Country roads
Shauna and I left Maryland around 1 p.m. It was July 13 and a hell-hot day.
I’ve never owned one of those thick, spiral-bound Thomas Guide-thingies and I don’t have a portable GPS. So I Googled the route to Winton, North Carolina. I find it interesting that all those computer generated route-makers such as Mapquest and Yahoo disclaim every path they chart. I think Google should include some sort of backwoods disclaimer.
“Warning… this route will take you through winding country roads with no street lights. Cell-phone reception will not exist. Beware of farm machinery on two-lane roads that only fit one car. Don’t get lost.”
We drove by many a cornfield and past dilapidated wooden structures with trees growing through the windows, the roofs. There were a few historical markers, the most notable marking Nat Turner’s Insurrection that took place during the 1830s.
The drive was very picturesque. I think there’s something artistic about old, abandoned houses… leaning to the side, overgrown with brush… almost heaving with fatigue from a life on their feet, before laying down a final time. Other structures such as one church-like building seemed to stand mostly upright. They just appeared a tad bit worn after a lifetime of sheltering worshipers wearing their Sunday-go-to-meeting best. There was another church with a tin-looking red roof, looked like a long, tired old horse that had carried one heavy load too many, its poor back permanently sloped in the middle, kind of like the letter C on its back.
While driving in D.C. is not my favorite activity, I loved traveling through those wide open spaces. Even the windy roads were peaceful.
These photos were captured on the drive back from Winton, North Carolina. Shauna and I took awhile to get back to Maryland because we kept stopping along the way to take photos of slanted and abandoned houses and what I now call cemetery clumps or mini-cems: Collections of graves with 10 headstones or less.
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