Jo’s Cafe

Something you might not know about me, unless you read the “About Me” list on the left, is that I lived in Texas for a period of time. I really didn’t like Texas all that much. First the Army smacked us down in a little town that was barren compared to where we’d come from, and the weather – let’s just not go there.

But there were a few things about Texas that were nice – mainly, the roads.

I was going to Macon, GA today to take my AAI test (see post two below this one) from Columbus. Now anyone that lives in the area reading this knows the road to Macon is Highway 80, and is mostly two lanes. The drive is beautiful, especially after you get through Talbotton. The trees on the sides of the road cocoon you in green. Every now and then a crossroad appears, or a beautiful columned Tara style house, but mostly it’s you, the road and the trees.

Now the bad thing about this trip, aside from it being 2 hours long, is this road is a two lane and 55 mph. Okay – so no one I know drives 55 on this road, but either way, there are those times when you come up on someone poking along like it’s Sunday afternoon and they don’t have any where else to be. Now, there are spots were you can get around them, but they are very few and far in between.

These are the times when I wish I could grab up an FM road out of Texas and plop it down over the top of HWY 80.

See, in Texas, the FM (Farm to Market) roads have wide shoulders. Not wide as in you can get half your car and two tires off on it – wide like you can put your whole danged vehicle on it. I learned really quickly after arriving in Texas what these wide shoulders are for. It’s for those times when you are driving the speed limit, or under, or a slow moving tractor or towing something and someone comes up behind you at the speed limit. You simply, flick on the blinker and move slowly to the left onto the wide shoulder. After the driver of the vehicle behind you moves past, guess what? They wave to thank you for moving over. Dang, manners!! (Not found off on GA roads I must add). Then after you have let that person move on down the road, you get back on the road and putz along as you were before.

Yes – I can honestly say I miss Texas FM roads. And Texas manners.