We hop scotched across the midsection of Davie County on back roads Sunday and came back along the northern edge on roads I rarely or had never traveled.

Liberty Church Road is the easy winner of the Most Purple Martin Colonies Award. I spotted three major gourd complexes and vowed that one day my tiny two-gourd colony will include dozens of nesting birds. And a hand-painted sign along the road caught my eye. It  proclaimed “Hussein Obama has turned the White House into a Cess Pool.”

On Bell Branch Road, I craned my neck sharply at Cadillac Lane trying to spot a car to justify the name.

Sunday we clocked another three and a half hours for my youngest son’s driving time for his license. The state-required 60 hours has proven harder to accomplish than it had seemed a year ago. He turned 16 earlier this month and we still have lots of miles and hours to go.

He doesn’t drive fast. We’re strictly after time behind the wheel not mileage. I’m the navigator, in charge of making sure we get back home.

Taking in the scenery after the weekend rains, it felt like the prettiest week of the year — fresh, new leaves on the trees, azaleas and rhododendron in full bloom, irises about to unfurl.

It was another beautiful drive. I have enjoyed being the passenger.

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Speaking of irises, I’ve gotten a surprise every morning this week as my irises are coming into bloom one at a time to start. A purple one was first. Then a dark red. Now a yellow. Tomorrow a blue looks to be unfurled. By next week there should be scores to follow. Two years of dividing and moving and pampering the roots are finally paying off with unusual splendor.

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Did Davie County miss the school sale? It’s hard to imagine that in six months construction prices for a new high school soared by 20 percent, but that’s the reason experts are giving to explain why bids for the high school were so off base.

Of course there’s the other more plausible explanation: Construction projects almost always cost 20 percent more than anticipated.

Certainly the economy has improved for some over the past six years. But Davie County was blind sided by the bids. Too bad the architects didn’t give us a head’s up.

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Both Bermuda Run and Clemmons have given chilly receptions to bids to build low-income apartment complexes in recent weeks.

Bermuda Run’s town hall was overflowing with opponents of an 80-unit complex last week when the proposal was quickly scuttled before the Board of Adjustments could entertain the project. Opponents were streaming out of the building 10 minutes after the meeting started. The apartment complex was proposed for a site off NC 801 across from the entrance to Bermuda Run Country Club.

Clemmons last week voted 3-1 to deny a similar 80-unit complex off Kinnamon Village Drive. Members of the village council objected to the location.

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He failed the good cowboy test. Usually there has been plenty of doubt about the recent police shootings of unarmed black men. But the recent North Charleston, S.C, shooting of a man fleeing arrest runs afoul of every cowboy movie directive: Never shoot a man in the back.

– Dwight Sparks