The Scenic Route

A few weeks ago, with your help, I created a Top 10 Useless Tech list. Waze, the popular maps and directions app, was not on that list. Waze is cool and useful. It can save you a ton of time on a long road trip, but it can also break up the monotony of a long, straight stretch of Interstate.

Last week, Waze helped me take the scenic route from beautiful Saratoga Springs, N.Y. back home. Apple directions took 8 hours 37 minutes and $47 in tolls. Waze got us back in just more than 9 hours and we avoided tolls completely.

The old me would have said the tolls were worth the time savings. The new me discovered that I really enjoyed the scenery. Detours through small towns meant that I got to see some beautiful mountains, rolling rivers, quaint towns, lots and lots of crops, and the coup de grâce — lunch at First Prize Mike’s. Mikes, founded in 1947, is a stark brick roadside diner which boasts “the world’s finest hot dogs.” They were good. They were tasty, but not the world’s best, but I’m soooo glad I got to see another legendary diner that reminded me of my own. The cooks and servers were surly. The patrons were friendly and talkative. Reminded me of a place I know in Lynchburg.

When the ​​Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways plan was crafted in 1956, there were many, many roadside places like First Prize Mike’s. The Interstate Highway system was created with great intentions. We connected parts of America and could reach them in record time. But the Interstates essentially destroyed hundreds of small towns and communities that were bypassed. Route 66 is littered with tiny towns and villages now left with nothing more than a marker of what used to be there. You can look no further than a stretch of US 1, either North or South of Richmond, to see abandoned motels and businesses that died off in the 60’s and 70’s.

It’s a great reminder of two things I learned from two great minds:

1. Regarding laws, I remember Isaac Newton’s Third Law: “For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction.“ 
2. Regarding travel, I remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote: “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

Life is short. Take the scenic route.