These may be incredibly silly, boring, or inconsequential. Think of them as Polaroids – and if you don’t like what you are reading or seeing, shake it. Maybe like an Etch-a-Sketch it will give you something more appealing.

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The campground I am staying at seems to have a number of feral cats. As I was working in the van this morning, Wilson snoozing at my feet, a little orange cat poked his head around the corner. He had climbed into the van — he looked so much like Kofi (no heterochromatic eyes). Both Wilson and I were startled — of course Wilson gave a welcoming bark – the cat, almost a kitten, small like K2, started, then ran then Wilson ran, then I ran hoping to catch a photo for all the unbelievers. (By the by, I have always wanted to use “heterochromatic” since I learned that was the term for two differently colored eyes).

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“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with “F”.” Hint: it’s two words. The building often stands alone. Frequently at the edge of the business district, especially if the town is so small it does not have a stoplight. The building is often of brick, despite the local building materials. It always has a flagpole flying the American Flag, sometimes, usually in more populous areas the black POW flag too. “What am I?” There is always parking. People visit, but often don’t stay long, or when they do, it’s not the business of my place but an easy place to chat. The counters are high. Easy for leaning against. “I got it, The Post Office.” Hint, that is close but does not begin with “F” — it is more a concept than a thing. “The Federal Government.” Yup — I have been surprised by how often on the minor roads I often travel I am surprised by a Post Office, a reminder that we have a Federal Government. I do have to note that pressures to privatize, and those forces have semi-succeeded, meant during the government shutdown the post office still operated. There may have been no checks forthcoming but the rest of the mail happened.

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Road Games: Alabama license plates seem to be mostly letters, at least those on sedans and SUVs. As a former database instructor, I look at the sequence and try to uncover the pattern, there is some sense of intelligence in the sequence of letters and numbers, Like the Social Security number, whose first triad references the state of issue, of the quartet on a credit card that identifies the issuer, there is some key, the letters are not random. Currently, the initial three characters seem to have an embedded chronology, especially as newer vehicles have the same sequence, “A0C”. To me driving, this looks more like “AOC”, the moniker for the sometimes lauded, sometimes reviled, representative from New York. “AOC” is only the first part. I wonder if the DOT examines all: AOCBAM, AOCC0MM1, AOC4EVA and the ridiculous, AOC8HAM

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Mississippi has more handicap plates, not review-mirror-hang-tags whose honor belongs to Florida. The web says that West Virginia is the leader. Whatever. Is it because health care is so poor — MS ranks last nationally?

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I’d been in the mid-tier of the southern states — Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS or Huntsville, AL to Montgomery, AL. Lots of trucks — battered pickups with saggy springs, multicolored rebodied pickups with no springs sporting the lo-rider look, Ford Cummins big tire lift kit monsters usually white, RAM trucks, now a separate division within Stellantis, and the bow-tie Chevy 2500s. As I get closer to the coast, the SUV dominates, with KIA, Lexus, the occasional BMW and a surprising number of Mercedes to say nothing of the Expeditions, Explorers, Tahoes, Denalis, and black with blacked windows, Suburbans.

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