The Laughing Wolf

As Much As Some Things…

For most of my life, I can remember the tourists from Florida being held in a certain amount of disdain. Flatlanders was the polite term, and even if you could not see the license plate you could generally tell the people from Florida by their driving.

They often would speed up a bit on the few straight stretches around the mountains, but panic braked at the sight of even the slightest curve. “Look out Martha, the road jogs a whole five degrees ahead!”

Today, that no longer applies to those folks up for the spring and summer from Florida. It applies as much, if not more, to the yuppies and similar types from Atlanta and surrounding areas. They are the ones who have “discovered” this area and built it up, driven up land prices, taxes, and more. I really do need to find a bumper sticker a friend of mine used to have that said “Why call it tourist season if you can’t hunt them?”

Their driving is right interesting as well, and has been source of amusement as well as some frustration of late. It served also as a useful reminder that as much as some things change, others stay the same. The roads haven’t changed, and some of the drivers have not either.

The problem to this is a limited ability to pass. The few passing areas (straight stretches) are now almost all double yellow lines courtesy of some of these same people. So, be sure to have a book or some interesting companions in the car.

Then again, this area always has been an odd mixture of drivers. It was not unusual to come along and see two pickups stopped the road, the drivers talking just as their parents did on the weekly trip to town in wagons not all that long ago. Then again, there were those who raced the area, both for fun and the delivery of moonshine.

I was lucky enough to be taught how to drive like that by a woman who knew. She took me under her wing when I was about 12, and I am the better for it. More on her later, but as a result, I love to take a couple of these roads when I can. It is a great way to truly check out a vehicle.

One has to exercise caution when doing so, because of the flatlanders, law enforcement, and local game. Coming around a curve at high speed and hitting a bear or deer can take your day down a notch or two.

Still and all, it is good to see that as much as things have changed, others have stayed the same. Now where did I put that book…

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