Travel

I travel a fair amount. Just enough to get "status" on one airline and "executive" car rentals. What does this mean? Pretty much nada.

Oh, I get to enter the plane first and rent a gas guzzler. Life, she's complete!

Anywhoo.....I drove to Tennessee on Monday and back yesterday.

I find it infinitely interesting to see the combination of public advertisement vs actual businesses when I visit somewhere new. Often, as was the case in the area around Knoxville, they are an amusing counterpoint to each other. There were lots of church billboards in this area, and a strangely numerous amount of adult book stores. Not sure if the "Jesus Saves" billboards were intended to discourage the attendance at the bookstores, or the churches just have lots of money to burn off instead of performing the community services they should be. I guess, it could just be chance as well.

The trip up there was fairly uneventful. Made the trip, including two stops, in about three hours. So, I figured that the return trip would go quickly as well. So much for figuring. Everything was going swimmingly. I was singing along with the Phantom. Everyone was clipping along at a mighty good pace. And then we stopped. For five miles and 45 minutes it felt as though I was back in Chicago, driving home in rush hour. And the cause of this? A not to bright driver was stopped in the right lane in the construction area where they had the road narrowed to the two lanes with no where to pull off. His/her car had conked out. Mind you, we were on a downward grade that ended with the end of the construction. So, had this driver thought for a minute, he/she could have coasted down the hill and PULLED OFF. But no, better to inconvenience all the other travelers on an interstate and chat on the phone.

Argh.

But I did make it home safely and that's the good news. Milk and cookies, being back with Clif and my dog Copper made it all worth while.