Monday, September 11, 2006

The Road Less Traveled

When I have to travel for my job, the trip usually takes me places that are within a day's drive of where I live. Because we homeschool our kids, my family often will travel with me. This has provided us with some great opportunities to see different parts of the country.

Our road trips have taken us across numerous interstate highways. Although they usually provide the fastest way to get from one place to another, they don't always provide the most exciting journeys. In fact, I often find interstates to be tedious and boring. Most of the time, you'll see the same restaurants, the same gas stations, the same truck stops, etc. along the side of the road. Time after time it's the same boring drive.

On a recent road trip, we decided to do something different. We decided to get off the interstate and come home by the back roads: the U.S. highways that don't see much traffic anymore.

We happened to be driving through Kentucky and Tennessee and I'd be willing to bet we got to see more beautiful country in those two states than we would have ever seen if we had driven on the interstate.

We even managed to stumble on a place that makes some of the best fudge we had ever tasted and met some of the friendliest people you could ever hope to meet.

If we had stayed on the interstate we would have missed all that and much more.
Next time we take a road trip we may get off the interstate again and start travelling those back roads. Who knows what treasures we will discover along the way.

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