Driving to Florida

When I was a kid we drove to Florida to visit my grandparents every year. It was so wonderful to spend time together as a family. Even the drive was fun, tedious, but fun. I remember the things we did together. Stopping at my dad's favorite restaurants, driving through towns, seeing the US a little bit. "Look out the window," my mom would say. "Don't you want to see what Georgia looks like?"

Driving to Florida today is somewhat different. You see, they have finished I95 and so, today, it is much faster and easier. No more getting off the Interstate and driving on US 1. No more driving through those little towns and seeing how other people along the way lived.

I was thinking about that as we drove 20 hours on a road that pretty much looked the same. Travel in the US has become easier, but has it become better? Instead of getting off now and then because a stretch of 95 wasn't complete, we missed going through those little downtowns and seeing what life was like along the way.

Of course, if you put out some effort and get off the Interstate you can still see a little bit of what life used to be like. But in many places the downtowns are crumbling. The old shopping districts have given way to the suburban shopping mall. Sadly, every shopping mall in the US has pretty much the same stores with the same products whether you are in New York or Minnesota.

If you are looking for what makes a place special, it may be harder to find, but it is still there. You just have to get off the Interstate and be open and willing to explore. The thing about exploring is, of course, that it doesn't always work out. You don't always find what you are looking for. But is that a good reason to forgo doing it?

The same is true in our lives. If we want to find something special we have to get off the Interstate. We have to make an effort to take a detour and get out there and search. We may not always succeed, but then again, on occasion, we might.