The Ugliest Car Ride

I'm a Scenic Over Highway Type of Girl

I ended my last post with a statement saying that I was going to write about something ugly this week. Well, I can say that I drew the inspiration, or rather un-inspiration, for this post from the most mundane scenery driving from Virginia to Maryland last week. It was not pretty. I guess most highways aren't that pretty, but this one was so bland and boring. The only colors around me were in the trees on either side of the road and they were the color of over boiled green beans. They were caught in limbo between their warm weather brilliance and their "not quite ready to change" hues that would come with the cooling of autumn. A muted, monochromatic tapestry of green, brown and tan with occasional white puffy spots from the webs of tent caterpillars. I needed color if I was going to be stuck in the car for the next few hours! The road landscape was a constant barrage of construction vehicles and orange cones mixed with piles of dirt and concrete. The only other color I could find were road signs and the painted metal of the cars driving alongside us. So I found myself desperately looking for graphics on the trucks and vans going by; trying to analyze the logo designs and use of space on the side panels. To my dismay, I saw some of the ugliest graphic design I have ever seen. An occasional truck would come and satisfy me even with it's forced typography and the overuse of bold or italic fonts because it had such an awesome retro vibe. But they were few and far between.  As most of my friends know I am always the passenger. I don't like to drive and my amazing husband doesn't seem to mind. I know the highways are the quickest point from A-B in most cases, but I guess I am more of the scenic route type of girl. I enjoy looking at the farms and towns along the way. This particular drive was brutal. Only the occasional hawk flying above me reminded me that beneath the tree line and out of my eyesight were critters, moss, fungi and all of nature's other beauties hiding below.