A Nice Little PDR

 Yesterday Hilary posted on FB that she, Blaine, and the kids had taken a nice drive and had seen a beautiful sunset.   That made me think of the Sunday drives that we used to do when I was younger and Dad would drive us all over southwestern Indiana, sometimes into southeastern Illinois, sometimes into northern Kentucky.  

I told Gary that was what I wanted to do today...take a drive...just around.  When I told Hilary the plans (when they stopped by after church to do the chores), I asked if she ever remembered our doing that when she was younger.  She didn't.  I said "That's because your dad doesn't like to do that."  

When I told him about our conversation, he disagreed.  He said we took plenty of drives around the countryside---to check out the crops.  So I stand corrected.  We did.  It just seemed like it was always the same route...checking out the fields of our neighbors and then the fields that he had planted, or sprayed, or were close to harvest.  And we would end up stopping at his folks to visit for a while.  Then we would drive back to our house by a different route and check out the other neighboring fields.

Today we went to Monticello, on the premise of checking out the lowered level of Lake Freeman.  I had seen posts on FB that the water level had dropped considerably, and that boats were having trouble navigating, if they could reach the water at all.  Blaine told us yesterday that his dad couldn't take his boat out, and Clay's plans to be on the lake yesterday were changed because they couldn't access the water from where the boat was docked.  I sweetened the plan a little with a suggestion that we stop at the B&K for chili dogs too.  That was one of his favorite things about the last excursion we took to Monticello the day of his surprise birthday party.

As we were driving north on 39, Gary asked me where I wanted to go, which was the question I dreaded.  Ok...here we were...going on a 'drive around and see the sights with no particular plan' adventure and I was expected to tell him each and every turn to make.  This was not going to work very well. I could also hear in his voice that this was a 'well, YOU wanted to do this so tell me what to do and where to go' tone.  And it wasn't a happy tone, either.

We turned just north of the neat red barn that we can see to the west of the 39, on the road that leads to the Oakdale Dam restaurant.  I am not familiar with that area, so I didn't know for sure where to turn so we could see the river/lake and before we knew it, we had passe the dam and the restaurant and were driving n the county.  One of the roads we turned on was the north/south road between Monticello and Camp Tecumseh.  As we drove north, we passed several signs which would have taken us to the lake for our original purpose, to see the lake level, but we drove on into town.  

It's a good thing, too, that we arrived at the B&K when we did because their new Fall Hours were posted which showed a closing time of 4 p.m. on Sundays and it was nearly 3.  If we had been looking around the lake first, we would have missed the coney dog (and that would NOT have been a good thing!). We ordered a chili cheese dog, fried mushrooms with ranch dressing, and a large diet root beer in a to-go cup for me and THREE chili dogs, fries, and a large diet root beer in a to-go cup for Gary.  The mushrooms were excellent, the dog ok (I am not a big fan but if I have to eat one, that is the one I like best).  Gary was happy, though.  The dogs were great!

As we finished eating, he said "How about driving past our old house?"  which really surprised me because every time I mention something about the house west of Pulaski, he says, "We don't live there anymore.  We don't own it anymore.  I don't care."  We drove through some country around Lake Shafer, then to Buffalo, and because there was something going on in front of the Fire Station, we took a different route on 119 to Pulaski then west to our old house.

 To say that it looked horrible is being nice.  The barn looked awful, there were probably 5-6 cars sitting around, and I didn't notice, but Gary said there was a big tree down and waiting to be cut up.  There were people outside so I didn't get to see much.  I am SO glad we don't live there anymore, but I am sad that the place that we worked so hard to be nice, with the yard always mowed, nice flower beds, and things trimmed up looked so horrible.  But as Gary said, it isn't our place anymore.  And we are very happy where we are now.

Next we drove west to 700 to 200S and drove toward the school.  We turned off and went "around the block- country style" to stop at the cemetery.  We drove past Sandy's and checked out the fields there, then drove past Gary's folks house and checked out the fields there.  It was the first time we saw any signs of life around Leo and Agnes' house.  Two kids were dragging some branches to a burn pile and there was a bright red truck sitting in the drive.  

We checked out the field uptown, drove through Medaryville, then turned south on 421.  When we approached West Central and the four-way stop in front of it, I asked if we could drive around the school again.  Lots of memories came rushing back.  Many walks across the parking lot to the football field, judging homecoming floats on the south end, standing at the fence watching the games, announcing from the press box.  As we drove around the elementary, the picnic table area at the outdoor lab was marked off with yellow tape. I wanted so much to hop out and check out the amphitheatre in the outdoor lab where I took my English classes to write essays about nature.  Those were some of the best writing workshop classes I had!  As we drove along the front drive of the high school, a few tears came to my eyes.  For 33 years that was where I spent most of my time.  Now if I walked in the school, very few people would even know who I was.  I have been retired from WC for 14 years.  Hard to believe.   So many memories.  As a new teacher.  A newlywed.  A new mother.  A mother of elementary students.  A mother of high school students.  Student Council advisor.  Committee Chair for NCA evaluations.  Department head.   Teacher of junior English for 25 years.  Wife of the varsity assistant girls basketball coach.  Scorekeeper for the West Central Lady Trojans JV and Varsity Basketball teams.  Voice of Senior Nights and Homecoming.  So many memories.

Back to Francesville.  East out of town, just like we used to drive home from church, from school sometimes.  Then south on 39 to Buffalo again, then through Monticello, and time jumped back to the present.  It wasn't that different of a drive that we made frequently after Megan and Matt were married and Hilary and Blaine moved to Pyrmont.  And then even moreso now it is our route whenever we need to make a trip back to Pulaski County for a hair appointment or to go to the bank.  

It was a good day.  It turned into a drive that wasn't so much my telling Gary where to go or which turn to make, except when we turned just past The Sportsman so we could check out just how low Lake Freeman had become. 

Final stop---the Delphi Dairy Queen for chocolate cones.

A nice PDR.  

And we did check out the crops!

Note:  PDR?  The story goes like this:  Aunt Joretta and Uncle Dean liked to take evening rides when Sherry was little.  She would get so excited if one said "Do you want to go for a ride?" and if the answer was "No" then she would cry and cry.  So they started spelling the question as in "Do you want to go for a R I D E ?"   She finally caught on and would say she wanted to go for a P D R which was what she remembered (incorrectly) that they were spelling.  So in our family that kinda stuck.  A ride was a P D R and it is still a P D R to this day.  At least for Gary, the girls, and me.