What do you do when you are stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle for 30 miles? There’s a pick-up truck towing a horse trailer in front of you. A horse’s butt is sticking out of the back of the trailer, its tail partially hanging outside.
There is no passing lane on the uphill when the truck is going SLOW. And when you would be able to pass, on the downhill, the truck picks up speed.
But what’s the rush… you surrender and enjoy the slower drive. Provided you are not the driver but the passenger (as I was), you pull out your trusty camera from the back seat and take pictures of what you see along the road. All of the pictures were taken through the windshield, except for one shot from the passenger side window.
Leaving the windy, wooded stretch behind….on the open road again. It’s good to see what’s ahead on a clear stretch of road. White-spotted bambis have been playing along the side of the road, not realizing the danger they are in. While I was busy taking pictures, we passed one that had become roadkill, poor thing.
The farmers have been busy making hay but it has been rained on already over the last few days. I believe they can charge more for hay that has never gotten wet. But you do the best you can when the weather doesn’t cooperate with human plans.
Storm clouds are threatening again.
A large group of birds flies over the roadway. Is it possible they are gathering for their Southern migration already? That short panicky thought crosses my mind. I’ve already seen some leaves changing color…animals have been eating the ripe blackberries before I can get to them…I suspect we’ll have an early and cold winter ahead…again.
We pass farm houses, long fence lines, and a little country store.
When we come to this little white chapel, I notice that the horse had flung the entire length of its tail outside the trailer. Before it had been kind of bunched up but now it was swinging happily in the breeze. I point it out to my husband; there’s something freeing about the horse’s tail hanging loose.
My husband commented that I would have to write a blogpost about “horse butt along the road” and we laughed. But here I am doing exactly that!
You never know what you’ll find along the road or on Beauty Along the Road, for that matter.
Sometimes, a roadtrip is just a roadtrip and at other times, it’s full of life’s metaphors.
Annette, indeed , your post is full of life’s metaphors, that’s what I felt from the first picture on. “Just slow down and enjoy what you see from a passenger’s seat” ……like a meditation to me. Thank you for sharing your wisdom-words-pictures. Schoenes Wochenende.Cornelia
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Cornelia, yes, I need that reminder to slow down a lot. Sometimes, when I’m stuck behind a slow vehicle, I come up with all kinds of reasons why I need to drive more slowly: there might be a cop with a radar gun just around the corner; there might be a deer jumping into the roadway and by going more slowly, I won’t hit it; I get to see more of the wildflowers along the road when I drive more slowly….many advantages so quickly forgotten when we want to get from Point A to Point B.
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So, so true!!!
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Lovely! Delighted to have happened on your blog and I’ll be back to explore. Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox (give it a spin).
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Welcome, Thom, and do come back at your convenience.
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I so enjoyed the trip along your road, Annette.
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Thanks for coming along, Tish.
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Well it’s a rather lovely horse butt….and I enjoyed your stream of thoughts…..but winter, cold early and harsh? Surely not 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed the ride, Seonaid. Let’s hope I am wrong about that early winter thing 🙂
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So evocative! It draws me back to my years in Appalachia. I guess I technically still live there, although Vermont seems far away from Southern Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.
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Glad I could revive those memories a bit, Michael.
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Excellent metaphor for life as so many things are if we slow down and pay attention. I often get stuck behind these types of vehicles myself living in the country and I am eternally grateful for the ones that slow to a crawl and wave me around them when the road is safe. Enjoyed this post, Annette.
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Around here, you get stuck behind a logging truck, a tractor trailer (God forbid it’s their first time on the mountainous route), or a really old person who won’t go faster than 35 mph anymore, or tourists who don’t know the roads. There are some killer curves here and about once a month or so, a tractor trailer jack-knives in one of the tight curves. But I don’t want to scare you too much, because I want you to visit one of these days 🙂
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Hey, I’ve survived driving in the Dolomites!! I can handle western VA. You can’t get scare me off that easily!!!
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Good, very happy to hear that, Barbara 🙂 A Lumpenmensch doesn’t get scared easily, right?!
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That’s right!!! LOL.
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I love the simplicity of this post. You’re right. You never know what you’ll find along the road…horse butt and all. How long did you follow the horse trailer?
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Thanks, Debbie. I probably had a good 40 minutes of horse butt viewing time 🙂
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This is so hilarious! I love the title and the whole idea. We often have these strange moments that strike us in some way, then we just forget about them, but now you’ve documented it for all eternity! Haha. I often wish I could take pictures of what I’m seeing as I’m driving down the road. After all, some of the most beautiful things we see are out our car window. So often I’m driving and I can’t take pictures, or when I’m a passenger and can, the photos don’t capture what I’m seeing with my eyes. You did a great job though. I love the storm clouds and I like it that the horse’s tail broke free and starting blowing with in the wind. The countryside where you live is beautiful, as I remember from my visit. Excellent… and fun. 🙂
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Thanks, Cathy. You are so right, there are so many times when I am driving and see something I want to capture but it’s impossible to stop. There is a particular stretch of road coming up Shenandoah Mountain that has some unusual wildflowers growing on a rock wall but there is no place to pull over. I’ll have to wait until traffic builds up in that area after a tractor trailer gets stuck in that infamous curve there – that’ll be my chance to get out and take some shots 🙂
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So glad you caught this! Love it. I once got stuck behind a mail truck and then a school bus on my way to Staunton, VA. Biz trip. Fortunately, I started out early.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about those school buses! Thanks for your comment, Catherine.
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So funny, I’m glad you turned it into a positive and took photos of the beautiful countryside and the horse butt 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by and coming along for the ride 🙂
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Loved it!
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Thanks, David.
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I often take photos from a moving car. lol
I enjoyed your little journey following the horse’s butt. 🙂
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Glad you did, Suz.
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You see so much if you take your time… looking at the scenery…. having the horsebutt in front of you… 🙂
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Something to be said about horse butts….:-)
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Pretty entertaining, but a good reminder to those who can’t stand to be moving at top speed 24/7. Thanks!
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Being in the DC area, you probably have plenty of experience being stuck behind other vehicles 🙂
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Beautiful…tis true – wonders (and metaphors) abound if we just take the time to look! 🙂 be well. ~Karen~
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