yyt

it is hard to arrive at that balance when an outing has a goal. having to make my way through chicago from the pissoir, when i finally hit the open road of the interstate the make time compulsion takes over. interstates help as rather than join they bypass.

this necessitates using the national - but even better - the state roads. i have to slow for towns but stopping is another problem, it is hard for me initially to synchronise my awareness with the brake pedal.

the first stage in the process of slowing down is justifying what i saw really wasn’t that great and there will probably be many more scenes that will not only be similar but better.

the second stage is registering what i saw while continuing realising that it has potential and making a u-turn some kilometres away, making use of peoples’ driveways and breaks in the two roadways in divided highways. this is the usual working method when moving at 100 clicks.

finally i anticipate, and slow when there is potential.

after a while realising that forward progress has slowed- this usually starts when i realise after mentally recalculating an estimated arrival time to be so late that finding a room and food will be impossible - i have to reverse the strategy. this is as difficult as slowing down. now everything has potential in cities i have to kill the urge to park the machine and walk away. along strips on the outskirts, there is an overload of stimuli. the continual delay doesn’t phase me as much as it should but this is where the interstate comes to the rescue. the relative sameness of the view coupled with the relative impossibility of the u-turn - off ramp, on ramp, reversed direction, pass scene, off ramp, on ramp finally the locale making sure there are no state patrols - keep me focused on the destination.