Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Driving

Just finished a full day of driving through the heart of the deep South. Yesterday I had the pleasure of traversing the greater part of Texas, spent the night in Shreveport, and today I made it as far as Montgomery, Alabama. I wish I had some interesting thoughts to share about my experience, but the thing is, though this is the fourth state in two days, I never really left Interstate-Land until this afternoon, when I got onto US80 to cross Alabama. One notable: there's a Waffle House at pretty much every exit I've passed through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I also saw a Mister Waffle, which appeared to be a low(er)-grade knockoff, sporting a suspiciously similar sign of black capital letters on illuminated yellow blocks.

Other observations? I don't like driving at night. I prefer lonely two lane roads to the Interstate during the day, but absolutely hate them at night, when oncoming traffic means your eyes never adjust and you feel like you're driving nearly blind.

Also, I've started to notice signs of the drought that has affected this part of the country. Since I entered Alabama, I've been seeing more and more 'rivers' that look like little more than muddy ditches. I expect that will get more pronounced when I get to Georgia tomorrow.

1 comment:

Elephantschild said...

And here I am reading a history of the dust bowl. I have in the past been inclined to poo-poo the Fed's insistence on no-till farming, but when you see land as dry as it must be in the central south, it makes more sense.

We had one dust storm here this past spring. Lasted about 10 minutes. The sky turned blood red and before I realised what was happening, every single surface was covered with glass-shard-like grit. And now I know: when the sky turns *that color,* get the windows closed FAST.