Sweet, Dark and Crazy

Monday, August 17, 2009

Rantings From the Road

Well, I'm back. I haven't been hungry since Wednesday and I'm back. Yesterday, after having breakfast with family and friends, I headed out for the 8-9 hour drive home. I had some good CDs and a new book on tape so the trip was mostly pleasant but here's my beef.

When you place a sign on a highway regarding gas or food or lodging, that sign is not there for the benefit of the locals. They already know what's there. It's there for travellers and people just passing through. Speaking on behalf of travellers, we want to get where we are going. We don't want to get off the road and sight-see. We want to get off quickly - gas up, get some food, go to the bathroom and get back on the road. Period.

I remembered seeing a sign for a KFC Buffet when I was coming up the road on my way to the hometown. I made a note of it and figured I'd stop and have dinner there and gas up when I headed back down the road. That was the plan anyway.

So I'm driving down the road, almost on 'E' when I come up to the exit. I get off and the sign says that the KFC is 4.5 miles down the road. Okay, I pulled off the road because I thought the restaurant was at the exit. Almost 5 miles away is NOT the exit anymore!

Anyway, I have to take not a street but another highway and I drive more than 5 miles and I still haven't seen a KFC or, and because it's more important than food now, a gas station. What I have seen is a scary guy in a mud-covered old SUV in a camouflage jacket and a trucker cap driving by me looking like he walked out of that old movie Deliverance.

So finally I get to a stop light at a divided highway surrounded by lots of nothing and ask an equally scary-looking biker guy where the closet gas station is. Luckily it wasn't far and I was able to find my way back to the highway.

This whole excursion cost me over a half hour which is precious time when you are spending the better part of your day on the road.

What I really, really, really hate is the fact that it all started over a quest for fried chicken. Talk about a stereotype!!!

Labels: Hometown, Rant

posted by SDC @ 8:40 AM

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