Road Trip Truths

The past few weekends, we've taken some family trips out of town, to Wisconsin and Indiana.  Over the years, we've taken numerous family road trips and I've seen a lot of the country.  Through all of these trips, I've learned several universal truths about America in general and family road trips in particular.

1.) Seemingly every small town in America purports to have an "historic downtown".  From Texas to Florida, from Wisconsin to Alabama, virtually every small town has signs directing you to their "historic downtown."  Invariably, most of these so-called "historic downtowns" are a half-empty shell of what they used to be, before the scourge of Wal-Mart stripped those towns of their viable small businesses.  I'm not sure if towns have to get permission to declare their downtowns "historic" or not, but it would be interesting to know.

2.)  Rural America pretty much all looks the same.  If you are driving through a rural area, it can be nearly impossible to tell if you are in Missouri or Florida or Texas.  It all looks the same - trailers and modular homes; lots of cars, at least one of which hasn't run since the Reagan administration; dilapidated barns in various stages of collapse.  And even the dumpiest looking places are bound to have a satellite dish.

3.) Every truck weigh station in America is always closed.  Seriously, how often do you actually ever see any of those things open, with trucks going through them?  We take at least one road trip every year, so we pass dozens of weigh stations each year and I can count on one hand the number of times one has actually been open.  I'm not sure if that's due to state budget cuts or if someone is doing some sort of weird experiment, but it seems like a huge waste of tax dollars to have these buildings and parking lots to maintain when they are never used.

4.) Somebody in the state highway departments in the South thinks their residents are really dumb.  How can you tell?  All of those yellow "Bridge Freezes Before Road" signs.  You don't see those in Missouri or Indiana or Wisconsin.  You only see them in places like Tennessee and Georgia and other parts of the South.  I'm fairly certain that, even if it doesn't freeze that often in the South, folks down there are smart enough to understand basic science and that a bridge with nothing under it is going to freeze prior to a road that has solid ground under it.  I've always found those signs somewhat insulting.

5.)  Every state has those infuriating "trick exits".  You know that ones I'm talking about - the big blue sign alongside the highway leading up to the exit tells you that there is a McDonald's and Burger King and a Shell station.  You're hungry or you need gas, so you get off at the exit, only to find out that the aforementioned establishments are actually 3 or 4 miles away from the highway.  What you thought would be an easy off and on stop becomes an adventure down some windy road in the middle of nowhere.

6.) The kids sleep while I drive, but then when it's my wife's turn to drive and my turn to sleep, the kids are awake and arguing over what movie to watch or what snack to have.  Everybody else is rested and I'm exhausted but there's too much racket to sleep.

7.)  Your kids always have to go to the bathroom at the worst possible time.  Maybe it's when you're stuck in rush hour traffic in Atlanta and your nerves are frazzled.  Maybe it's right after you just passed the last exit for the next 30 miles that has any facilities. Maybe you're almost to your destination and you just want to get there.  Whichever it is, it always seems like it's the worst possible time when you hear that voice behind you say "I have to go to the bathroom!"

I'm sure that you all have others from your trips - I'd love to hear them.  Feel free to add yours in the comments. 

As always, thanks for reading!

Top 10 Beatles Songs

Most critics agree that The Beatles are the greatest rock band of all time.  Even if you disagree with that assessment, they are undoubtedly one of the most important rock bands of all time.  When you consider the amount and quality of the music they produced in just 8 short years (1962-70), it is truly phenomenal.  However, it wasn’t just the hit songs or the fashion changes or the screaming girls.  It was how their music evolved over that time, from simple bubble gum pop/rock songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” to deeper, more complex songs like those on “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper” or “Abbey Road”.  Working with esteemed, Hall of Fame producer George Martin, they set new standards for what could be accomplished in the studio and what popular music sounded like - and they did it while still churning out timeless music, not to mention countless hits.

My parents were big fans of The Beatles, as am I and as are my kids.  In fact, my son had to pick a public figure on which to do research and put together an acrostics project for his 7^th grade Challenge Language Arts class.  He could have chosen any famous person or event in history, but he chose The Beatles.  The simple fact that a middle schooler who was born 33 years after the band broke up would choose them as his research project topic speaks volumes about their historical importance and the enduring legacy of their music.

In memory of the aforementioned unofficial “Fifth Beatle,” George Martin, who died yesterday, I give you my top 10 favorite Beatles songs:

10.          “Day Tripper”

9.            “Nowhere Man”
8.            “Help!”
7.            “Yesterday”
6.            “In My Life”
5.            “Hey Jude”
4.            “Something”
3.            “Eleanor Rigby”
2.            “Here Comes The Sun”
1.            “Let It Be”

Honorable Mention (in no particular order):  “Paperback Writer,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Norwegian Wood,” “Twist and Shout” (if for no other reason than the parade scene in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) and “Got to Get You Into My Life”.

