The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

As the Corona Virus hangs around, most of us find ourselves hanging around in some way or another at home. Needless to say, that can get more than a little boring. One email I received pointed out this person just realized the trash was going out more often than they were. Sue and I, like most rural residents, have not been as affected by the change in lifestyle as our city cousins. We live away from town and populated areas. Not seeing anybody for days is pretty normal for us.

I will have to admit, our self-imposed isolation does wear on us sometimes. We have begun breaking the monotony of every day seeming like Saturday by going for short Sunday drives around our part of the world. OK, so a couple were actually Thursday or Tuesday drives due to loosing tract of what day it was. Let’s just say we try for Sunday drives but don’t get too upset if 60 Minutes isn’t on our TV when we get home from one of our adventures.

A couple of our friends have expanded on our idea of recreation by packing a picnic lunch. I think we threw away our picnic basket after using it to transport a chilled newborn calf from the barn to our utility room in the house. Hasn’t been seen or used since.

We decided to improvise on our friends’ idea sans picnic tote and just schedule a drive to end in nearby Sterling where we would treat ourselves to some Kentucky Fried Chicken, something we hardly ever do. As our drive took us by scenic events such as the neighbor’s new machinery shed and another’s late spring calving cows, we began planning all the side dishes we would add to our lunch. I think I drove a little faster with every upgrade to our impending feast.

Finally, we pulled into town and began our search for Colonel Sander’s lunch counter. Thirty minutes later and Sue’s call to Siri for a location, we discovered there is no such thing in Sterling. Sadly, and with much disappointment we began our 45-mile trip home where, now starving, we fixed a couple of baloney sandwiches. Not sure if we are going to buy a new picnic basket, change destination towns, menu ideas or just pack our sandwiches along with a couple of bottles of water, in a white plastic grocery bag. Remember, we are new to this pandemic travel thing. It’s going to take us a few more trips to get everything figured out.

We heard a rancher up north is building a new calving barn. Can feel the urge to travel creeping up on us!