I picked up the Alltrack from the dealer last night. My wife and kiddo headed straight home and I headed pretty much the same direction but had to pick up dinner on the way back from a little Italian place that we like. One the way back I was gifted one of the most amazing short drives of my life.
My wife and I were heading the same direction until I decided to hook a right and take a slightly longer route. Though this route is longer, it’s a much nicer drive and it puts me right into the center of town where the restaurant is. It’s a route I’ve not driven for a while but it’s one of my favorites. The last bit of it is a snakey hilly road that goes through a bunch of horse farms.
I have mentioned before on here that I have been co-pilot for or known someone involved with 3 separate wrecks in various BMW M coupes and roadsters...they have all been on this stretch of road...It is really fun, but there are a bunch of sharp hills in the middle of corners. You need to know where they are and be really careful, even the speed limit is too much for one or two of them.
Anyway I make the left onto this road. It’s a cloudy, dank, 70 degrees f at dusk and I’ve got the windows down as I catch sight of the cobblestone wall at the beginning of the first bend. Rounding this corner is like going through the “Wardrobe”. I’ve gone from stop lights and restaurants to what seems like “The Village”. More cobblestone walls separating huge properties, old stone buildings, spring houses etc... Not really coincidentally, M. Night Shyamalan owns one of the properties that I’ll pass!
Ok you get it, this is a pretty road that is fun to drive, but the scenery last night was absolutely breathtaking. As I said it was cloudy, but the clouds were thin and covering the entire sky allowing the red sun to be visible while painting the sky the full range of vivid sherbet colors. Those colors faded into a dark blue/purple, and at it’s darkest point was the moon just beaming seemingly casting more light than the sun in spots. Blankets of fog coated the surrounding fields, as the road undulated I’d dip beneath the fog for a clear view of the fields below, then pop out of the fog to see the sky again.
Road visibility wasn’t good enough for any real spirited driving but a cruise down a road I know well with some scenery that I will probably never see again was plenty. If I had to pick a song to accompany it, Led Zeppelin’s “In the light” comes to mind.
It’s times like those that make it easy to see things HELLA “big picture”. I thought, “how truly amazing it is for a planet like earth to exist at all let alone for me to be lucky enough to be on it, right here, right now.”
I could go to my dash cam to see if I could clip a decent still from this drive, but I think we all know that it won’t do the scene a shred of justice.
Happy Thursday.