First we should celebrate our Interstate. The traffic is nicely spaced. Unlike I-10 or I-20 which is bumper to bumper at times, the trip on our Interstate offers passing space and good sight lines. Merging traffic is no issue on our rural Interstate. One can set their cruise control and drive unabated north and south.
Left lane lollygaggers do exist on the Interstate. State law requires that you pass a vehicle and return to the right lane. The left lane is for passing. There are drivers who camp out in the left lane. The motivation for their left lane love is unclear. The fruits of my anecdotal research into the left lane lollygaggers will be offered at a later time. That is the only troubling aspect of I-49. Since there isn’t tremendous amounts of traffic, passing on the right is possible. Glaring at the offending left lane lollygaggers is permissible. I use these opportunities to work on my non-verbal communication skills.
Cool stuff is transported down our Interstate. Parts of large wind turbines head north. Airplane wings head south. Oil field equipment goes both ways.
The camper ratio remains at 14 to 1. Several years ago I noted in an article the camper or motor home phenomena. If you see a camper or motor home in your direction of travel it will be matched by 14 headed the other way before you see another camper in your direction of travel. I have checked the book of the Revelation to see if this is some harbinger for the tribulation, but have come up blank.
There are amazing drivers on our Interstate. While checking the 14 to 1 ratio, extra credit is given for those motorhomes that are pulling other vehicles. To date my favorite was the motorhome pulling a trailer, a boat, a car and jet skis. He created his own traffic jam and caravan at the same time. Knowing what I know about pulling things, which is almost nil, that guy or gal is my towing hero or heroine.
All this fluff brings me to what I saw yesterday on I-49. I have been driving the roads of Louisiana for nearly 40 years now. This was my first ever sighting. On the shoulder of I-49 there was a road kill alligator. It was a fairly good sized gator too. I saw the gator and started humming a few bars of that great song, “There’s a Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.” I have been thinking about that gator.
When I lived in South Florida gators tended to hang around golf courses, especially in the ponds. There were certain things you never did, because gators were “there.” I’m thinking about that because a guy in Florida jumped into a pond to retrieve a golf ball and a gator got him. Of course they later got the gator and that was sad. Bubba should have walked away from his errant water shot, but there are some people who have this strange love for errant golf balls.
Two gators were being gators. One was taking a bath and the other was taking a walk and both ended up at the end of the road of their gator lives. That gator at the side of the road inspired a couple of thoughts. First you really don’t know when your time will be.
You could be out for a swim or crossing the road and BAM!
The second thought is related, live each day fully. Jesus is all about NOW. Living for Jesus now is the only antidote for BAM.
Paid
I was just traveling home from south Louisiana a couple of days ago on I-49, and spotted a gator in a roadside canal. I hope he wasn’t the one that got road-killed; I was planning to back and gumboify him when it gets cooler!