Hear this... HERE! AT: Exit 14 northbound To Norland, FL, Miami Gardens,FL and Aventura, FL "Hey! Driver! Want to buy some waterfront property? Don’t be deceived into thinking it’s all on some palm lined beach. It can be lake land Or even swampland. In a state where Disney World meets the Everglades waterfront does not mean oceanfront. Florida, it turns out, is a lot about augmented reality. "You will have passed a lot of lakes and rivers. Surprisingly, most are man-made. So in Florida, humans create waterfront property. Humans have been re-engineering much of South Florida for the last two hundred years. In fact, water was perceived as a problem. People first proposed draining the Everglades in 1848, but no work was attempted until 1882. Drainage Canals were constructed throughout the first half of the 20th century prompting land development. In 1947, Congress formed the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project. It built one thousand four hundred miles of canals, levees, and water control devices. Enough to run to Colorado from here. Even the beaches below Fort Lauderdale in South Florida and the islands upon which many reside are mostly artificial or are reliant on human efforts of dredging to maintain their existence. So what happens in between, from northern Palm Beach down to Miami? This stretch of coast is not insignificant when one considers that about five million people live on this man-modified shore. After all, the Everglades is the world’s widest River. That's right. It's a 150 mile wide seep that flows ever south into the Florida Keys... Which means this area has been artificially accrued inch by inch above sea-level into being habitable for millions of people. "Dry land has been lifted or drained between the Everglades and the hungry Atlantic for generations now. That is, until the next Category Five Hurricane, right? Then you can buy waterfront land cheap!"
#Everglades #Drainage #Rivers #Florida #ExitoftheDay #Aventura #NorthMiami #FloridaKeys #Dredging #Riverhealth #Riverkeepers
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Hear this…right…HERE! EXIT 27: To Millville & Route 55 in south New Jersey, near Haddon, New Jersey If you love sports, you will love this upcoming Exit 27. No doubt the greatest baseball player that a lot of people have never heard of takes this exit to get home. Look around. He may even be in that SUV over there. He may be driving back to see his boyhood friends and family. And he is not likely in a fancy sports car. No Maserati or Ferrari for him. Likely you won’t even see the young family man even in his 2014 Corvette Stingray which was gifted to him for being that year’s MVP. Why? That’s because in an era of boastful arrogance, he is not loud. He is not controversial. He is not even super famous. But Mike Trout is possibly the best baseball player in the game — today or yesteryear. In fact, in 2019, Mike Trout from South Jersey, won the biggest payday of any professional American Athlete. Ever! A lifelong Phillies fan, Mike Trout grew up in nearby Millville, New Jersey and began playing baseball in Cal Ripken Baseball. His position was shortstop and he even wore #2 in honor of his childhood hero, the equally soft spoken class act, New York Yankees shortstop, Derek Jeter. After high school, Mike later attended the nearby University of Delaware. Little did the little leaguer realize he would one day share the diamond with his idol, Derek Jeter, both in regular games and even better, as members of the All Star Team. A class act like Derek Jeter, Mike is soft spoken. He allows his stats state his achievements. But he did not begin his MLB career with an auspicious start. After playing just a few weeks with the Anaheim Angels, Trout was sent back to Double-A in 2011 after hitting .163 with one home run and six runs batted in 12 starts. Maybe it was this hard start that motivated his soft spoken demeanor. After all, only a fool thinks he knows how long his good fortune will hold. But fortune would come his way. Just 2 years before he won the MVP Stingray, Trout began the 2012 season in Utah playing Triple-A ball with the Salt Lake City Bees. On April 28, he was again brought up from the minors. At that time, Trout had a .403 batting average with Salt Lake. Having evolved into a talented hitter, Trout recorded his first career four-hit game on June 4 — and his second 15 days later. An aggressive base runner, he scored all four times and two of his four hits were doubles. That year, Trout became the youngest player ever to hit at least 20 home runs and steal at least 40 bases in a season. Fast forward to today. The so-called Millville Meteor has led the American League in runs and times on base four times. As of 2018, he led all active major league ballplayers in career slugging percentage (.573), and stolen base percentage (84.75%). In a game where you win with singles and doubles, Mike Trout is worth his weight in gold — or maybe more. The total contract from 2019 is worth just under $427 million, the largest deal in North American sports history. So why would Mike Trout still be driving down upcoming Exit 27? A big shot like him likely has a home in Beverly Hills or on Fifth Avenue, right? Well yes. He probably does. But it is not just Mike’s family who hails from Millville. Seems Mike’s wife happens to be his high school sweetheart. According to local Millville Mythology, young Mike Trout sat in his Millville