Perfect Drive
What a difference an address makes.
Before, I found myself hurtling down Interstate 55 at breakneck speeds for too many miles to count on my way to school- even longer when headed to work. I was lucky if I could make the trip in forty-five minutes.
Now, however, I find myself cruising through twisting country roads in a pleasant 20-minute drive through outstanding scenery.
Starting out from home, I wind my way down toward the Pearl River. As a result, I see images that remind me (as ridiculous as this sounds) of Virginia. Mississippi is generally a very flat place, but here, as the ground gives way to a river channel, everything heaves and sighs in the face of irretractable power. As a result, there are impressive ridges and vistas everywhere.
My trek truly begins, however, by going over two old one-lane wooden pony truss bridges. One crosses over the Pearl River, a nice sized river flowing through the middle of (and partly the reason for its present location) the capital of Jackson. However, at twenty miles below the city, all is peace and quiet as my old Camry ramps up the bridge and rattles over the wooden running boards that serve as support. One almost expects to see them filming an episode of Little House on the Prairie.
The next bridge is smaller, as it crosses a tributary of the Pearl. The view is still impressive, however. Being more diminutive, this bridge actually goes straight across, like modern bridges. The larger bridge's span resembles the top three sides of a stop sign, only slightly less exaggerated. (For the curious, you can see a picture of the actual bridge here- it's the sixth picture down.)
From there, I roll into a small town and pass through an old railroad bridge tunnel before crossing over the Interstate- my sole brush with civilization on my daily sojourn. I quickly retreat back into the wilderness, passing down ten miles of random country roads until reaching my destination at a small country town.
Never once do I see a stop light- only the occasional stop sign. It's surprising if I encounter more than ten cars during the entire trip, and most of those are near the small city I pass through. It truly is a perfect drive.
Before, I found myself hurtling down Interstate 55 at breakneck speeds for too many miles to count on my way to school- even longer when headed to work. I was lucky if I could make the trip in forty-five minutes.
Now, however, I find myself cruising through twisting country roads in a pleasant 20-minute drive through outstanding scenery.
Starting out from home, I wind my way down toward the Pearl River. As a result, I see images that remind me (as ridiculous as this sounds) of Virginia. Mississippi is generally a very flat place, but here, as the ground gives way to a river channel, everything heaves and sighs in the face of irretractable power. As a result, there are impressive ridges and vistas everywhere.
My trek truly begins, however, by going over two old one-lane wooden pony truss bridges. One crosses over the Pearl River, a nice sized river flowing through the middle of (and partly the reason for its present location) the capital of Jackson. However, at twenty miles below the city, all is peace and quiet as my old Camry ramps up the bridge and rattles over the wooden running boards that serve as support. One almost expects to see them filming an episode of Little House on the Prairie.
The next bridge is smaller, as it crosses a tributary of the Pearl. The view is still impressive, however. Being more diminutive, this bridge actually goes straight across, like modern bridges. The larger bridge's span resembles the top three sides of a stop sign, only slightly less exaggerated. (For the curious, you can see a picture of the actual bridge here- it's the sixth picture down.)
From there, I roll into a small town and pass through an old railroad bridge tunnel before crossing over the Interstate- my sole brush with civilization on my daily sojourn. I quickly retreat back into the wilderness, passing down ten miles of random country roads until reaching my destination at a small country town.
Never once do I see a stop light- only the occasional stop sign. It's surprising if I encounter more than ten cars during the entire trip, and most of those are near the small city I pass through. It truly is a perfect drive.
posted by Yorick at 10:20 AM
3 Comments:
But the real question is, do you make this drive listening to Sweet Child 'O Mine?!?! Seriously.
Ben,
Where the hell have you been?
How's the summer treating you- I saw your car downtown one day but you were headed in the other direction.
We should all go out and grab a bite to eat sometime soon before school starts.
And yes- Sweet Child of Mine, the greatest rock song in the world, did come on a few days ago.
yeah dude, been working all summer as a special project (billing/accounting) monkey downtown. I have a new cell phone now so I lost a lot of my numbers in there so I need to see about getting them transferred into this phone. But yeah, you should still have my number. My last day of work is Aug 15th, but we should get together before or around then.
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