The Road Less Traveled

 

Roads......favorite roads.....not many left any more. I recall that during my earlier years, the main highway (route 53 way back then and route 231 now) through our small town forged our way toward the Kankakee River just two plus miles to the north. Once close to the river, trees tightly canopied the road so that our passing afforded us the pleasure of going through a green tunnel. It was one of my favorite spots....it provided shade in the summer and protection in the winter. Obviously, the farmer (a highschool classmate of mine) who purchased the ground adjacent to the road (and trees) found the trees an interruption in his plan to cultivate the field to its maximum potential. Little by little, those beautiful trees fell to a chain saw. I grieved over the loss of that tunneled foliage. The change is what we are taught in history class to label progress.

When folks talk about taking the back road to a particular place....what do they mean? I suppose it means the way less traveled. I choose to take the road less traveled often when I head for places north of here. County line road provides me a memory of the past; the distance of about 3/4 of a mile where the beauty of a canopy of trees awaits me. When I was a teenager, I would not take that road. The area had lots of negative history. It was supposed to be filled with ghosts and spirits of the sort that would overtake one especially in the dark. I avoided that area like the plague back then when my understanding about spirits was immature. I recall many of my peers, especially the boys, would go there just to tempt the legend.

I don't know when my opinion of the river road changed but it has become one of my favorite travels. As for bad spirits, I realize there are bad spirits everywhere but not to fear. The Spirit of the Living God lives in me and so as I travel through this beauty of creation, I carry the light of Christ with me. The Word tells me that when that happens, spirits flee.

There is an historic house along that stretch. It was called the Camerons place. My grandmother used to drive me through there (while I shivered in my shoes) and tell me that Teddy Roosevelt spent a night in the house while on a hunting and fishing trip. I don't know if that can be substantiated but I liked the story.

Yesterday, I went to Merrillville. When I go by myself I always take the river road even though the speed limit there is 40mph when the expressway that runs a quarter of a mile parralel allows 70mph. I forgot to take my cell phone along on my trip and found it to be totally freeing. Noone could get in contact with me. I thoroughly enjoyed my little jaunt over the river and through the woods. As I marveled at the beauty, I stopped my car, step out onto the road and shot a pic in front of me and behind me. I love the place and hope it remains a place of quietness and beauty for many generations.

In the above photo, just beyond sight, the road jogs and one crosses the Kankakee River over an old steel structured bridge. Should have taken a pic of that also...those are slowly disappearing as well.

 

Traveling away from the river.....another jog in sight and beyond that.....no trees....just corn fields