The Road to Happiness

I have been enjoying the sights and sounds of back road driving in the last few days. It has been one good rural scene after another. And after the mild winter here, I have been seeing lots of quail, pheasants, turkeys, and any other kind of wild animal. 
I even stopped along the road to take a photo of a small herd of Texas Longhorn cows who mostly ignored me and seemed to be basking in the morning sunshine...

And since I enjoy looking at almost anything I see, I try to keep an open mind and see the beauty in a variety of things. However, I often look back into the past as I capture the images of decaying history such as this old windmill fan that serves as unintended barnyard art after a hard life of turning in the Kansas wind...

Sometimes I wonder why I take photos like these but is it is the simple primitive reminders of our not too distant past that help keep us grounded in our busy lives of the present...

 And as I pulled into a tiny town quickly on it's way to becoming a ghost town I noticed the beauty of this obsolete wooden grain elevator covered in tin siding next to it's old concrete holding tanks where the wheat harvests of many years past were once held...the structure had style formed by function and I liked it...

As so often happens, while I was parked to photograph one thing---I noticed yet another place of interest hiding in plain sight. And boy do I love old gas stations, especially the really old ones built on the "highways" that were never paved. Can you just picture in your mind's eye the early cars of motoring history  stopping here to fill up the tank was gasoline and oil?

 I felt lucky to find a place I wasn't even looking for.
Much the same as the way I felt when invited to a meal a couple of days ago when afterwards this lovely strawberry rhubarb pie was presented to us for dessert.....it was almost too pretty to eat....but eat it we did and there was ice cream too...

But getting back on the road and seeing the scenes brought me even more pleasant surprises like this old 46 Chevy pickup truck with the colors of summer decorating it just for me...

And the old iron bridge I crossed that had been repurposed if you will......new concrete platform had replaced the old wooden boards to allow it to stay in use rather than be torn down......and I liked that---

And last but not least are these two old relics of the road that have become land yachts in a sea of grass. I thought the Packard was appropriately named the "Clipper" since it appeared to be sailing like a ship on the calm water of green.........

And that is all for now folks. Thanks for riding along with old PF as we tour the roads less traveled and hunt for reminders of things that linger in our memories..........