Yesterday, July 17, I had both a physical therapy appointment in Greenfield and a car repair appointment in WCH. With a two hour separation, I decided to take advantage of the blue skies and drive the hills around South Salem and take the back roads to Court House.
The trip began with driving to Salem via Lower Twin Rd and doing the covered bridge. In town, I turned onto Mt. Olive Rd and then Salem Rd over to SR 41. Most of that was as I recall from recent years, a few new homes along with a few in greater disrepair. Before SR 41 I turned left onto Upper Twin and at the top of the hill, I turned left onto Mt. Olive and stopped for a few minutes to take in what is one of the most spectacular views in our area, the valley below that stretches well beyond Good Hope in the far distance. I always wanted to build a home looking North at that location.
Mt. Olive brought me back into Salem and I turned right onto Lower Twin Rd and proceeded to Morgan Rd. It was at the corner of these two roads where I saw my first Ohio deer in 1970 while driving my school bus route. It was in the middle of the road and when it saw my yellow brick it leaped a fence and disappeared into the closest woods.
Morgan Rd. has changed a lot. When I drove a bus on it, it was all dirt and at times dangerous. I succeed in putting my bus into a ditch on two successive days and at the end of the year was presented a trophy, courtesy of Norman Gingerich, and Dave Watts, of a bus being pulled by a wrecker. Several of the homes I picked up kids at have since been torn down.
At SR 28 I turned left to Westfall Rd. and then left onto Parrot, which was a part of Joe Current’s route. I wound my way over those hills and at SR 138 I turned left to Lyndon Rd. where I turned right and made my way to Good Hope.
Years ago some wise sage advised me to never pass up a chance to take a whiz and I had passed up too many. I found myself pulling into the cemetery outside Good Hope in search of a tree. The canopy of old maple trees made the detour well worth it.
An hour at Doug Marine’s and I was back on the road taking the most direct road back home but firm in the renewed knowledge that we live in a beautiful part of the world if you just take the time to go look at it.
