Highways

Sheryl and I took the kids down to Florida this weekend to see her brother and his wife. It was a good trip and we'll have some pictures up next week.

One of the things that I enjoyed about the travel was the fact that our route took us directly along Highway 331 in Alabama. I am a big fan of highway travel. I feel like there's something about interstate driving that separates you from the area you're traveling through. It's great for getting from one place to another extremely quickly and I'm grateful for interstates every morning when I go to work in 30 minutes rather than an hour, but I just love driving highways on trips. I love driving through these little off the beaten path towns, as opposed to exit ramps off of interstates. I love seeing the houses and farms and the rural-ness of it all, which is especially true in Lower Alabama.

It also makes me a bit sad too, because it shows me the way that life has changed. In many of the towns we drove through yesterday, many of the shops on the main streets were closed up, probably victims of the big box stores, like Wal-Mart. Places that at one point must have been the center of the town were just not any more. It's one of those beautiful tragedies that seem to encapsulate so much of life.

So what about you? Got any favorite highways to travel that I can take the kids on five years and bore them with?