Living in the Midwest is nice from a driving around town perspective. You can jump in your car and it takes five minutes to reach most everywhere, streets are laid out in the grid system, and you aren't accosted at every intersection by aggressive drivers who use stop signs as a suggestion, not a law. Living in a smallish Midwestern town means congestion involves sitting in traffic an extra ten minutes while a college basketball games lets out. Not a big deal. Here in the South, close to Miami, it's a whole other ballgame.
The map to the right is a typical traffic day around our temporary winter residence. Red lines, yellow lines, and red dots. The red dots are the worst. Cars standing still for blocks. Basically a two-car wide, several mile long parking lot. As in I have witnessed people getting out of their cars and running items back to cars behind them. I have to assume these are people they know and it involves giving them food to sustain them through their errands. Woe to the driver who decides to veer out of the traffic flow and through a drive-thru. And heaven forbid you have a medical emergency.
Mr Y, and I are learning lessons daily about when to go out, where to go, and taking our patience temperature before heading out. The evening we decided to travel seven miles to a large department store at five in the evening (I know, does the term "rush hour" mean nothing?) and it took us 2 HOURS to get there is also when we decided we either need to pack snacks or go at five in the morning and sleep in the parking lot before opening time. I have witnessed multiple "J" turns in the middle of traffic downtown, an elderly driver with a NY license plate gently sideswipe a landscaping pickup (and neither one stopped to access damage!), and more people ignoring "Don't Block the Intersection" signs than I can count. Two drivers have risked oncoming traffic to pass a line of cars, get to the front of that two lane traffic and then make a right turn across those lanes. It is mind boggling.
Fortunately we are staying in a building where we can walk to the grocery store, take a trolley to downtown, get to a hospital straight up the street if need be, and quickly navigate back streets to the home of the grand baby and his family. Otherwise you would find me sitting in an apartment watching the traffic whiz, and I do mean whiz, by for two months and that would certainly be a......
Map to crazy!
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