Article published in the April 2018 issue of the BSM Beacon.

For Florida Snowbirds there is one aspect of wintering in paradise which is often not quite as appealing as the prospect of time in the sun. That is of course the annual north-south commute. Whether coming from the mid-west, Great Lakes basin or the east coast, the drive to Florida can at times be long and tedious. In our case, we can count on roughly 24 hours on the road which includes time for food, fuel and often foul restrooms.  In fall 2017 we added another 12 hours of road time to visit friends in New Hampshire.

There are a host of techniques employed to try to mitigate the monotonous nature of the trip. Alternate routes can be explored, scenic stopovers can be enjoyed or perhaps just put the pedal to the metal and blast straight through. Diane and I switch seats every three hours to share the driving and fend off fatigue. Regardless of the seat, I use the time to ponder obscure questions such as why are gas prices so variable, will all that shredded rubber on the side of the road be recycled, why are they clearing the expressway center medians of trees and foliage, what’s in all those trucks, and has anyone in America ever taken a defensive driving course? I also sometimes wonder what all those bill boards on the side of highways tell us about society. What are the implications of the fact that the legal and medical professions are two of the most prolific advertisers while many of the factories we pass appear abandoned? Is it a coincidence that on one stretch of highway the “I Love Jesus” and “XXX Porn Shop” bill boards compete with each other from alternating hill tops? This year many southbound commuters may also have spent time worrying about the damage Hurricane Irma had done to their homes or communities.

One of the frustrations of trying to hurry south is that many interesting attractions are passed by without stopping. This year we started in Toronto, home of the Hockey Hall of Fame; then passed by, in order, Cooperstown, NY, Home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; Chicopee, MA, home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; Charlotte, NC, home of the NASCAR Hall of Fame; and St. Augustine, FL, home of the World Golf Hall of Fame. A 50 mile detour would have taken us to Newport, RI and the International Tennis Hall of Fame and one of our normal routes south passes Canton, OH home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. While we did not stop at any of these, just reading the signs sent me into hours of reminisces about past stars and championship series such as the classic 1963 World Series and the 1965 Stanley Cup final. We also passed Concord, MA with its rich Revolutionary War and literary history, drove past Hershey and its Kisses, and then down the Shenandoah Valley with thoughts of the Civil War campaigns of Stonewall Jackson and Sheridan. On our trips home we usually stop off for a day or so along the way. Memorable examples have included Nashville, Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans, and Williamsburg.

Mention of NASCAR takes me back to the concept of defensive driving. Driving safety courses recommend drivers use the two or three second rule for calculating safe following distances. At 70 mph the two second rule converts to a 14 car length gap to the car ahead. I usually settle for eight to ten lengths which drives the Dale Earnhardt wannabes crazy. I am familiar with the law of physics which states that nature abhors a vacuum, but the one car length gap favored in the Carolinas seems too much like a Formula One for disaster. Apologies if I seem a little sensitive on this topic. In spring of 2016 our trip home was rudely interupted when a young Tennessean driving a 3.5 ton Chevy Suburban rear ended us on the I-75 just north of Chattanooga. Fortunately, our trailor-hitch installed bike rack took much of the force of the collision and we were able to drive home with a smashed back window and liftgate and crumpled bicycle. We incurred no long term personal injuries and insurance covered the damages and a few months of physio for the minor whiplash.

In case you were wondering about the answers to some of the questions pondered above, see below.

Why do gas prices vary so much? – We saw prices varying from $2.09 to $3.00 travelling through 11 Eastern states in October 2017 ($3.40 in Ontario). There are many factors which influence gas prices, including the source of the crude oil used, distance from the refinery and plain old competitive market influences. One of the biggest factors though is state gas taxes which are added to the 18.4 cents per gallon (cpg) federal gas tax. Pennsylvania adds 58.2 cpg while South Carolina only adds 16.75 cpg (see https://taxfoundation.org/state-gasoline-tax-rates-2017/ for the full list by state). The conclusion from my research – best prices are in central South Carolina, as far away from the N.C. and Georgia borders as possible, and ideally at Costco. Next best is Tennessee.

Why is Concord, MA considered a literary hotbed? Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau all lived and worked in the small town of Concord, and it is also the site of Walden Pond and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The North Bridge in Concord was also the scene of one of the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775.

Who won the 1963 World Series and 1965 Stanley Cup finals? These were formative teenage years for me when I played hockey and baseball and we bled for our teams. In 1963 my LA Dodgers, led by Sandy Koufax, Johnny Podres and Don Drysdale crushed the arch rival Yankees in four straight games. In 1965 my Montreal Canadiens team led by Jean Béliveau defeated Chicago 4 games to 3. Between 1956 and 1969 Montreal or Toronto won 12 of the 13 Stanley Cups. Another interesting statistic is that 100% of the members of the 1965 Montreal team were born in Canada. In 2017 that statistic is only 50%.

Who was James Naismith, the inventor of basketball? James Naismith was a Canadian physical education teacher, minister and McGill University graduate, who immigrated to the USA in 1891 at the age of 30. Later that same year he invented the game of basketball at the YMCA in Springfield, MA, intended to be a non-contact sport to reduce risk of injury (tell that to Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Lin). He later became a medical doctor, teacher and coach at the University of Kansas.

What was the significance of the Shenandoah Valley in the Civil War? The Shenandoah Valley was a very fertile agricultural area for the Confederacy and was also a convenient southwest to northeast campaign trail for troops headed for Baltimore and Washington. Union Cavalry General Phillip Sheridan’s brutal scorched earth razing of the valley in 1864 was intended to deprive the Confederacy of this important food supply and invasion route.

Is it a coincidence that on one stretch of highway the “I Love Jesus” and “XXX Porn Shop” bill boards compete with each other from alternating hill tops? No it is not a coincidence, but rather a reaction by local Christian citizens to the proliferation of the sex industry advertising.

Will any of that shredded rubber on the side of the road be recycled?  Shredded tire strips are known in the trucking industry as “gators”. They result most commonly from re-treaded truck tires overheating causing the adhesive to break down. My research indicates that much of this debris goes to landfill, but a Florida DOT representative has told me that the landfills then sort and recycle the rubber. I have no way to confirm this. Missouri has publicly stated that their “gators” are recycled.

Why are they clearing the expressway center medians of trees and foliage?  My research indicates that there are several reasons including protecting drivers from flying debris in storms, eliminating animal habitat, better drainage, and room for future lane expansion.