Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Take on the strip-mall nation

As I travel the country going from one Holiday Inn Express to another, it's striking how similar so many parts of the country are. I often fly into a city, get my rental car from Budget after sitting on the Budget shuttle for 10 minutes, fall asleep and wake up in a Holiday Inn Express located off the exit of a state-highway, get a copy of the USA Today delivered in front of my door, grab breakfast at a McDonalds drive-through, eat lunch at an Applebees in a strip mall next to an Olive Garden, get a cup of coffee at a Dunkin Donuts and pump my gas at a Shell station within throwing distance of both a Lowes and a Home Depot and then have dinner at a TGI Fridays only to go to sleep in another Holiday Inn Express in a different town.

There is something comforting in this set-up where you know what to expect but honestly it's also crazy to think that I wake up and am not entirely sure what state or city I'm in anymore and in a way it just doesn't matter that much. Whereas in Europe each city might bring you some interesting sights or architecture, our culture has made the entire country seem monotonous and boring.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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