"Country Roads, Take Me Home"

I hope you sang that. I sure did. That song has a fond place in my heart because it was the second song that I learned on my guitar that I could sing along with. (Red River Valley was the first.)

Recently, we were steered off the normal path that we take home, onto a new route. This new set of roads were winding, country backroads, the kind that make you feel like you're driving through people's yards.

This adventure through the woods, coupled with the record-breaking low temperature and drizzling rain, made us feel like we were in the Pacific Northwest. Never would one have guessed that we were in Arkansas in mid-July!

We saw dogs that were mixtures of all different sorts of breeds, combinations which I'm likely never to see again.

The highest point of all this was when we drove THROUGH AN ORCHARD! First, I noticed nice little rows of trees and proclaimed that it was, "A TREE FARM!"
Then, the trees got bigger and had small green fruits and I exclaimed, "AN APPLE ORCHARD!" Finally those gave way to trees with large, juicy peaches that were yelling at me, "PICK US! EAT US!"

My mom, the realistic one of us, calmly said that it must be one of the local orchards (there are two).

As we were about to exit that road, my mom pointed out a road to the left, which, after I researched it, is the road where the ELEPHANT SANCTUARY IS!
YES, YOU HEARD CORRECTLY. THERE IS AN ELEPHANT SANCTUARY AND IT'S ONLY LESS THAN TEN MINUTES AWAY FROM PUMPKIN ROSE FARM.
Okay, I'm done yelling now. It's just so exciting. Maybe one day I'll get around to asking if they'd let me volunteer.

When we had returned to the farm, I found sunflowers aplenty.

One even took the age-old advice to "bloom where you're planted."

 Okay, so this one actually made its own motto: "If you get knocked to the ground during a nasty storm, don't give up. Just keep growing." I wish I could do the same.

Here's to small, unexpected adventures!