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Road Trips

I have a few observations from my recent road trip to St. Louis:


~     Billboard advertising, especially along the I94/I80 corridor consists mainly of advertisements for strip clubs, truck stops, casinos, personal injury/bankruptcy attorneys and McDonald's. 
     The strip clubs are often referred to as 'gentlemen's clubs' and I wonder why because I don't think the men glaring at nearly-naked young women and shoving dollar bills down the dancer's g-strings, are gentlemen. According to Webster's the definition of a gentleman is "a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man".
      And truck stops are at nearly every exit along this corridor- some offer showers. Maybe to shower off after a visit to the 'gentlemen's club'? 
     Casinos - there  were billboards for three in Northern Indiana, six in the Chicago area and four in Michigan. I'm not very good at math, and used a calculator to check my addition, but that's 13 places to lose your money and 13 is not a lucky number! Some of the casinos offer alternatives to gambling that include spas and shopping- and some even present themselves as glamorous. One casino advertised senior days, another an opportunity to win a car every Wednesday in April (or something like that, I don't remember the details).
    Attorneys billboards were mainly personal injury or bankruptcy. I found the latter interesting when it was next to a billboard for a casino- a place where people lose a lot of money! Another attorney billboard advertised personal injury and divorce, it was located near one of the strip clubs. Interesting placement indeed!
   And then there are the McDonald's billboards. Again at nearly every exit there is a McDonald's. And that's why I found it interesting- if you're at nearly every exit why so many billboards? 

~  Exceptional drivers all along my drive to and from St. Louis. I'm not commenting on their driving ability so much as on their exception to the law that reads, "left lane for passing only". At one point on our way home Sunday, the only vehicles in the right lane were the trucks and the really slow drivers or us, trying to maneuver along a two-lane interstate. (And we weren't one of the slow drivers!)

~   Construction season has begun! The orange cones and signs are everywhere. And while that also means warm weather will soon be here in Michigan, it also means delays & detours.


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