Joyride

I checked how to write joyride. Is it joyride, joy ride or joy-ride? If Wikipedia is to be believed, joyride is a crime of stealing a vehicle with no particular destination in mind.  This post is not about that. When I say joyride, it is riding a vehicle on a leisurely pace with no predetermined itinerary. In my case, I am on a passenger seat of my friend or my cousin’s vehicle.

I live in a small city but I have not been to every nook and cranny of my hometown so I welcome any invitation to explore barangays I have not been to. One fine Saturday, we went to a friend’s farm.  It is less than 30 minutes away from downtown Butuan but because the place was unfamiliar, it did not feel like Butuan to me. It is amazing how smooth the roads going to that part of the city- way better that the numerous potholes in city center.

It was raining.

We sipped buko (young coconut) juice and scooped out it tender meat.

There is a hidden gem on our way back. My friend found this place before so she brought us here. There is a lake and rolling hills. I hope people will leave this place as it is. Sometimes progress has its way of ruining lovely places like these.

Later that week, my cousin ( upon my prodding) took an alternate route on our way home from an errand.  There is a newly paved road parallel to the main highway to the city. We took that route to check out we might see on that side of the city.

There were trees, lakes, hills and rice fields.  There were few houses.

I love this kind of joyride.

 

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. 

~Anatole France