I’d be interested to hear what your choices would be.  Feel free to leave your selections in the comments or reply to this post on Facebook or Twitter.

As always, thanks for reading!

The Inevitability of Donald Trump

It’s seems like it is almost impossible to go more than five minutes these days without hearing two words that cause some people joy, but cause most others confusion, bewilderment and anger.  They are two words that can instantly spark heated discussions and arguments.  They are two words that once were generally said in a joking manner but are now being uttered with a growing sense of trepidation.  What are those two words?  Presidential election?  No.  Supreme court?  Nope.  Gay marriage? Uh uh.  No, the two words of which I speak conceivably touch all of those topics, as well as many more:

Donald Trump.

For many years, Donald Trump has been a bit of a joke.  His hair, his orange skin, his many wives, his reality show and “You’re Fired” tag line, his incessant need to name things after himself.  He was one of those celebrity personalities who everybody had heard of but few people took seriously.  When he announced his plans to run for president last year, everyone laughed and said “OK, whatever, Donald.”  When he made outrageous comments about Mexicans last summer, people laughed and chalked it up to Donald being Donald.  When he rose to the top of Republican presidential polls last year, people scratched their heads said “Huh…I wonder how long this will last” and then waited for him to do something stupid that would wake everyone up and torpedo his campaign.  Then, he did and said stupid things – from mocking a disabled reporter to discussing the menstrual cycle of a journalist to advocating the banning of Muslims.  But instead of those things torpedoing his campaign, they seemed to just strengthen it.  It seems as though whatever outlandish, childish thing he does or says only serves to garner more support from the electorate.  We are now past Super Tuesday and Trump is still in the driver’s seat for the Republican nomination.  What was considered a joke 10 months ago has become something much different.  Do millions of Americans really support this guy or is this just some long, elaborate con?

When you think about it, though, it makes perfect sense.  In a way, we’re getting exactly what we deserve.  The rise of Donald Trump or someone like him was inevitable.  Think about it: in recent years, we’ve become a sharply divided nation where everything is black and white and there’s no gray.  A nation where all blacks are criminals, all cops are racist, all Christians are hypocrites, all rich people are smug, entitled bastards and all poor people are lazy.  People throw around labels and apply them to others without getting to know them or their story.  Everything is a 10 second sound bite that gets dissected to the nth degree by the never-ending 24-hour news cycle.  People are famous for being famous rather than anything they have accomplished.  America is all about style and not much at all about substance.

It’s not just that Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals don’t see eye to eye on the issues.  They never have.  It’s that they no longer even try.  It’s that they don’t even attempt to find common ground because compromise is a dirty word and attempting to work with the other side to find a middle of the road solution is akin to selling out.  Doing so will cause your own party to turn against you because you are not ideologically pure enough.  It’s also that they can’t just agree to disagree – they have to hurl insults at the other side and call them names.  The individuals who are supposed to be our utmost statesmen and stateswomen instead behave like grade school children picking on one another at recess.  Civility is out the door because it’s seen as weakness; instead, we have to attack the other side.  Politicians are more concerned pleasing the base and getting re-elected than they are with actually working together to try to solve our nation’s problems.

With such vitriol a daily occurrence in Washington and the various state capitals, is it any wonder that someone like Donald Trump is doing so well in his quest to become president?  He’s a microcosm of what our society has become – spoiled, petulant, opinionated, argumentative and self-centered.  He is a reflection of the ugly things that a lot of Americans think but don’t say with regard to immigrants, minorities and others who aren’t like ourselves.  Some of his supporters say that he is a backlash against the political correctness that has been preached for the past few decades.  I see it differently – he represents the worst of what Americans think and say behind closed doors.  For years, we have rewarded the bad behavior of our leaders by re-electing those who fling the most mud and voting out the moderates who may actually be attempting to do their jobs.  We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on attack ads and other propaganda that vilify the opposition and demonize people who do not march in lockstep with us.  With anger and intolerance running rampant, it was only a matter of time before a candidate took all of that negativity, wrapped it up in one package and threw it out there to the teeming masses who are eager to latch onto it.  In that sense, the question shouldn’t be how are all these people supporting someone like Donald Trump; the question should be what took it so long for something like this to happen?

The title of this post does not at all imply that I think it’s inevitable that Trump will be elected president.  I hope that never happens because the thought of him representing our nation on the world stage is appalling.  In the end, I think saner minds will prevail.  The title is just a reflection that, with the decline in educated discourse in this country, it was inevitable that someone like him would come along and that a large portion of our population would coalesce around him.  My hope is that the fact that this has, in fact, occurred will cause all of us to do some self-reflection and see how our own actions and the actions of our neighbors have gotten us to this point. My hope is that we will all take steps to begin building bridges rather than torching every bridge we come across.

Thanks for reading!