AMERICAN CROSSROADS WITH QUESTIONS

American crossroads needs one thing: a car.

You may fly someplace, take a train or bus, but you’ll need a car when you get there.

Where you get the car is always an adventure, especially when it looks like a cathedral of cars.

The Phoenix Sky Harbor rental car Mecca is a good set up for worshippers.

In the days of old the routine was hectic.

Race off the plane, sort through baggage claim, then wait for a shuttle bus.

The bus was crowded and hot, which included lifting and lugging and sweating it out.

But if you’re a man of the people like me, it all works out.

The complainers were the golf-bros in their golfing togs holding things up because they brought too much gear for them to handle alone.

Who didn’t complain? The drivers who seemed to enjoy whipping the crowds up with their high-speed work getting luggage off the racks and into the right hands.

Now no one complains, at least not loud enough to hear.

Why? Because the Sky Train. 

Now you get off the plane, get the bags, and take the elevator up to the loading dock for a monorail to the church of the rental car.

There’s even a stop for long term parking, along with a Turo lot. 

If the idea is to shade customers from extreme temperatures, they got it right.

 

American Crossroads In A Tesla? Nope

We reserved a Tesla just for the experience of something new.

By the time I got to the counter at Budget I chickened out and got a Buick suv instead.

I didn’t want any questions driving ninety on seven lane freeways.

Time spent on roads and in the air made me wonder where everyone was going in such a hurry.

I texted my buddy who’d been on Route 66.

He said he likes seeing the road in front of him more than clouds below.

It’s a good point. Luckily I’ve driven the Southwest enough to want more.

How much more?

Making plans for that run in my road car.

 

Where Is Everyone Going

I’ve seen crowds, been in crowds, been in the crush, and always wondered where everyone else was going.

I saw elevated trains in NYC packed to the doors and wondered what the hell would force someone to get in there.

Now I know what my twenty-four year old self didn’t know: they were going to work, or going home.

Does that ring true for everyone? Probably not.

Why would anyone live in extreme weather? That was the question.

The answer: People are either on an internal journey of discovery, or they make a boatload of money.

Both answers may be correct for the same people.

Both are true for one class of people: travel writers.

They make things more exciting than simply going from point A to point B, and back, but that’s the gist of it.

I do the same.

When you get out and about, when you’re rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi, everyone is on their private mission.

Everyone is caught up in their travel plans and may not be on their best behavior.

The most you can do is be on your best behavior.

In the goal oriented world we live in, that’s doing a lot.