When in Rome do as the Romans do

[Marsha Lynn]

Does anyone else latch onto local traffic when needing an impromptu detour? I had a meeting in Indianapolis today -- 90 miles away. There were traffic blockages both ways. The first one was close enough to home that I knew how to get around it. The second was in an area with which I'm less familiar.

I mentioned in another recent thread that we have two fairly nice routes (state highways) going northeast to Indy that are almost the exact same mileage and time. Today I chose the path less traveled both ways, hoping to enjoy the beautiful fall day at a leisurely pace.

I have no clue what caused the traffic to stop, but in the first case there were people out of their vehicles and cars in front of me turning around to try another route when I got there so I did the same. The second time I waited through two green lights without seeing any movement at all and bailed into a left turn lane that put me on a road that would have taken me eight miles or so in a useless direction to the other route. When the vehicle in front of me turned south onto a county road I followed. After all, it was the right direction for home and good enough for that vehicle. After a while, a car got between us and when those two parted ways, I chose to follow the second car south rather than the first one east. (I was glad I made that decision when I noticed the first vehicle turned into a drive.) The second vehicle led me to the other route. Looking at a map after I got home, I see that it I took one side of a triangle rather than the top side and hypotenuse.

Sometimes following the Romans works, sometimes you just end up finding out where they live.

By the way, there were two GPS units stashed in the vehicle but I wasn't expecting to get off the beaten path so didn't have them readily available. I figured I could get them out if necessary but as long as I knew I was between the two familiar routes and going the right direction on good roads, I didn't see any need to pull over to get one going. I figured I would eventually stumble onto one highway or the other.

Overall, it was a funny day to be trying to get around southern Indiana. Not only did I have those two detours plus unusually heavy traffic in some areas, but the drive-through at McDonald's broke down while I was in line. Not a good day for making time.

Marsha

[Mike Schutz]

I do that all the time. Most times successful, sometimes not. Always interesting.

[John Kennedy]

It's a good thing Robert Frost didn't live in SW IN. He wrote that "two roads diverged in a wood and I....took the one less traveled by". In your scenario it sounds like you had a veritable plethora (one rarely is able to bag a plethora, and a veritable one is even more of a trophy) of diverging roads. Frost would've needed to see a gaggle of therapists before he could've put pen to paper.

I know the feeling - you kow what direction you should be going in (I know all about the preposition prohibition), so you just keep pluggin' away, hope springing eternal.

[John Kennedy]

I do that all the time. Most times successful, sometimes not. Always interesting.

The hymn phrase comes to mind: "Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing........"

[Jim Franklin]

So checking my atlas, I take it that you went through Spencer rather than Bloomington or am I making a miscalculation, Marsha? Sometimes detours seem to be "roamin' roads.

[Marsha Lynn]

So checking my atlas, I take it that you went through Spencer rather than Bloomington or am I making a miscalculation, Marsha? Sometimes detours seem to be "roamin' roads.

Spencer was my first choice -- the road less traveled -- but I ended up in Bloomington against my druthers on the way home. It was still a pretty drive and one I've done many, many times, just not the route I intended to take yesterday.

Does your map show an interstate highway in southern Indiana? I crossed two almost-but-not-yet stretches of Interstate 69 yesterday, which is expected to connect our area to Evansville by the end of 2013 and extend to Indianapolis soon after -- if the opposition in Bloomington subsides enough to get it built. Those opposing the building of that road gained some tragic support Monday morning as a truck hauling gravel to the site of an exchange just west of Odon plowed into three people dealing with a vehicle out of gas, killing them all. Or maybe it was further support for the interstate. Rural state highways have more fatalities per mile driven than any other type of street or road in the country and that's where people around here drive most of the time for lack of an interstate.

Marsha

[Jim Franklin]

Yes, my atlas map of Indiana shows I69 crossing I64 near Evansville continuing up to Scotland and from there to Indianapolis a dotted line of the proposed continuation when completed. I can imagine the "greenies" of Bloomington's acadamia protesting the continuation of the route.

[Marsha Lynn]

Yes, my atlas map of Indiana shows I69 crossing I64 near Evansville continuing up to Scotland and from there to Indianapolis a dotted line of the proposed continuation when completed. I can imagine the "greenies" of Bloomington's acadamia protesting the continuation of the route.

You got that right, Jim! The Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and the state government are engaged in a stand-off over the issue. I just finished reading an editorial which first appeared in the Bloomington paper pointing out to the MPO that they will not succeed in stopping the interstate from being built by refusing to include it in their plan. Either the interstate traffic will be dumped onto local highways in the Bloomington area or it will be rerouted out into the county beyond the jurisdiction of the MPO. It's too late to stop the road from being built. The stretch from Evansville to Scotland is almost half done. But the Bloomington MPO certainly hasn't given up yet.

[Daniel Hamlin]

In your scenario it sounds like you had a veritable plethora (one rarely is able to bag a plethora, and a veritable one is even more of a trophy) of diverging roads. Frost would've needed to see a gaggle of therapists before he could've put pen to paper.

I'm pretty sure you broke some laws by using "veritable plethora" and "gaggle" in the same paragraph.

[Marsha Lynn]

I'm pretty sure you broke some laws by using "veritable plethora" and "gaggle" in the same paragraph.

I'm pretty sure you're right, but think of all the fun he had doing it. He'll still be grinning even as the vocabulary police gag him and stuff him in the back of their perfectly accented white van.

[John Kennedy]

I'm pretty sure you broke some laws by using "veritable plethora" and "gaggle" in the same paragraph.

Life is uncertain. Not only have dessert first, but get in the face of the vocab (and grammar) police whenever possible.

I think it was Winston Churchill who, when admonished about using 'with' at the end of a sentence, responded: "That is arrant nonsense up with which I shall not put!"