A Beautiful day for a Country Drive

Ah .... how I love Country Drives...

I remember growing up we took Sunday Drives or Country Drives often. I love the drives .. seeing beautiful places and getting a treat along the way. 

For our years in CA.. we loved to leave the inland desert and drive to the coast. Drives along the coast through little beach towns and then open vistas of ocean in between. Occasionally we would drive up north into the countryside through the beautiful winding hillsides and I loved the quiet and the beauty of the open land that was dotted with old oak trees. Over the years as CA has grown and grown and grown .. the drives became less with  less open land and the lost art of slowing down and not being in a hurry. Taking time to "smell the roses" as they say or in our case just enjoy the beauty faded with the people living there. Fast paced driving took the enjoyment out of country drives with people tail gaiting, weaving behind you or flashing their lights off an on. Rudeness has become the rule of the road sadly in so many places.

Well we gave a country drive a go this week here in MO. It was a last minute idea ..which in my opinion are always the best. The pace is slower here ..not by much in town but out of town it is moreso.  So we headed out a road we saw last week that would give us a 42 mile drive to Table Rock Lake. 

It was such a nice drive .. and I only had to pull off the road 3 times to let anyone by ..no flashing lights or tail gaiting .. just me doing less than the speed limit and trying to be thoughtful in pulling over so those that wanted to get home or to their destination could do so at the speed they wished.

Anyhow along our country drive the land and hillsides and vistas were just breathtaking. We came upon the small town of Galena.. and then upon this old but amazingly crafted concrete bridge that's no longer in use for cars but can still be used to view the river and the surrounding beauty of the hillsides by walking across it .. This bridge is called the Y Bridge which you'll see later...

  

I love old bridges .. they were so beautifully crafted in the day and there truly is a feeling of stepping back in time when you walk across this bridge .This bridge opened in November 1927 it's nearly 100 yrs old and still standing proud. It crosses the James River ..which was just stunning.  More about the Bridge here: http://stateoftheozarks.net/culture/history/bridges/ybridge.php

Our view from the Y bridge looking south down the James River. 

The bridge you see in the distance is actually for the train to cross.

 And here is the reason it's the Y bridge ..at one end it's shaped like a Y .. which allowed traffic on and off the why with ease. I love the shale cliffs and the beautiful trees that cover the hillside.. so picturesque. 

(the bottom of the Y split pict. from state of the Ozarks)

Hwy 425 the scenic Ozark bypass .. getting back on the road and heading south ..

We plan on heading back to enjoy this drive again in the future .. along the way we were delighted to pass by and make a quick U turn at the town of Crane, Mo. I had heard of Crane but never realized it actually had a sweet old main street that had shops and diners on it. It was late in the day so we hurried through a few shops which were charming ...so we'll make it a point to go back and spend an afternoon having lunch and homemade pie and doing some antiquing too !

Here's a beautiful Scripture pictures I created from one of the photos I took .. with one of my favorite scriptures .. Enjoy and feel free to share it.

Until Next Time ...