Senior High School Spanish class when he noticed Jessica Cox for the first time. Seeing an empty desk next to her, Trout started acting out so the teacher would “punish” him and move his seat to the front of the class. That was where Jessica was. It worked. Just like in his baseball career Mike moved from the Little Leagues into Jessica Cox’s heart. The high school sweethearts married in 2017 and in August of 2020 — defying the pandemic — they Trouts welcomed their first child. Or should we call young Beckham Aaron Trout a fry or a smelt, because that is what baby trout are called. One thing is for sure: High-school sweethearts Mike and Jessica Trout will be bringing their small fry back to their home town to meet the families. No doubt they may very well be taking the upcoming Exit to get there. So think about yourself being on the path of greatness. And also something to think about… with their income, the Trout family can drive any car they want! #MikeTrout #MVP #CorvetteStingray #MVPStingray #JessicaTrout #BeckhamTrout #LosAngelesAngels Exit 42 I-95n To: GA 99 near Brunswick, Georgia Okay y’all now listen up. And listen good. And I hope you selected the Text to Speech Voice in your mobile device that is neither American nor British nor Australian on account of this being heard best in a true Southern Drawl. Does your phone have "Southern Drawl" on it? If not — too bad. Because we are about to launch into a discourse about a talented singer. A country singer who is as Georgia as peach cobbler. She is more Georgia than moonlight over them there pines. We are fixin to speak about one talented pretty lady known as Trisha Yearwood. Since she also acts, Trisha Yearwood is actually a triple threat having acted both on TV and in Major Motion Pictures. And of course everyone knows that Trisha Yearwood is a country singer extraordinaire. In fact, Trisha believes to sing well she needs to become a character in a play; the love sick lady, daddy’s little girl, or even our favorite, the open road traveler. Trisha uses method acting to get into her songs and that makes her audience believe her musical stories. She must sell her characters well. In her day job as country and western musician, Yearwood has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has won three Grammy Awards, three Country Music Association Awards, and two Academy of Country Music Awards. Yearwood rose to fame in 1991 with her debut single "She's in Love with the Boy”, followed by hits, "How Do I Live”, "Walkaway Joe", and "I Would've Loved You Anyway”. But do they know the triple threat is that this real farmer’s daughter is also a diva in the kitchen? Trisha, and I call her Trisha because we are friends, loves to cook up classic southern dishes. She whips up candied lemon slices and of course, Georgia Peach Cobbler. Yearwood has so much fun with cooking she has ventured into the culinary arts writing and releasing three successful cookbooks. Since she does everything good these books earned her the status of two-time New York Times best-selling author. She does love to bake cakes though and to many of her cooking fans, cakes and Peach Pies are this diva’s forte. But what about this person Garth? Does he love her home cookin'? Garth Brooks must have loved it plenty. They started dating and became the biggest couple in country music and then some! Today he is her biggest fan on stage and in the kitchen. According to Yahoo news, "Ask Garth and her three stepdaughters what her signature dish is though, and they'll reply with something totally ordinary: mashed potatoes. "That was the thing I think that really won them over when I first moved to Oklahoma," Trisha shared. “The kids were like, 'Okay, this girl can marry our dad because she makes really good mashed potatoes!’" But what about Garth? Can he cook? Mostly sandwiches it turns out. And that ain't cookin'! But that’s just fine cause sometimes it's ok for us to skip a meal. Especially when the meal is made by a man in a black hat. Ain’t that right, my fellow Georgia Peaches? #TrishaYearwood #Farmersdaughter #GarthBrooks #Countrywesternmusic #CountryMusic #Grammy #Diva #KitchenDiva Palm Beach's On Ramp to ExtinctionEXIT 70 I-95s: To Palm Beach Do you know what is unique about swanky Palm Beach? Forget the Winter White House or the billionaire's Mansions or even that fabled shopping street, known as Worth Avenue. These are a dime a dozen in places like Newport, Rhode Island or Beverly Hills, California. What is unique about Palm Beach is it boasts the most significant amateur paleontologist in the world. That's right. A rookie bone collector lives here. Amazing, right? I’m talking about a young man who personally dug up the best evidence of the day the world ended. Robert DePalma holds the unpaid position of curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History. In a very rich community, The Palm Beach Museum of Natural History is a struggling museum with little exhibition space. But that should change right? That’s because in 2012 up in Bowman, North Dakota, DePalma heard that a private collector had stumbled upon an unusual site on a remote cattle ranch. DePalma went out into the prairie and dug around. DePalma unearthed a scene of frantic death. He found hundreds of animals who had all died at one time on one single day over 66 million years ago. It is widely believed that the fish and reptiles expired en masse in a massive asteroid