I enjoy walking on country roads which in all honesty is something I never thought I would say. Sometimes I will do this on my own during the day, while listening to some music. Or sometimes with only the sounds of nature. Most of the time though I prefer walking with my husband. It’s a time for us to get a little exercising done and a chance to talk. Other times I go with my husband and our dog. He loves it when we take him for walks.
I haven’t always been like this. Meaning I haven’t always enjoyed going for walks on country roads. At least not by myself. Around where we live there are a lot of fields that get hayed so we can easily see past these fields. I like being able to see past and beyond these fields. There are also acres of land with homes on them. Again easy enough to see. Before we moved to our house we lived in another area of Upstate New York where the roads were covered by bushes and trees with the occasional farm land. As silly as this may sound I was always scared to go for walks by myself at that house. I was scared someone was going to pop out from one of those bushes. Like I said silly, I know, but that’s how I felt. My husband would always tell me that wasn’t going to happen. A lot of good that did.
Before that we lived in a town called Cobleskill. Again I was a bit on the afraid side to go for walks by myself. I didn’t like the idea of walking around the unknown. I didn’t know the area at all and the idea of not being able to remember street names and getting lost wasn’t something I was interested in.
Here I am almost 24 years later and I FINALLY enjoy taking walks on country roads. Yes, It’s taking me that long to have the confidence I need to take a walk by myself in the country. I still prefer going with my husband, but I will do it alone occasionally.
You want to hear something funny? Well before ALL this I use to take walks in Brooklyn. I loved going for walks in Brooklyn. That was always fun to do because most of the time I was with my mom and we would do window shopping along the way. Or we would stop for some ice cream. Maybe actually buy something. I never thought anything of walking by myself in Brooklyn either. I was surrounded by people. Whether I knew them or not it didn’t matter. They were walking just like I was. Sometimes I would see someone I knew and stopped to talk with them. I have always found walking in Brooklyn to be easier then walking on a Country road. Maybe because of the business of the “city”. Who knows. But hey at least now after almost 24 years of living in Upstate New York I can enjoy walking here too.
Kathleen Smith is an author and blogger among her books you can read about her city and county living in Good-bye Brooklyn Hello Upstate