Do you say route like ROOT or ROWT (rhymes with stout)? I say ROWT. I think. I think that’s how most midwesterners say it…?
Anyway. I have found that I am always coming and going more than I am able to be “doing. I’d like for us to take more walks on the trails or picnics in the park, but it’s either chilly or rainy or on the nice days one of the kids is sick and so I’m taking it all in by driving the scenic route wherever we go.
We live right by the highway, but if there is a back road we take it (and there almost always is, because what did people take before there were highways?) The colors this time of year will take your breath away. You don’t even have to drive far- you’ll find beauty in any old neighborhood that has lots of trees (unlike ours, still too new.)
My favorite is always the red trees. If I spot a bright red one, some place in my soul does a happy dance. Today there were so many lemony yellows and for a minute I changed yellow to be my favorite, until I saw another red…
We had to take the expressway for a while and I just hope that travelers driving through here veer off on the scenic route. There is so much to see here in Indiana, but if you take the highways or the toll road all you see is truck stops and strip clubs. We have so much more than that to offer.
Is it weird that I started to think of it in Internet terms? The Internet can be a yucky, obscene, and fast driven space. But there is also so many pretty things to see if you get off the main road, off the Twitter and the Facebook, and maybe, just maybe, off the Internet altogether… just for a little bit every now and again.
It’s something I was thinking about as I took the scenic route today.
Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .
October 27th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I really loved this post Steph. These are such beautiful pictures of our fall here in wonderful Indiana. I love to travel the backroads too.
October 27th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Great post and it’s so true about the internet and the scenic route…err, rowt.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:50 am
I say route (rowt) but I’m from Kentucky so I’m sure mine still sounds different.
Lovely photos!
October 28th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I love the scenic routes, it is so much more calming to my soul, altho a bit more time consuming with the camera sometimes
Here we say both its ROOT when I am taking the scenic Route and ROWT when I am talking about Highways, I think here where we are in Ohio where we are on the edge of midwestern things get jumbled and there isn’t any one way people say it.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:45 am
I’m all for the scenic ‘rowt’!! My kids think I’m crazy but I’ll even drive a little out of the way just to see some more colors - I’m partial to the bright yellow. Esp when one just pops up in the midst of some red trees.