On a Country Road

I live pretty far out in the sticks and must drive a fair stretch of country road to reach my house.  Over the years, I have had some interesting crossings.  I have also found some odd things lying in the road.

Back some twenty or so years ago, there was a stark white plastic bag that literally migrated around the countryside for several weeks before I managed to catch it.  The bag, filled with wind, skittered across the road in front of me on several occasions and tumbled off into the expanse.  Once, I saw the bag swirling up in a faraway dust devil.

Honestly, for a few days I wondered if the darned thing was alive.  Eventually, the bag snagged itself on a barbed wire fence alongside the road and I managed to grab it.

Early one autumn morning I found a whole (only recently removed from the water) three-pound carp lying in the center of the road.  On another morning, I found a bath towel with frozen eighteen-inch rainbow trout wrapped inside.

And sometimes country living can be dirty.  In the scandalous sense, I mean.  I once found, at the edge of the road, a magazine filled with explicit sexual images.

Late one summer afternoon, driving home from work, a pair of low-flying ravens crossed in front of me—one of them clutching a live three-foot bullsnake in its talons.

A couple days ago, I came upon the hoof of a deer in the center of the road.  Just the hoof.  I stopped to investigate, captured an image, and kicked the hoof off the road.

Strange stuff is afoot out here.  Play on words intended.

-- Mitchell Hegman