Okay, so I wasn’t going to Grandma’s.  And well they weren’t exactly woods.  I did cross a river once, the Harpeth River.

A couple of weeks ago I left the house at 8am to take Annaleigh to her tutorial.  After I dropped her off, I found myself heading back home despite the fact that I needed to run a boatload of errands that day, because I had forgotten my cell phone.  As I sat in the driveway, watching Dirty Harry run in to retrieve my phone, I decided to roll down my window and holler at him to also get my camera.

“Why?” he yelled back.

“Oh, I don’t know, ” I yelled back.

But the real answer is that I decided to photograph another fall drive like I did last year here.  I love the fall, and I enjoyed risking my life last year in order to take pictures of it and all of its grandeur last year, so I thought  I’d do it again, and if I can remember from year to year, make it an annual event here on my blog.  And you know what?  I think I’m better at it.  I stayed completely on the road at all times this year!

Okay, ready?  We’re off…

Good-bye house, for the second time today.

Jack Henry has already fallen asleep….  (Photo by Dirty Harry)

…before we even leave the neighborhood.

And we’re cruising along our hilly street into town…

Our first stop was the vet to replenish Clara’s heartworm tablets.

Now through the rest of our small town…

At this house, there used to live a man who was in his late 90s, who used to sit on his porch and wave at the passer-bys.  He always liked it when people honked, and so I always did, but he passed away about a year ago.  I miss seeing him.

Here’s the school bus I almost flagged down to put Dirty Harry on. 

He’s been driving me crazy lately on car trips because he’s gotten very interested in car makes and models, which could be reason #427 of why I don’t understand boys.  I don’t know when he’s going to stop asking me if such and such a car is a Ford or a Chevy.  Or who produces more cars, Mitsubishi or Isuzu.  Or how much a Dodge Viper costs.  The answer to each and every question is, “I don’t know.”  The only difference is the volume in which I use.  It gets decidedly louder each time.

A quick stop at the ATM…

An impulse stop for coffee at McD’s…

I really wanted to stop HERE but decided to save two bucks.

And then we were on our way out of town and toward the next bigger one to get some errands accomplished….

(Someone hit that stone fence about three or so years ago….and they have never repaired it.  It kinda drives me nuts.)

Vultures…

Now we’re finally getting into the neighboring town, complete with quaint little houses and tree-lined streets…

Our church…

The Carter House, a Civil War site…

Here’s an area of town called Five Points, and then we continue through the town on our way to Costco…

(Rumor has it that the founder of AmWay lives at this farm.)

Now we’re getting closer to the shopping area where I’m heading today.

If we took a right here, we’d be very near Big D’s office…

…but we take a left to get here to order Big D’s birthday cake and do a little Christmas shopping…

And then we stop here for a bit. More Christmas shopping.

And then we get stuck in this for a bit, where I bit my hangnails and sigh a lot…

At this point, Dirty Harry lets me know that he’s going to faint dead away if I don’t get him something to eat.  So we pull into the drive-thru of our second McDonald’s of the day.

I pull over in the parking lot so that we can all eat.  I make Dirty Harry share his yogurt parfait with Cap’n Jack Henry.

Next it’s almost time to pick up Bonny Annie…

Here we are!

Got her, and now we head toward HOME!

We pass Indiana Mimi’s workplace on the way…

Here’s the entrance to our subdivision…

We’re back to where we started:  Home Sweet Home!

Whew!  Well, I hope you at least mildly enjoyed this 2009 edition of The Pirate Mom’s Fall Drive.  If not, you can lodge your complaint below, and the management will be informed.

Thank you.