Sunday Driver

What do you do on Sunday afternoon? After church and after dinner when Mother Nature beckons and the walls seem to close in. Well, I do today what I did as a youngster. I go for a ride.

Some of my earliest memories are of Sunday afternoon rides. Early recollections of these outings most often included Grandpa and/or Grandma Minnie.

There was a time when I was the only child left at home or when the older children had other, more pressing, things to do on Sunday afternoon. One of my favorite reoccurring outings took place a little later in time and it would also include Grandma Minnie, we would often have her over for church and Sunday dinner and then set out in the early afternoon traveling up Mink Creek Road (past where dad would later build a home) and into the Caribou National Forest. The Scout Mountain turn-off or the south fork of Mink Creek both offered dirt roads that were maintained well enough to allow travel in one of our late ‘60’s or early ‘70’s Chryslers. The mountain spring flowers or fall colors or something in between always seemed to be our objective. The hidden benefit of our outings is the memories I carry to this day of Dad walking up an old service road, Mom enjoying the sun (inside the 98º car), Grandma relaying stories from her early years of camping or fishing or life with Grandpa in their younger years in Bear Lake,  Bridger Wyoming, and Randolph Utah.

Over the years I have used the Sunday afternoon ride concept (usually pursued as a ride / walk / ride scenario) to get a grip on a current situation or to just take in the attraction of the great outdoors. Kathy and I have on countless occasions, in a car or on a motorcycle, visited these same locations as well as others found in the various places we have lived over the years. Some of the more memorable places I can recall are:

• Monte Cristo pass behind our house in Woodruff Utah
• Mountain drives around Delores Colorado
• Around the docks or up to the column in Astoria Oregon
• To the beach in Seaside Oregon
• The fish hatchery near Rifle Colorado
• Through the Tahoe National Forest above Foresthill California

Serving in the Historic Sites of Nauvoo Illinois, as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the past two months has added a couple of new favorites:

• Walks around the “flats” of old Nauvoo, weaving through the historic structures that housed the Saints in the 1830’s and ‘40’s. It is a lasting memorial to those who were forced to leave everything they loved, to seek the peace that they would find in the Salt Lake Valley. Walking down Parley Street or along the River makes their determined character a very tangible thing, but the senses are filled with wildlife and the always present view of the Temple.
• The twelve miles of River Road that stretched between Nauvoo and Keokuk, Iowa to the south. It is a gift that just keeps giving. There are many turnouts along the way that offer an overview of the Mississippi and the abundance of eagles, water birds and wildlife that live on the offerings of the river environment.   

These places are all fond memories, but they do not discount the therapeutic effect of a short drive around the local neighborhood on any sunny day, Sunday or not, just to take in the sights, clear the mind and enjoy the feast that Mother Nature offers us all year. So, think of your own afternoon outings and the images that surface the next time you hear (or growl) the term “Sunday Driver”.