Sojourn Chronicles
All across the countryside are monuments to an agricultural industry and lifestyle. For many small towns, the grain elevator was a center of activity, a gathering place for farmers to bring their grain and socialize with others.
Although most of these grain elevators are still in use, they look old and show signs of deterioration, for they are not large enough for today’s big agribusinesses.
Brent
What happens to the playground when the small town school is abandoned for a newer facility or the school district is merged with another. All too often, the building is sold or even abandoned. The same is true for the playground.
See you on the highway.
Brent
The barn has seen better days. At some point in its history, someone decided it was not worth repairing or the upkeep. The structure was left to face on its own, the years of seasonal changes, stormy weather and all that mother nature could throw at it.
How long will it be before one very stiff, gale force wind will topple it leaving it in a pile of broken timbers and lumber? How long before the roof caves in? One year? Ten?
Brent
The dually-wheeled pickup truck pulled out of the side road with plenty of safe distance, but then failed to accelerate to highway speeds. Following at a safe distance on the motorcycle, I soon realized why it was going slow and would continue to go slow.
At every driveway, he was flipping a rolled up newspaper in one of those plastic sleeves out of the truck. Although there was a passenger, the driver was like a robot, throwing to the left and then over the cab of the truck to the driveways on the right.
Because of the double yellow line, and the curves, I was content to follow and watch, but then, I had little choice. He rarely missed. Oh sure, there was an occasional paper in a tree, and one missed the driveway and slid into a gulley. That one will probably lay there for a while. Maybe a long while.
We have the same method of delivery in our neighborhood. The other day, while I was rolling the motorcycle out of the garage, and had it parked at the end of the drive, a delivery driver rolled by and threw our paper forcefully to the side of me. I will give him the benefit of doubt, because he did wave. I picked the weekly flyer up and properly disposed of it in the recycle bin. I never read them. But I am absolutely sure that all those papers thrown out on Middleboro Road delivered by that driver in a dual-wheeled, heavy duty pick up truck were read cover to cover. Well maybe. Okay, maybe they were recycled like mine.
The one aspect of this brief encounter that I am still wondering about is why anybody would use a heavy-duty, dual-wheel pick up truck to deliver newspapers. That thing probably gets 10 miles per gallon! Even the guy in my neighborhood is using a small car. Maybe the truck owner thought it would be a good way to deduct mileage and therefore write off the truck expense, and he would own a truck that could pull heavy duty equipment. Yeah, maybe that’s it.
Or, maybe it’s just a truck thing.
See you on the highway.
Brent
With the weather improved, I went back to my ABCD photo location to grab another photo and show why semi-trucks and campers are prohibited. It took a 15mm fisheye lens to be able to show the whole picture. It’s a good road for motorcycling.
See you on the highway.
Brent