back into a gravel road even though it still didn’t look wide enough to pass anyone from where I was sitting. Christopher took this picture, and now I see the road is wider than I thought.

Christopher also took this picture of that tree on the ridge.

This ranch house sits very close to the road. It looks ever-so-charming. There were also artistic wrought-iron gates on the pastures.

When we crossed back over to the ocean side of the mountains, we could see a thick layer of fog rolling it. I got out of the truck to take a couple pictures.

We stopped a picked blackberries and Cordelia’s mother’s house. It only took a few minutes to fill my colander. Then we picked some apples. I made a double-batch cobbler. Next, it will be an apple pie.