Why I drive Route 5

It is a rainy day and I am sitting here with little ambition and a constipated toddler who wants to change her diaper every 20 minutes and yet still hasn't pooped since Monday.  So I am trying to think of happier things.

One of the things I think about often is Route 5 right here just outside of my house, it is a beautiful drive heading North through bucolic New England scenery, and with the highway that runs parallel to it for miles it is relatively lightly traveled.  I am one of the few who actually likes driving this slower road especially if I do not have far to go.  Then there is what I call shopping Route 5 – whether it is going just up the road to Hatfield Beef to stock  up on meat, going just a little farther to Galonka's farmstand to get the best corn in New England or going all the way past Yankee Candle (The Scenter of New England) to go to Pekarski's to get a couple of just amazingly good keilbasas, it is all a nice way to stay in touch with the community.  Even when my daughter and I make a trip up to Magic Wings to see the butterflies we take the smaller road – I enjoy the slower pace and I find it helps me to stay in tune with the seasons – I know when strawberry season starts, and when the corn is first ready, I know when the leaves just start to turn and when the squash and the pumpkins are ripe and coming in from the fields and I can see how the fresh snow cleanses.

And that is why I drive Route 5.