Along the Road, Twixt There and Here ...

From Becket, Mass., to Hudson, Ohio, today ... in no particular order ...

• On the Taconic Parkway very early this morning--a red smeared line along the eastern horizon eventually swelled into a sunrise.
• A crow, surely marveling at his/her good fortune, stood alongside I-84 contemplating a dead deer nearby.
• The length of the Taconic Parkway--from its beginning on I-90 to my exit at I-84: not a single vehicle passed me--nor did I pass anyone.
• I followed a car out onto I-80 near Clarion, Pa. (where I'd stopped for coffee), a car going 35 mph.  I said some bad words.
• The McDonald's servers charge me only for "Senior Coffee" whether I ask for it or not.  Should I be grateful?  Or insulted?
• On I-81 I saw a red fox that had not been sly enough.
• The wind today was so strong that it cut about 8 mpg from my usual rate on that trip.
• Why do the pumps at the Hudson BP (where I filled up when I got home) never send out a receipt, sending me inside to get one?  (Yes, I asked the pump to print one; it refused--again.)
• Snow flurried wildly in the Alleghenies; none stuck to the road.  No one slowed down.
• Why can trucks nowadays maintain 75 mph going up a steep hill?  Even with double and triple trailers?  When I was in driver ed (1961), we were taught that trucks always slowed dramatically on an upgrade.  Not no more ...
• Why was a Ford F-150 parked in one of the slots that said "Compact Cars Only" at one of the rest areas?  Can't read?  Or just an asshole?
• Did anyone passing me today know that for many miles I was reciting aloud the 120+ poems I've memorized?  Or did they just see an old guy flapping his jaws and figure ... Dotage!
•  I saw a hawk whose eyesight hadn't been good enough alongside I-80.
• Do you have to go to school to learn how to speed up to pass, then slow down so that I have to pass you, just before you pass me again?  For miles ...
• Your erratic speed tells me you're texting.
• Several Priuses, doing 80+, whispered by me at various times along my route.  My Prius felt inadequate--Prius envy?