Almost Heaven

I seem to end up with weird amounts of time between commitments. It often happens that I'll have a spare hour between picking up one kid and picking up another. It's not really enough time to go home and get anything done. I've got a kid or two with me, so I can't really just sit in the car and read, and I'm averse to window shopping because that seems to always involve my wallet.

What do I do? I drive!

It used to be more fun back when I was single and gas was cheap. I remember gas prices being below a dollar. I never thought twice about filling up my car and going for a drive. I would frequently take "the scenic route" to get home from a destination. I got to know a lot of the back roads around where I live from doing that and now I know some of the "hollers" just as well as 3rd generation natives. (That's an exaggeration, but it was fun to type!)

Now I do it when I've got time to kill but don't feel like going home. Last fall we had an hour break between soccer games. I would have wasted about half of that just driving home and back, so instead, I took off down the road with the kids. They love windy, twisty country roads! In fact, they often ask to go for a "roller coaster drive" because the dips and turns make their stomachs flip flop and they love it!

Last Friday I had some time in between picking the kids up from school and going to church for a party. I technically had enough time to go home, but I figured they'd get into their electronics and not want to get off, so instead I headed down the road.

It was about 10 minutes before one of them noticed we weren't where they thought we were supposed to be.

"Where are we going?"

"For a drive." I responded.

We drove for another 30 minutes before I asked them if they wanted to go to West Virginia. They were ecstatic. That made me a little worried. I wasn't taking them anywhere interesting in West Virginia. Just, literally across the state line. There's a little scenic overlook just across the border.

West Virginia for the heck of it!

A post shared by Rabia Lieber (@mamarabia) on Jun 2, 2017 at 2:21pm PDT

Luckily Frances remembered a time when we'd done it before and explained to the boys, "Mommy does this a lot. She drives over the border so we can look at the mountains. They'll we'll go home."

It was a beautiful day for a drive. The roads weren't busy. The radio stayed mostly in tune and the sun over the valley was just beautiful when we got to our destination. We got out, stretched our legs, and took a few pictures. I chatted with a woman on her way to Texas and Frances and Henry pet her dog.

After a few minutes, we got back in the car and headed to church.

It was a nice drive. I'm glad we got the chance to leave Virginia, even if it was only for 20 minutes. Driving is quite relaxing for me.


Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week 11 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado
Spatulas on Parade 
The Blogging 911 
The Bergham Chronicles
Bookworm in the Kitchen 
Simply Shannon 
Southern Belle Charm 
Never Ever Give Up Hope 
Part-time Working Hockey Mom
Climaxed 

My subject was "Road Rage, do you have it? How do you control it?"  It was submitted by Spatulas on Parade.