June 21 marked the summer solstice, but the America’s calendar is governed by the July 4th holiday and nothing says summer more than the Independence Day Traffic Festival. Millions of cars, trucks, and motorcycles hit the highways for fun, sun, BBQs, beer, beaches, pools, lakes, and mountains.
Anyplace, but home and the bottlenecks, accidents and overheated cars create monumental traffic snarls, doubling or tripling the length of journeys. Tempers are short and drivers suffer Tourrette’s Syndrome epidemic.
This year I will opt out of the festival.
No Sarasota. No Nantucket. No Hamptons. No Jersey Shore.
I’ll be in Fort Greene and plan on drinking beer at Franks’s on Fulton.
No traffic and cold beer.
Paradise enow.