It's a matter of mental health

In a recent post I made reference to a movie—The Fifth Element; who saw it? Remember the driving sequence in the cab. There’s about 1 million cars (all airborne) zipping around through different levels of altitude in the city. Now picture in your mind the scene from Castaway, when Tom Hanks comes upon the intersection in the middle of nowhere. I experience both ends of the spectrum yesterday.

My wife and I dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa’s in Apple Valley so we could go do something for the afternoon. When we went to pick them up, we stopped for a red light at the main intersection of Cedar Ave. and Cty Rd 42. I grew up there in the 60’s---at that same spot it use to be almost all corn fields, and there was an airport where the Target Store is now. Anyhow, I just had to shake my head at the amount of traffic. Hundreds of cars on the roads, every parking lot we could see was full, it was absolutely nuts. I said to my wife, “I wonder what the traffic is like in Rockford right now?” I just can’t take that much traffic and the driving habits of a large number of those drivers any more. I really dislike going into these kind of communities, all traffic and strip malls.

When we got back into Rockford and made it to the main intersection we had to stop for a red light as well. There were maybe 6 cars that we could see. The drop in blood pressure and stress from being in one town to the other is amazing. Rockford experiences the rush hour zaniness for about 2 hours daily during the week. It’s all the people from out west of us on their way to or from work; but it’s nothing like we witness any time we go into Apple Valley, or Maple Grove, or Plymouth.

There’s nothing right or wrong about any of this. It’s just a matter of personal preference. I have grown to love and prefer driving around a community which has an abundance of horse, buffalo and llama ranches all around it versus an overabundance of strip malls and super stores within it.