My Second Favorite Rest Stop

I think it a bit odd that I have favorite rest stops along the highways I traverse. These are places where I pause to gather my wits during the hours of highway driving. My favorite rest stop is along I-95 shortly after entering Florida. "Welcome to the Sunshine State" the signs proclaim! Yeah. I really could use some sunshine right now.

My second favorite rest stop is no where near the first. It is along Route 15 a few miles after entering Pennsylvania from New York. It sits high atop a ridge overlooking a valley and a dam with a lake behind it. 

During the autumn, the area is especially pretty. The colorful trees surround the scene making it seem as if a painter had stopped and decorated the region for their own use. 

The small town in the valley below the dam is quaint and bucolic. I would like to visit there some day, when I am not feeling the stress of trying to drive more miles per hour than the speed limit allows. 

I am, it seems, always hurrying from one place to another with just enough time allotted for the trip and none available for the pleasantries of visiting places along the way which are more than a just few yards off the ribbon of macadam I am traveling. 

But this rest stop is a stop I must make. It slows and grounds me and makes me pause to enjoy the beauty of the region. 

I am thankful that it is there to slow me down and to break up my trip.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD