Traveling down the highway
Serendipity
Even if I hadn’t known that I was parked at a rest stop along Interstate 96, the lineup of semi-trucks cozied up to the curb in front of me would have tipped me off. I counted a dozen of them parked side by side as close as possible. Most of them were running. A few of them pulled out of the rest stop before I did, and we all found our place among the vehicles moving with purpose along their way.
I mingled with semis for the rest my nine-hour day, of course, all of it spent on the network of interstate highways that move commerce and people with speed and efficiency in our country. For me, these four-lane wonders are a double-edged sword that gets me to and from visiting my family quickly. But those busy byways that are teeming with vehicles are also quite mind-numbing. Cars and concrete and trucks and concrete and exit signs and concrete and rest stops and more concrete, all broken up by an occasional billboard.
One helpful tack to take when traveling alone, I’ve found, is to look for something special among all the sameness of SUVs and semis, whether it’s on the road or next to it. On this trip, I think my nod for the best in that category has to go to the large, simple nativity that was set up on a girder off to the side of the road. It had been hoisted up to be level with the highway from a truck plaza that was below grade. I went by in the daylight, so I don’t know if it was lit, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That nativity scene was a pleasant but brief oasis as I sped by. No neon, no sign, just a simple three-piece nativity set that had to be quite large to be appreciated as vehicles whizzed by.
Another way I cope with long driving trips is with some simple snacks, a bottle of water, and more changes of my XM radio dial than a DJ makes. That and several long phone visits on my hands-free cell phone with friends who are not on the move make the hours pass with minimal pain.
Don’t get me wrong, though; I was delighted to finally pull into my garage well after dark that evening, safe and sound with no problems. And my cat, Maxine, was waiting to greet me.
It all made me appreciate our simple county blacktops where traffic means a line of vehicles behind a slow-moving piece of machinery.