The Higher Common Sense

[chronographia]

Greetings from suddenly ice-covered Missouri, where there is a Panera and therefore civilization and free wifi. This is what happens when the passenger is reading aloud Cold Comfort Farm; sooner or later reality is forced to produce civilization and tidiness.

One of the very awesome points of this trip so far:

• Interstate 10 through Tucson is undergoing construction for the next three years. Why, you might ask, is it taking so long to complete a simple road-widening? Because the southwest and Arizona in particular have some sort of mandate to make their infrastructure aesthetically pleasing, with native designs and murals and sculpted concrete motifs. To that end, the rich mineral heritage of the state means that the tops of the underpass pillars must be decorated with bas-relief trilobites, ammonites, crinoids and so forth. It looks like a small temple to paleontology that you can drive through. SO AWESOME.

One of the more worrying points of this trip so far:

• Driving along the highway system in the southwest (despite it being aesthetically pleasing) is very much like a Non-Stop Mystery Tour of Our Nation's Correctional Facilities. Thrill to the sturdy slats that keep you from seeing the faces on the prisoner transfer busses as you pass them on the road! Marvel at the yards and yards of barbed wire that separate you from high security prisons! Shiver as you catch a glimpse of the soul-sucking grey walls of a Homeland Security detention center! Gasp as the INS border patrol squint beady-eyed at you at a border checkpoint! And above all mind the signs that instruct you, "DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS." Worrying.