The Anatomy of a Saturday Morning Drive

Saturday Morning Drives have been a tradition now for the past eight or so years. Drives always begin with a Diet Coke and on average, start between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. They began quite by accident one morning as we drove to check out the new shopping center. The first store to be built was Target. We drove as far as the paved roads would allow and watched it grow from the first pouring of the slab to Opening Day. Kohl’s was next. There is always great speculation on what each new slab will become. We watched the cranes lower the brass domes upon the Barnes & Noble and saw the laying of the meandering cobblestone walkways. We saw the placement of the old town street lamps and were happy to see the preservation of the four mighty oaks at the main crossing. We've watched as they've raised and decorated the mighty Christmas tree, and marvel it always turns out so well after they’ve botched the pruning.

We have followed the same exact route every single time with no variance, until quite recently we decided to change things up a bit and drive it backwards. It was rather unsettling. We never miss a Saturday if it can be at all helped, and have even had welcome guests ride along. After eight years, you might think we'd seen it all. What more could they build? But even this morning, we saw the tractors clearing a new spot of land right next to Wicks. A woman's boutique closed and a Sees Candy just opened in its place. Bombay is going out of business... I wonder what they'll put in there.