No! Stay Away!

When we discovered our new little piece of heaven we were thrilled with being back in the country, yet having some shops and medical services nearby. Evidently lots of other folks feel the same way and we will quickly (I fear) be surrounded by Everywhere Suburbia, USA. 

Truthfully, the writing was on the wall. We just chose to overlook it. For example, the road outside our development is a 4-lane highway, with practically no traffic most times of the day. Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Target and other shops/restaurants are only 4 miles, and 2 stoplights, away.  I guess they didn't build it just for my convenience! All I can think of is, "Build it and they will come!"

Key to the map

Yellow Star: our house on top, center, and shops on the right

Red Circles: existing stop lights. The entrance to our community is at the red dot on the left side of the picture. 

Green speech bubble above the highway: cute cows that were there five months ago, and have now been displaced by earthmovers and machinery paving the way for more big box stores. 

Green speech bubble below the highway: cute cows and donkeys, with a sign out front indicating that they are grazing on borrowed time on commercial property that is for sale.

Pink speech bubble labeled "Trouble": site of the exit ramp for the Suncoast Parkway with a new stoplight standing between me and the stores. It's due to open any day. 

Shrouded stop lights up ahead.

The boom truck on the left is installing directional highway signs

The Suncoast Parkway is a toll road that runs from our area to Tampa. Even though this particular exit hasn't been opened...yet... the toll road has been convenient to hop on and proceed to Tampa on a direct route with less traffic. I'm thinking lots of folks will appreciate the easy access to a speedier commute. The new exit will dump all northbound vehicles onto the four lane highway, until they construct the flyover and extend the toll road to the north. How serendipitous to have our development, with over 3,000 empty lots right at the end of the proverbial rainbow! Not to mention other communities in all directions. It reminds me of billboards I've seen, "If you lived here you'd be home by now!" 

Yikes! Traffic outside our area, including the main entrance/through road in our development, is going to be a snarl of cars and trucks in the future. Ugh! At least we are nestled in an area with larger lots, on a road that really isn't convenient to use as shortcut. There is some satisfaction to be gained from that.

Merrily We Roll Along

We left Florida, headed for the Tiffin factory and service center in Red Bay, AL. Our travels had been uneventful. The sun was out, it was a tad more windy than Mr. Dreamy likes, but all in all, things were going along quite smoothly. Then....

traffic slowed to a crawl. With the new Google map, one can see how the traffic is moving - the route will be red, yellow or green - oh, and very dark red. The route in front of us was dark red. There was a symbol on the route showing that there was a traffic incident ahead. (Our technology is so awesome!)

Did I ever mention that patience is not one of Mr. Dreamy's strongest points? He was not taking kindly to this disruption of our day. Of course, he was the one driving inching forward, not I. Well, actually, I did get to experience it for a few minutes. Mr. Dreamy had been talking about the need for a break. Now with the traffic situation, that break was going to happen even later. So, Mr. Dreamy stopped the coach, put on the parking brake and turned the seat over to me. I hopped in and began driving rolling forward a few feet at a time. After a bit, Mr. Dreamy came back and reclaimed his spot. I was grateful. I am not experienced at driving - this stint at the wheel added another 1/2 mile to my 100 mile total. This sort of driving was fine - it really was my speed, but I worried about the traffic clearing and everyone speeding up. I need not have worried! We spent some more time inching forward. I made sandwiches. We inched a bit further. I enjoyed watching a passenger in the car ahead of us get out and dance on the Interstate. A few more inches. I considered making a sandwich for the truck driver next to us. We moved along.... slowly.

As we progressed we could see police cars ahead. They were blocking the road at an exit to downtown Birmingham, AL. Three lanes (plus a 4th that came and went on the breakdown lane/shoulder) had to merge into one lane. It was slow going. Then, we were dumped on a fairly typical city street. Mr. Dreamy was not particularly happy. Any patience he had, had long ago been used up! Thank Heavens for Google maps that showed me the route to direct him (the GPS wanted him to turn back and take the onramp for the Interstate - yes, I know there is a feature to have it provide a detour, but we've never tried it before). With only a mile of small city blocks, and stops and starts at almost every intersection, we were able to get on an expressway that led to the next Interstate we wanted, and we were on our way.

Not so for the poor hapless soul idiot who decided to drive around the road block.... I do wonder just what the police had to say to him!