Although it was as cold as a witch's tit in a brass bra, I suited up, fired up the Miata and headed north to rural America.
I've needed to do this since the censoring has begun in ernest. I've had a couple of websites I frequent labeled as unsuitable by Big Tech and they've been scrambling to find new servers.
Someone that routine emails me has had their emails to me blanked out because apparently her server didn't like the content. It's getting pretty bad and I had to take a break.
Every trip needs a mission and this one was to get a hot dog in a country convenience store. Not a chain store, where food is made to order but an old fashioned nasty old gas station hot dog.
I really didn't care if I got a damned hot dog. I just wanted to get away from the internet, the censorship, suburbia and the bull$hit in general.
I also wanted to do a little zooming and booming through a couple of twistie backroads which I did end up doing.
I already said it was cold out so I donned a flannel shirt under my flight jacket, wrapped a silk scarf around my neck and decided to top it off with a Snoopy hat and goggles.
So clad and ready for adventure I fired up the Miata, strapped in with the 4 point harness and hit the trail and headed straight to the boring part, the expressway. It wasn't long before I got off at an exit where I could get on a quiet PA secondary highway. I've been on this road before and was surprised it had been repaved recently.
That's when I realized I wasn't out to rat-shack race, I just wanted to enjoy a sports car and I did slow it down a little. Instead of simply wanting to go balls out rat-shack I wanted to go as fast as I could but still stay in the center of the lane. I wasn't slicing curves and drifting around corners.
It was quite a joy, really, an escape and truly managed to forget about the damned government and big tech playing the Big Brother game. I really needed that.
I did stop at a few places, a feed store here, a convenience mart there and get out and talk to a few country folk. It was a joy.
Some of the places I passed still had Trump signs up and one or two had home made signs. One read 'Gun owners matter'.
We're in the simple country of people that believe in the basics and live somewhat simple lives. Many gun owners lives DO matter along with a lot of other's people's lives of all races, creeds and colors. On the other hand many lives really don't matter to me one bit.
Rolling past a few Amish farms I saw a Dutchman out at the end of his driveway. I stopped and chatted with him. I suppose I would look a bit odd to an English but I know I didn't to a Dutchman. They tend to be practical and in an open cockpit to him I'd imagine my outfit made sense. We talked about what he's going to grow next season and what was interesting is he hasn't made his mind up yet. It depends on the kind of winter we have.
I suggested corn so we could make bourbon whisky and he laughed. It's a shame I didn't have a half pint of Jim Beam because I know he would have appreciated a snort. Dutchmen like a good drink from time to time. Many of them also like a good cigar.
Still, I am not going to even try once to second guess an Amish farmer. While he doesn't have internet access like his English counterpart, in farming even the internet can't predict the upcoming growing season Although the English may use data they glean off of the web, what it boils down to is the Dutchman's guess is about as good as anyone else's.
A few years back I met a farmer and asked him how he knew what to plant in season. He explained how he reads all the government predictions he gets off of the computer and he laughed and said, "Then I ask a couple of Dutchmen, add everything up and divide by three."
It's an interesting world out there. It's also simple in many ways but complex in others. Still, it's a change.
A while back I brought up the war against Christianity. The guy I was talking to went off like a skyrocket about First Amendment and how the Christians are being treated poorly and so on and so forth. He thought Christianity was getting a pretty raw deal. He also commented the Jews were getting a raw deal, too.
I asked him what his faith was and he turned red and admitted he hadn't been inside a church in over 40 years. Then it occurred to me. He was sticking up not for any particular church but the very right to attend the one of one's choosing.
Of course I saw some sick looking late 20s type walking around looking like holy hell. An obvious abuser of something. He was really skinny so I figured meth as meth is pretty cheap and can be made at home if one has the patience. Someone once told me the recipe but I have forgotten it over the time. Some things are the same all over. I think heroin is the drug of choice in the 'burbs these days.
As I went through some of the towns in the county north of me I saw that about every other or every third phone pole had the picture of a veteran hanging from it. In a small borough of less than a thousand people there was a modest monument dedicated to those who served standing outside the borough building.
As I cruised along the army vet in me came to life and I started looking around for things. I saw defilade and realized that I'm in deer hunter country. A lot of these people are hunters and one guy I briefly chatted with spoke of having three deer in his freezer.
I saw any number of backhoes and other machinery in yards and realized these people have the capability of making an entire infantry squad simply vanish. I do recall that in the Shenendoah Valley a rather large unit of Yankee troops vanished never to be seen or heard of again. A small unit of anything could probably vanish here if the locals decided to make it happen.
Oh, yeah. The hot dog.
I pulled into a non-chain convenience store and saw one of those spinning hot dog rollers. There were two dogs on it and both looked pretty nasty. They looked like they had been on the roller for days.
They were coated with the grease that the heat had leeched out of them and I knew the inside was going to be pretty crunchy. When I pulled one out and put it in a roll the clerk looked at me in alarm and told me to throw it out.
Instead I slathered it with mustard and relish.
The clerk refused to let me pay for it but did let me pay for a small coke. I took it outside and it was delicious!
If the weather is decent today when the sun comes up I think I will head in a different direction. I'll head toward the hills and pay moonshine country a little visit. Update. It's snowing. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.
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