By: Gabriela Yareliz
I fell in love with this country from the backseat of a car.
The Smokies making my ears pop and the blur of orange stone. The small stores in the middle of nowhere where you can find a good Moon Pie.
Fields of green with the fog lifting at snail’s pace. Tiny houses up on a mountain; twinkling windows in the dark. Dirt roads, trees lining the winding roads, dark roads with no street lights, high bridges that make your heart jump, “Welcome to ________” state signs.
Swamps that smell like melting paper, and hilly roads with miles of neat rows of farm. Rivers and lakes with no end in sight. One turn and a beach that emerges from nowhere.
The open road always beckons. Once you know it; you will always miss it. The changing scenery changes you. It stays forever like a movie on loop.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 