Observations at 4:05 AM while in the mountains last week:
If you are driving down the road with your elbow sticking out of the window, going 30 miles an hour, peacefully picking your nose and there is no other car right on your tail wanting you to speed up....as a matter of fact there is not another car within 3 miles of you....
You might be in the country.
If during this drive you are entertained by the sight of milkweed seeds drifting out of their burst open pods, highlighted by the long rays of the evening sun, accompanied by the familiar odor of dead skunk in the middle of the road....
You might be in the country.
If you find yourself on a bumpy road up Sugar Creek with a 270 Winchester deer rifle resting on your thigh, trying to make out the silhouette of a deer at 6:15 on the last day of buck season, and when you finally do see a pair of bucks, they turn out to be loafing around in someone's backyard 15 minutes past legal shooting time.....
You might be in the country.
So you come home empty handed, prepared to eat crow with a side of Deer Tag Soup, and instead find homemade apple pie waiting for you on the kitchen counter....
You might be in the country.
If you wake up in the wee hours of the morning, and the ONLY thing you can hear is the whisper of the wind in the pine trees and your most pressing decision is whether or not to turn on the light and write about it....
You might be in the country!