Virtual Dispatch

The light at the end of the tunnel

Outstanding weather for driving today! It’s a treat to take a leisurely drive on a warm evening. All the changing scenery, sets a mood that’s good for driving. Furthermore, driving and thinking are great stress reducers. Especially if you’re looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tunnels are cool. Most of the time it’s against the rules to blow your horn in tunnels. But it’s done anyway, there’s no way to prove who did it. Everybody was doing it. So we have fun. And no potholes were harmed by our carefree antics.

Tunnels and potholes are not similar. Indeed, potholes show up unexpectedly, and without warning. Tunnels are reliable, always there to get one through. Potholes suck. If I had to choose between a tunnel and a pothole, I could. It would be easy. Tunnels have a light at their end, and potholes just don’t.

The Hampton Roads Bridge — Tunnel. and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge — Tunnel are spectacular, definitely a fun drive, lots of scenery along the way. Also the Laerdal Tunnel is the longest road tunnel in the world. Possibly. Tunnels have names and features. Potholes have notoriety.

Why all the comparisons? Because tunnels get a bad wrap sometimes. They’re dark, they’re long and confined, sometimes so long, one can’t see the end. Plus that overbearing sense of extreme mass, just overhead. The sense of extreme mass below the wheels is comforting, at least. And there’s all that light at the exit, or rain, or nighttime, or snow, but there’s an exit.

Potholes

Potholes smack your wheels around then they’re gone. They teleport one mile ahead and lay in wait for another fun knock around. They rattle cages, they riddle the ride, and they’re sometimes deep, which indicates intelligence. But, there’s a hole in their logic.

Very occasionally, one might encounter a pothole inside a tunnel. It happens. Under certain conditions, there can be stalactites in tunnels. Stalactites can be quite pointy, but are not really the point here. The pothole facts are jarring, and also a tad upsetting. Happens every time one goes over them, but now they lay behind.

Which must surely mean, we’ve come to the point at last. And it happened so fast, almost faster than the speed of light. The words were ever so helpful, coming along to lend a hand. But the tunnels did all the work, getting me through once again. Stay safe out there.

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Shout out to

The Boring Company

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