Off the grid

On the way to Charleston yesterday, as you may have guessed, we stayed off of 95. Took 1 south to Southern Pines (where the team at Subway was exceptionally pleasant), then made our way to Georgetown on an array of smaller roads. Some of them much smaller, thanks to Sergei and Larry.

Mostly, the trek was not rewarded in terms of scenic beauty. A stultifyingly flat and lonely landscape of low economic activity, punctuated now and again with a Dollar General, a church, a truck, a cluster of ranch style houses. In one yard, a guy was driving a golf cart, for no apparent reason. But, on the other hand, the overall effect was that we left the Eastern Multiplex of big roads, warehouses, subdivisions, strip malls and chain restaurants for a few hours, so that when we re-entered it on the outskirts of Charleston, it was a little jarring.

And we got a clear view of the challenges, nay the near impossibilities, of leaving the places we passed through, and thereby an appreciation of how fortunate we are.

At many country crossroads there were signs advertising for high-speed internet. Access to it is by no means a foregone conclusion outside the Multiplex. I was reminded that, at the Person County Democratic meeting, there was a resolution read out, one that was making its way up from another local chapter, which talked about the import of high-speed internet for those in the countryside. It was filled with a great many "whereas" clauses ("whereas, access to the internet is indispensable to modern living...."), so it sounded very quaint. But it bespeaks a real and present need.

And now we are here. Outside it is cold and rainy. It is not supposed to be that, in lower South Carolina in late March, but what are you gonna do. Time to saddle up.