So!

         So!

         Yeah! So!

         So, today finds me in front of my computer, writing to you. It's wet outside, having rained almost all day yesterday, and Mike's tractor has gone out for its 50-hour checkup and oil change. No tractor = no stump pulling, at least not today anyway. I get to story write instead!

          When Mike's mower needed a new belt, he found this guy to repair it. Jonah came, picked up the mower, replaced the belt, sharpened the blades, cleaned it all up, and brought it back. Mike was pleased with the work Jonah did.

          "Where do you work out of?" Mike asked him.

          "Out of my house," Jonah told him.

          "Where's that?"

          And Jonah told him.

          Last week Mike said, "Peg, you wanna go for a ride?"

          "Where?"

          "Let's go see where Jonah lives."

          I was all in on that. I love country rides, old barns, and whatever new sights there would be to see.

          We started out going down the dirt back roads that would eventually take us out at Sugar Run. It seems like overnight everything has turned green.

  

          Near where the dirt road joins the blacktop I saw a Dogwood in bloom. "Mike, pull over, would ya?" He did and I jumped out and took a few pictures of the Dogwood. 

          Going back to the Jeep I see I was so totally focused on the Dogwood that I missed these flowers growing right beside the road.

          "What are they, Peg?" you ask.

          This is Cuckoo Flower, also called Ladies Smock, Milkmaids, and Fairy Flowers. In folklore, it was said to be sacred to the fairies and so was unlucky if brought indoors.

          The Cuckoo Flower is in the mustard family, is good butterfly food, and its leaves, with a slight peppery taste, were once used as a substitution for watercress.

          What do you think this is... was?

          No room for a car in this garage.

          Mike and I drove down this road looking and looking for Jonah's house.

          "How will you know it?" I asked.

          "I'll recognize his truck and trailer," Mike said.

          I was having a great time snapping pictures but pretty soon we'd gone as far as Mike wanted to go. 

          "Let's go back to where that lady was weedeating and see if she knows where the Petlock's live," Mike said.

          "The Petlock's?" I questioned.

          "Yeah. Jonah lives about a mile past them."

          While we approached where she was working, a red truck was coming the other way. She was whacking the weeds on her bank and had her back to us but lifted her head and saw the red truck coming. Mike pulled off the road as far as he could, but it could be a bad deal with the red truck passing between her and us. The lady raised her hand and waved at the red truck as he pulled into the driveway next door, never coming as far up the road as where we were.

          Mike got out and went up behind her. "Excuse me!" he yelled. She didn't hear him. "Excuse me!" he yelled again.

          She turned, a smile at the ready, fumbled for the off switch on the weedeater and brushed a windblown strand of hair from her eyes.

          "Hi!" She sounded so perky and friendly; her smile lighting up her beautiful face. I couldn't help but smile.

          "I don't mean to bother you," Mike started.

          "Oh no. It's fine," she said. "I'm about out of gas anyway." She was such a pleasant lady.

          "Can you tell me where the Petlock's live?"

          "It's about a mile up the road," she said. "You can't see the house but they have their own road sign. It says Our Drive or something like that."

          "I saw that road," Mike said. "Thanks a lot and you have a good day now."

          Some of the things I missed on our first ride through I got a second chance at, like this old gas pump.

          I was so focused on the old machine in the brush that I didn't see the painted rock under the tree. It says Petlock's.

          

           We found Jonah's place but there wasn't anyone home. Mike tried to call him on his cell but there wasn't any answer. There was so much interesting stuff sitting around! "Do you think he would mind if I got out and took a few pictures?"

          "I don't think so," Mike replied and put the Jeep in park.

          I got out and walked around. They had old tractors under roof. 

          They even named some of them.

          This one's name plaque says Gentleman Ex.

          And this is Belle. I'm guessing they used to keep cows in here.

           "There's a truck in that old house!" Mike says. "A Chevy."

          "Look at the old cars," Mike says and glances in his rearview mirror. 

         There weren't any cars behind us so he slowed down. "Is that a '66 Chevelle?" he asks like I would know. "There's a Buick and a couple of old Cadillac's." As we crept by, Mike all eyes on the old cars, spared an occasional glance out the windshield and review mirror, and then he sees the front of the Chevelle. "No it's not. It's a '67 Chevelle."

          Me? I'm all eyes for the guard standing over the old cars.

          But for you car buffs, here are a few more pictures of the cars as we crept by.

  

        

          And a last picture.

          And that was our ride-about!

          Let's call this one done!