2017 Fall October 22 Sunday

 2017 Fall October 22 Sunday

76 degrees tis morning (52 degrees in Oklahoma City)  No walk

One more comment about unethical behavior.  

Yesterday I went to Formula One qualifying.  It was amazing.  The crowd was also amazing (in numbers), especially since it was just qualifying.  

On the way back, we were tricked by the State of Texas into taking a toll road instead of the free  interstate.  

There were several layers of trickery.  First it was strictly payment by either a “pike pass” you purchased in advance or “pay by mail”  Pay by mail was a lot higher than the “pike pass”, of course, an attempt to gouge out of state people.

That was bad enough.  However through signage (absolutely no signs on getting to the free interstate), you were tricked to taking s high price toll road, which also took more time than the free interstate!

I figured a politician owned some road contractors a “return” on their “investment” of political contributions and the huge toll road contact was the “return”.  

It obviously was unneeded since very few cars were on it, and absolutely no commercial development etc. to justify the cost. 

I never did figure out the actual cost of “pay by mail”, but it was at least $30 for tolls that in other states, for equivalent mileage would be  about $4. 

That is really corruption at it’s highest, especially by a State Legislature and Governor who love to tell everyone else how to live and how corrupt they are.  They need to look at themselves first!

The benefits were it was a pretty and relaxing drive and the speed limit was 85 miles per hour, if you really wanted to go that fast.   

Bring tricked into talking a high priced toll road (absolutely no signs for the free interstate literally 5 miles away) is simply something that visitors should be warned about.  It makes you wonder what else Texas is  tricking you on.

On the positive side, there have been numerous examples of the overall goodness of people and this happens in almost every state.  

In spite of the typical stereotype of “big city” residents not being helpful, etc., in almost every major city I have found individual residents who are pleased to assist visitors (and I assume fellow residents)  and frequently go far beyond  simple courteous and helpfulness in assisting other people.  The image of most big city residents as hard hearted and unkind is simply untrue.  

Even the drivers here are relatively courteous (with a few exception) and in spite of huge volumes of traffic, signal and drive in a courteous way.

That’s it for now, Sunday, October 22, 2017.