In the last two weeks, I have driven a little over 4,300 miles, not by choice. I have hit every city from Hartford, CT to the Gulf Coast, and several of them twice and four times. That’s what happens with those you love have difficult times and you do what you have to do to assuage their suffering. I won’t dwell on the details of that ordeal. I have dealt with it non-stop for weeks. In all of that driving, however, I have noticed a lot about America, or at least the eastern section:
- There are not nearly as many meadows near the Meadowlands as there are oil tanks and industrial complexes.
- The Bronx has some very bad drainage dips in the highway that can rip out a steering rod.
- Steering rods are not cheap.
- The travel plazas off the Jersey Turnpike are much better in theory than in practice.
- If I can pump my own gas in every other state, why not New Jersey?
- Firecrackers are quite popular in South Carolina.
- I-85 through Atlanta is about 24 lanes wide in places and still as jammed as the Beltway in Washington, D.C.
- The suburbs of Atlanta stretch from Alabama to South Carolina and up to Tennessee and almost to Florida.
- Cops are making up for dwindling revenues by working speeders like lions work a pack of antelope.
- The roads in Alabama are noticeably better than the roads in Virginia.
- It can get stupidly cold in South Alabama and stay that way for a month.
- If you like eating at Subway, you will have more than a few options south of Jersey.
- Racism sadly exists in abundant supply across America no matter the geographic location – and our president is the focal point of too much of it.
- Good people are still good and bad ones are worse than they used to be. Many are just plain stupid.
- There are a lot of churches in the south and often they are not far from an adult novelty store.
- A large majority of Americans cannot drive inside their lane on an interstate.
- After dozens of years pulling into rest stops, I continue to attract the same type of guy with a story about how his wife is in the hospital and his kid has been in an accident and his car has a blown gasket and he needs $300. And each time he finishes his appeal for money with a little religion to top his efforts.
- There is a lot of cargo inside a lot of 18-wheelers and somehow, the same car rides in the left lane going the exact same speed as the big rig beside it, causing cursing and 40 cars to ride his bumper.
- A Garmin, while a wonderful device, still wants me to take roads I know are going to put me in more traffic and I always wonder what the satellite sees that I am missing.
- That damned firefly song is playing on way too many radio stations.
This is a small listing that I jotted down. I may add more later as the recollection hits me. At this point, I would like to not be staring at tail lights and license plates for a while.
