We are now on our way back from Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, to Washington, DC (we are in the States for a two-week vacation, in case you're wondering what happened to all the posts about Moscow), and it looks like this time we'll be making the drive in two days as opposed to the three days it took us to get down there (OK, so we spent most of the first day of that trip at the Potomac Mills outlet mall). Never mind that two years ago when we took the same trip I was somehow able to drive the 1100 miles (according to Mapquest, it's 1072 miles. Just another reminder that, as the Russians say, starost' - ne radost' (loosely translated as "getting old(er) is no picnic" - more literally as "old age is no joy").
Our trip down this year was actually more like 1180 miles, thanks to our detour in South Carolina and another one the next day to see historic St. Augustine, Florida, and it was full of Americana. We saw mall walkers at Potomac Mills, lots of snowbirds headed down to Florida in their RV's (recreational vehicles, for the non-American readers) after having Christmas and New Year's at home up north, and plenty of Waffle House diners as we moved further south. We also saw quite a bit of hurricane damage in central Florida as we crossed the state on Routes 70, 78, and 80, and a couple of prison gangs (not true chain gangs, although I guess they may have been shackled - it's hard to see much more than the "State Prisoners Working" sign and the guard brandishing the shotgun when you drive by at highway speed) at work cleaning up litter alongside the highway in Florida and just south of Lumberton, NC. Perhaps my favorite moment was when we got the high-beam flash, a universal (well, at least in the US and in the former USSR) signal to watch out for police ahead, from an oncoming trucker north of Jacksonville, Florida, and luckily took heed of his warning and slowed down - cresting a hill we saw four officers on police-issue Harley-Davidson motorcycles, three of whom had already pulled over speeding motorists - the fourth one could have been ours. When we finally arrived at Grandma's house in Ft. Myers Beach, we were just glad to have made it in one piece.
Tonight we are staying at the Comfort Inn in Dunn, North Carolina - we drove until we found a Comfort Inn because we really appreciated the free wi-fi when we stayed at one on the trip down - without it, I wouldn't be able to blog these words...
It looks like this trip is going to be the opposite of my trip last fall to St. Petersburg, at least as far as the blog is concerned. After that trip, I had pictures posted quickly, but the full story of the trip itself took longer. With this trip, it seems to be the other way around - it will probably take me some time to go through all of the pictures I've taken in the last week and select the highlights to be posted here. Anyway, we are supposed to be driving the remaining 400 or so miles back to DC tomorrow, so I need to go to sleep now and rest up for the road ahead.
2 comments:
I would like to oppose you. Actually Russian drivers do exactly the same - they flash headlights to warm about the police ahead. That's so common on Russian and Ukrainian highways that I’d though it was the USSR invention. No one in honest western countries would try to cheat, I’d thought. Your blog proved me wrong! :)
I’m at http://costakat-e.blogspot.com by the way.
C.K.
Costa, why "oppose," my friend? What I meant was that I assume the light-flashing is a worldwide sign, but the only places I've ever seen it are in the US and former USSR (probably because those are the only places I've done much driving) - also in Romania a couple of times. It's quite possible that this practice originated in Russia, or in Europe, and migrated to the US. The opposite is also possible, but who knows. I can see a dissertation topic in here somewhere for a budding cultural studies specialist.
Anyway, you'll be interested to know that the light-flashing is much less common in America than in Russia, and I have been told that in the US police can fine you if they catch you doing this (because you are undermining the work of law enforcement), though I'm not sure whether that's true or not.
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