Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Go To Town

Going to town is never my idea of a fun time, but I had to make a hit-and-run trip yesterday down to Diamond Springs.  I'd already decided I could do without groceries for another week or two, which would require going as far as Cameron Park.  I must say, however, that the drive was absolutely gorgeous and made it all worthwhile.  When the sun is shining at this time of year, colors just pop.  All along Bucks Bar Road, there are unexpected splashes of yellow from clumps of daffodils.  Once in awhile there are old, old apple trees in blossom, scattered where homesteaders might have lived during the gold rush days.  The hills are lush with green grass, and the red-and-white buildings on the Lazy B Ranch are a perfect backdrop for the creamy Charolais cattle who graze in the pastures.  Crossing over the south fork of the Cosumnes River on the narrow, one-way bridge gives a quick glimpse at the rushing, foaming torrent of runoff from the snow pack in the Sierras.  Being third car in line at one of the four stop lights in town and thinking that traffic was really bad made me laugh.  I came out of Southern California!  I haven't been back for fifteen or twenty years, but that was capital-T traffic!  How one's perspective does change.

Mission accomplished, I happily came back to Farview.  As Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."

2 comments:

Kathryn said...

I'm losing it - I started a comment about 10 hours ago and forgot to finish it! I've concluded that you have "Gold Rush Country Syndrome" - I've seen it happen to my Fiddletown relatives - you learn to drive on the mean streets of Southern California and migrate up north and mutate, and then you are officially a "Traffic Wimp!" And you should be proud of it - it means you have embraced that bygone lifestyle that so many city slickers can only dream of!

Cally Kid said...

Talk about a change in perspective. I will gladly and calmly accept "3rd car in line" status when I get back to civilization. Oh, just to see a stoplight turn green and then accelerate past 30 miles per hour. I timed the drive around the island the other day...9.6 minutes. But alas, I should be happy I didn't get stuck in traffic! I did have to swerve to miss smooshing a hermit crab which added .2 seconds to my time. Your drive to Diamond Springs sounded oh-so-gorgeous! Thanks