You can't get there from here

I have been up and down our new Interstate 49 several times this week. It makes me feel like we are really in the big time now. But I got to worrying about those people and businesses that have their access to the highway traffic hampered.

Even before US 71 was changed into I-49 I discovered something I didn't like. As we were going northward I noticed a man with a pickup at a side road selling sacked pecans. I told our son who was driving, that when we came back home I wanted to stop and get some pecans if the man was still there. Michael told me that he couldn't get over to the place where the man was parked when we were southbound. I was disappointed but later in the week I found one of our neighbors selling similar $10 bags of cracked pecans so I didn't think much more about it.

But on our next trip up to the city I began looking at all the places that were affected that way. The orchard selling apples, cider and also pecans could be reached from either side IF you knew where to turn and how to back track to get to their entrance. I wondered how many people would bother to investigate this, other than our local people who try to trade locally and would discover how to get there.

Farther north there is the Amish sales room on the west side of the highway. I am sure there is a way to get there if you are heading north, but I couldn't figure it out as we sped by. On the way home I realized that you would have to get off the highway several feet before you pass the store in order to get on the outer road. When I am traveling in unknown territory I would not usually pause to figure it out, even if the building and signs appealed to me as I passed.

I remember a restaurant on the east side of the highway a little north of Archie that had to change its way of business way back when US 71 became four-laned. People could no longer just pull in from either direction to have a hamburger. It appeared to be vacant this week.

Those homes that are just residences, not commercial places, must have had to do some figuring on what is the best way to get to town or to go see their neighbors. I noticed an article in the paper recently about a man who had gone the wrong direction in a highway lane for quite a few miles before he got stopped. His excuse was that he was just trying to get home. I can imagine that feeling if it happened to be where the traffic flow had changed recently.

When you are middle age plus you forget a lot of things, but your long term memory tells you very clearly what road to take to get home. I guess we should not worry and just hope we are going the correct way. At least now we can go 70 miles per hour while we are trying to figure out where to turn!