Monday 16th November 2009 - On the Road Again

          So now it's off to Phillidelphia (well, nearly).  I have a careful look at CNN weather.  American weather is fairly easy to understand.  Apparently there is a big low stuck over the central US, held there by Atlantic highs.  So the system picks up moisture in the Gulf, carries it up to Canada to freeze it, then brings it back a bit and drops it all on Kansas.  Kansas is not just going to get early snow, it's going to get lots and lots of it.  The east (that's us), on the other hand, are going to get it nice and warm.

         

          The odd thing now out in the countryside is the corn harvesting.  There is still a lot of very dried corn in the fields, and they're clearly harvesting it bit by bit.  That surely must be to do with Ethanol: it certainly seems very unnatural.

          The radio tells me that they're running out of highway patrol troopers.  It's the way the budgets work: the federal government insists on certain services (like truck weigh stations) for its money, so when the state has to cut back, it's the other bits that go.  I remember back when I was interested in that sort of thing, I used to muse that if my local council was forced to cut back till it could only afford one employee, I would hope it would be their very best carpenter or plumber.  But it would, of course, be their Chief Executive.

          The shortage probably accounts for all the exhortations that line the sides of the roads, about buckling-up, keeping alert for 'DUIs' (driving under the influence), slowing down a bit.

          But there was one sign which appealed to me.  As we were coming out of some mountain ridge, there was a long, steep fall in the road (some of them can be ear-popping) and there was a sign at the top instructing a mandatory stop for trucks before they started down.  It wasn't advisory, I could see them all doing it, they had to pull in and stop.

          I'm beginning to get the hang of the rivers.  I'm on US 322, running alongside the Juniata.  When I get to the state capital at Harrisburg, I shall cross the Susquehanna, and then I'll really be East.

          It's when I'm doing these longish runs that I notice gas prices.  I'm now paying 2.75 a gallon.  A US gallon is about 4 litres, so that's about 70 cents a litre.  Which is presently a bit above 40 pence.  Americans bitch about how high this is.  No wonder they don't do any walking.  By-the-way, there's a study currently in the news saying that American children don't do less exercise than they used to, if anything, they do a bit more.  Their obesity is due to the fact that they eat a lot more.  That's a real candidate for the "No Shit, Sherlock" column, isn't it?

 

          When we get to Pottstown, Dulcie takes me straight to the cheapest of the motel chains, like I asked her.  But it wasn't anything like as cheap as it's been elsewhere.  So I decide to head off for Norristown, the county seat (where the courthouse is) to see if it's any cheaper.  As I turn onto Pottstown's High Street, I see one of the more expensive chains, and, I don't know why, some sort of appraisal of its appearance maybe, but I pull in and ask the rates.  And it turns out to be as low as I've paid for some time. 

          So I'm on the High Street.  I can walk almost everywhere.  The library is about ten minutes away, the Post Office about twenty.  So I'm going to get a bit more exercise. No sooner do I bitch about how difficult walking is, than my path is smoothed for me.  Maybe somebody up there likes me.