The long drive back from our church isn’t quite as scenic as most of the drives to our north. There are a few vistas that are very pretty, but mostly, the scenery is made of small businesses, small farms, rural homes and mobile homes. We pass at least five Dollar Generals and a prison. There’s a high school right next to a water treatment plant, and sometimes we contemplate how awful it must be for those practicing sports in the hotter months of the year. There are no sweeping emerald fields or hills full of cattle and the occasional horse or donkey. The piney woods along the route were devastated by the Very Big Storm, and though the wooded areas still stand, many are being cleared in the name of “progress.”

We pass a few small homesteads with a scattering of cows or goats … and the occasional errant pig. Not far past Stinky High School, there is a small stretch of wetlands, and on one particular branch sticking up from the water … a victim of the Very Big Storm, I suspect … sit three turtles. We pass them so quickly, I can’t identify the type — possibly sliders or red-belly turtles. There are always three. They are not very large, though two of them are larger, one is smaller. Since we first noticed them, we check every time we pass, and every time we pass, they are there in that exact spot, sunning themselves.

Their position seems so permanent, it is as if they had been glued there. My Taller Half suggested they might be animatronic turtles, something snatched or escaped from the House of Mouse. We enjoy concocting fanciful explanations for ordinary things. We will probably name them one day.

With the subdivisions planned all along the highway to the beach, we fear one day the small farms, homesteads, and wetlands will be gone. Some of the areas fall within protected lands, so not all of it will disappear, but we mourn the loss of the farms, wetlands, and forests that come with the inevitable encroachment of humans.

One of the things that drew MTH and me together was the shared memory of driving for miles and miles with the heady perfume of orange blossoms in the air. We remember our beloved state before strip malls and McMansions and planned communities. We cherish those memories and planted satsumas, Meyer lemons, and ruby red grapefruit on our property so that maybe we’ll have a reminder of those days every spring. We’ll continue to appreciate the three turtles and be grateful they are there.