Saturday, February 26, 2005

Florida

Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. A good start. We're on our way
back to Colorado. Two thousand miles from Panama City Beach to Montrose.
Job starts on Thursday. Five days to get there. Just right.

We finished today Lafayette, Louisiana. We'll have to decide tomorrow
morning whether we want to go the most direct route, north on Interstate 49
to Shreveport, east on Interstate 20 through Dallas, north on Interstate 35
to Oklahoma City, and west on Interstate 40 to Albuquerque then Montrose, or
take a more southerly route, continuing on Interstate 10 for about another
four thousand miles, through Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso, then north
on Interstate 25 to Albuquerque then Montrose. At any rate, we should end
up in Montrose by Wednesday afternoon.

It's interesting how different things are important in different states.
Across Interstate 10, it's important to post that the rest areas have
security provided. Some nighttime. Some 24 hours. You don't get that just
anywhere.

And Florida. Florida posts that reminder sign after every rest area. You
know the one. The sign that reminds you to turn on your windshield wipers
if it's raining. That makes Florida special. Florida cares about us.
Florida cares enough to make sure we can see while we're driving in the
rain. I don't see any other states making that effort. The other states
just don't care as much as Florida does.

It has been months since the last hurricane, maybe five. There is still
plenty of visible damage though. Blue roofs. Trees all in a jumble. The
roof companies must go out and cover up every ruined roof with blue plastic,
nice and neat, to contain the damage until they can get back to it to fix it
right. Blue roofs. Whole neighborhoods of blue roofs.

Maybe there is always hurricane damage remaining along the Gulf Coast.
Perhaps there is always another hurricane before they finish cleaning up
from the last one.