Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Zen drive...with complications

I didn't listen to the radio or make notes or anything during my drive from Buffalo to DC...which was good because it was not an easy one. Stops and slowdowns and a ridiculous transition from a toll road to a freeway that took 45 minutes to happen because in their infinite wisdom, whoever designed this transition makes you go through a 10 lane toll plaza down to two lanes and get onto a city street and stop at a light then turn left to get onto the freeway.

I felt like I was on the 5 in LA trying to go west on the 134; you have to do almost the same damn thing and it's ludicrous. And it San Antonio, where the 281 crosses Loop 410, you used to have to get off on Airport and go through 4 lights to get onto the freeway, either way, until they built some towering access roads to carry you from one to the other...and then stupidly had them narrow down from 3 lanes to 1, in some directions. you have to wonder about engineers, sometimes.

Hell, I wonder about people in general. Like semi-drivers, who decide to try and pass another semi ahead of them, even though they're only going 2 mph faster than the guy they're trying to pass, thus slowing traffic down...especially when they decide to do it while going up a hill with a full load. And car drivers stopping in the middle of the entrance to a parking area in such a way that no one can get around them and uploading a passenger who then decides to have a conversation with someone inside the car.

So...I did the zen thing and thought of nothing except how lovely the hills were, being lush with layers of thick trees and occasionally masked by a light haze. And the rivers I drove over being so full and joyous. And the ease of traveling this way without a real map, thanks to the signage.

I'd have taken pictures, but I was doing 80 most of the way (if I hadn't been, I'd still be on the road, I think).

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