Along Roads Less Traveled

Oft' I've traveled on interstate highways to reach my final destination, With white knuckles grasping the steering wheel in great trepidation! I whiz along at seventy-five and for my safety offer a fervent prayer. 'Tis akin to driving the Indy 500 speeding like a bat out of you know where! I prefer to whiz along at 25 miles per hour on a quaint country road, Enjoying scenery sans billboards and such in a more relaxing mode! I can stop by an eatery for good ol' country grub run by Mom and Pop, And browse among other peoples trash at my leisure in an antique shop! I stop by to fill up on gas and happily discover something rather rare; The man fills the tank, cleans the windshield and checks my tires for air! Fields of amber grain gently wave at me depicting a scene so bucolic, And a herd of deer in a yonder copse contentedly graze and frolic! A farmer waves to me as he tends his field of melons and cantaloupe, And I'm thrilled to see across the way a magnificent herd of antelope! I enjoy the witty verse of poets on Burma Shave Signs along the way, And faded Mail Pouch Tobacco signs on barns filled with scented hay! At the whim of each vagabond breeze, old windmills turn and creak. Timbers rumble as I cross a wooden bridge above a rippling creek. Although my automobile gathers dust along a road that is graveled, How I relish traveling along quaint country roads that are less traveled! Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired