Tales of this Shopkeeper - Let's go for a ride!

Every Sunday afternoon when I was growing up we piled into our family station wagon and went for a Sunday ride.....those are good memories.  Mom and dad, my two sisters and I, my grandma Lottie and my aunt Ida and sometimes our collie, Ranny all in the family wagon.  In the later years, dad had a couple of station wagons with room for nine passengers.  Otherwise, my younger sister and I sat in the "cargo" space and of course, no seatbelts:)
We would go out of town and drive on country roads looking at the scenery.  Sometimes my dad would lower the window on the back of the station wagon and my younger sister and I would lay back with our feet hanging out. Fun, simple pleasures but family time......
Once in a blue moon, as my mom would say, my dad stopped the car on a deserted country road and let me sit on his lap and "drive" the car.  I couldn't touch the pedals but being allowed to hold the steering wheel just made me feel special.  Years later I would be teased about my "lead foot" while driving.  Hmmm, was that the beginning?

I'm sharing all of this because going for a ride has been an important part of my grown up life as well.  When money was tight, we always seemed to be able to put a little gas in the car to "go for a ride."  When the kids were in their teens and there wasn't much privacy for conversations my husband and I would "go for a ride" to discuss how to handle the various challenges of having two teens in the house.
Going for a ride has been therapeutic for me and going for a ride means quality time with my husband....no one can hear, no one else can interrupt.  We have had arguments and settled them all in one ride and we have cried together over very serious events while going for a ride.
So... for me, nothing beats a beautiful sunny day in the fall when the sky has that golden look and the fields have turned a rusty brown than going for a ride....such was our day yesterday....a Sunday.
Now most of you know that my 91 year old dad lives with us and  we decided to go for a ride and ask him to come along....."How far are you going?" he asked.  "Oh about an hour" my husband answered.  "Well, beats sitting around all day...sure I'll go" he said.  One small problem.....our truck is really for two adults, maybe three across the front seat.  Then there is space in back with two, uhm...errrr...what I would call "jumpseats"(parachutes not included) that very small people can sit in.  I have ridden back there on occasion and so has our adult daughter but it's not comfortable.  Still, the day was gorgeous and dad wanted to go and we were headed to a place that had some pickin' possibilities:)  I could do this....
I snapped a shot from the back seat of my dad who is contantly checking the mirrors while others are driving.  He used to love to drive and having to give that up last year was devastating for him so he stays on top of others driving for them:)

Here is my spot in the back in which I sit sideways on four pillows....I can lay down if I need to so there are some options and, hey, we're going junking so it's worth the sacrifice!

Up and down and over and around we went through beautiful countryside until we came to our destination.  Dad was armed with a chocolate malt and two new magazines.  "Will you be okay?" I asked as we got out of the truck.  "I'll be fine, go ahead." he said.  My husband and I crossed the street to one of our favorite junkin' places.
Oh what fun it was to enter and find....immediately, a beautiful table and four chairs....something we were looking for AND so reasonable!!
There were some other possibilities but nothing like our first find so we decided to purchase and load and head down the street to yet another great place.
Wow!! We found some great things at this second place and once loaded looked like the Clampett's moving to LA!!
Dad was relieved to know that we were so full that there would be no more hunting for the day.  It was getting to be a bit long for him so we headed home.

This was taken out the back window of the truck from my vantage point. Such a delicious load of possibilities, I must say!  Stay tuned for the actual reveal of these items after they have been tweaked a bit..... And so....a different kind of ride this past Sunday afternoon for my dad but, still.....family time.