Right of Passage

Growing up it was the norm to ride in the back of dad's pick-up now and again.  Not daily, mind you. But... if you had a boatload of friends over and you were heading to the beach or park or some other venue - or... the cab was full of adults and no room for you - you'd all pile in the back and enjoy the wind in your face, hair whipping wildly about as dad zoomed down the road.

Now a-days, that's a BIG. FAT. NO. NO!

Unless living on a farm or ranch, most kids don't get to enjoy this wonderful thrill.

Yes, I know the dangers.  I understand why it's illegal (I think) and frowned upon to pile a bunch of wryly kids into the back of the pick-up and take off.

Believe me, I've been 'that mom' in my own vehicle driving down the road to see another parent with kids sitting in the open bed of a pick-up truck and thought, "How careless to put their kids's lives in jeopardy; how idiotic to allow their kids to be in the back of that truck on this fast highway."

Key words being 'main road or highway'.

Yet, this day.... as we prepared to go clean the cabin of Doug's aunt and uncle... our kids did just that.

They piled in the open bed of our Toyota pick-up truck along with our vacuum cleaner and away we went.

A quick trip around our private road to go clean a cabin.
They ended up doing this twice this summer - this pic was the second time.

Granted -- the whole trip is along dirt roads and my speed never reached much more than 15 mph during the duration of our drive.

Not to mention, the drive itself is probably a mile or three at most and we didn't pass a single car on the trip there OR back.  For all intents and purposes it was LIKE we were on a farm or ranch.

So... the kids got to experience the thrilling ride of bouncing along in the back of a pick-up bed as we hit and dodged a myriad of pot holes and boulders sticking up from the dirt road.

They were thrilled and in our Williams homeschool fashion, the girls got to ride and clean in their dress-up clothes they had put on earlier in the day for a tea party.  (Unfortunately, I don' have the pic of them in their dress-up clothes downloaded.)

Country living has it's perks.

Prior to moving to the wild, wide open, west I would have NEVER considered plopping my children in the back of the truck to go for a drive.

Now - with the private dirt roads, slow speeds, lack of traffic and other vehicles - I threw caution to the wind and gave my kids a taste of my own childhood.

I imagine I may be opening myself up to being flogged, flayed, and brought before the firing squad, but....

It was fun.

It was safe.

It was a quick ride on a bumpy, dirt road.

Another benefit to our mini-mountain-menagerie.

We simply love our mountain home.