Driving North

                Two years ago, give or take a month or two, I was at The Mill in Lincoln, Nebraska typing away on my laptop.  Now I’m at The Mill in Lincoln, Nebraska, typing away at my laptop.  I don’t really know how zip files work on a computer, nor how information is “compressed,” but I have the distinct impression that a similar process just happened to me and I’m not sure how, exactly, to access all those files between then and now, filled with Peace Corps, Belize.

                First, perhaps, more recent memories, driving across half the United States.

                The most astonishing thing about it is pure, raw beauty, the cleanliness.  From the emails I received in the last two years, the forwards of the havoc wrought by the current administration, the chaos in financial markets, the dire predictions from the talking heads, I of course expected to see the frayed edges of an unraveling infrastructure.

                The 4-lane I-95 from Fort Lauderdale up to Jupiter Florida is now 5 lanes in each direction and still under construction.  As I walked around Jupiter, it seems all I saw were late model Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus and SUVs, and our old Camry.  Of course, that might have been just southern Florida, but as we drove north most everything looked late model and shiny.  There was very little trash, and the interstates were absolutely gorgeous.  We drove on up from Jacksonville to Asheville, North Carolina for a wedding, the daughter of a good friend.  Fuel prices were low compared to Belize, the roadways were busy, even jammed up as we came into Asheville and the parking lots were full of cars of people shopping at the various malls and stores. 

                After the wedding, we headed west on I-40, then north on I-71 at Lexington, enjoying the stunning palette of colors offered by fall in the Great Smokey Mountains, some slow traffic as we passed road construction here and there.  We had to double back through St. Louis, as they are working on the I-25 bridge over the Missouri and we didn’t see the detour until late. 

                I couldn’t get over how smooth were these roads we drove on.  Smooth, clean, fast.   The businesses along the road, the franchises, the mom & pops were open for business with customers standing in line.  The fields were combined and clean all the way up into Nebraska, where now and then we saw corn yet standing.  My sister and her husband were down to the last 500 acres when we stopped by south of Pierce, and figured to be done combining in five days or so if the weather held.  Corn is seven or eight dollars per bushel, soybeans up over eleven.

                I know that as far as the pundits are concerned, the economy tanked even before I left for Belize.  Seems they have not convinced a lot of the Midwest to buy into it.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems, many of which we created through our own greed. 

                The housing market is tough.  I’d like to sell my duplex, but can’t.  I’d really like to blame someone for the fact that I need to sell it for more than it’s now worth, but the truth is I just plain borrowed too much against it.  Like a lot of people.  Like a lot of people who paid too much for too little house, or bought a house thinking they could turn it and make a quick buck.  Nothing really wrong with that, but the fact is, we got greedy.  There were markets in Florida and Arizona where house were appreciating $100,000 a year.  That’s not real.  There is not enough real value in the property to prop those outrageous prices.  It used to be called real estate, because it is supposed to be tangible, real.    I read of a couple in Florida who bought a house one day and sold it the next for double what they paid.  Some might say that’s just good business, good luck.  I would call that greed.  And that is part of what fueled where the housing market is now.  And that greed infected the whole housing market, all the way up to the commercial bankers who bundled the blue sky and sold it as good earth. 

                All that to say, looking with eyes that have been out of the US for a couple of years, this is a pretty good place to be.  We are blessed beyond belief and rich out of all proportion to the rest of the world.  Maybe it takes some distance to appreciate that fact, but I do appreciate it now.

Comments

[Fort]

Ah,just as I had hoped, the first of a new chapter of beautifully descriptive poetry in motion rants. Thanks, will.