strike. But even more remarkable, the strike was about 3000 miles away. That’s roughly the same distance as New York to San Francisco. Or twice the drive from here to New York. Scary, huh? 66 Million years ago, an asteroid blasted into the sea near Mexico and obliterated all life within 1000 miles. Fires as hot as the sun incinerated forests. Tsunamis of molten water scoured distant shores. In the sky, clouds of poison gas asphyxiated life all around the globe. The dust created a nuclear winter so severe that 99 percent of life went extinct. Ironically, the sequence of events provided an opportunity for insignificant burrowing animals to evolve into the dominant animal species. These rat-like animals were our ancestors and they were called mammals. Robert DePalma's discovery catalogues hundreds of creatures in a river mouth in the northern plains. It became a veritable slurry of dead. Here perished ancient river fish, dinosaurs and even a small mammal hiding from the onslaught in its burrow. It is a snapshot frozen in millennia. It records the moment a forced flood reached its zenith and left the detritus of the apocalypse — an apocalypse which had occurred moments earlier and thousands of miles away. But does this affect us today? Indeed it does. Paleontologists are so frightened by what they learned of the impact’s destructive nature that many have become leading voices in calling for a system to neutralize threatening asteroids. “There’s no uncertainty to this statement: the Earth will be hit by an asteroid again, unless we deflect it,” one claims. “Even a three hundred meter rock would end world agriculture.” Maybe you should EXIT right and drop by the museum to help support its struggling budget? Given this staggering discovery, would not an entire museum be worthy much less a large exhibit in a municipal museum? What with its great wealth, one would assume that Palm Beach County could create a world class exhibit around Robert DePalma’s world threatening discovery. On the other hand, perhaps it is actually that the threat to their lifestyle scares the super rich; despite their great wealth, this too will pass. After all, Florida is best pitching Disney World than doom and destruction. Okay, maybe that is too much to ask of the millionaires and billionaires. But perhaps by now, the rich folks can at least offer Robert DePalma a paying job. Right? #PalmBeach #RobertDePalma #AsteroidExtinction # Hear this... right here: EXIT 26 onramp off I-478: Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, in Brooklyn NY "Kashif Chaudhry, age 37, is a heart rhythm specialist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Naila Shereen, age 34, is a chief internal medicine resident at a hospital in Brooklyn..." "...They met through a charitable doctors' organization; Kashif has volunteered in Bolivia, implanting pacemakers, while Naila worked in Guatemala. It was love at first sight for the couple, who decided to marry, despite living more than 1,000 miles apart." They were initially due to wed in London in a lavish multi-day ceremony, and then honeymoon in Dubai and the Maldives. Kashif and Naila canceled their plans in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, they married in a low-key ceremony in New Jersey. The Honeymoon did not last long however. Their patients needed them. The 2 young doctors separated less than 12 hours after tying the knot, in order to return to work. Both are fighting COVID in their hometowns separated by the country they love. America. America is responsible for separating another doctor from his love. Says Mohamed Khalif, “I love working in healthcare.” But he is very frustrated. Mohamed Khalif has been a doctor for six years. Living now in Seattle Washington, the 30-year-old is ready and willing to join the front line of the coronavirus fight in the United States. But like thousands of healthcare professionals who received their medical degrees abroad, he is simply not allowed. "They're all sitting at home, and we're bringing retired doctors and retired healthcare providers who are at higher risk of COVID-19 to care for these patients," Khalif said shaking his head. (Mohamed Khalif is on the right below.) Many immigrant doctors in the US, despite having years of experience, are left on the sidelines of the COVID-19 fight. FAST FACT: Muslims in Healthcare is hardly unusual. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), more than 10% of American physicians are Muslim, while Muslims make up less than 3% of the total U.S. population. “Thus, its safe to say there is number of Muslim physicians is above average,” says Dr. Salim Aziz, a prominent heart surgeon with offices in Maryland and Washington DC. Khalif was born in Somalia. His family came to the US as a child. Growing up, he travelled the world with his father and learned the languages of the places he lived - ranging from Somali to Hindi and Mandarin. After graduating from a medical college in China, he worked as a primary care doctor in Somalia. He returned to the US five years ago in hopes of doing the same here. Despite passing his board exams and having broad experience, he did not land a residency this year, the final and highly competitive step before becoming accredited to practise medicine in the US. Khalif hopes states will allow foreign medical graduates to work, even if in rudimentary roles. This could range from working as a scribe in emergency rooms to conducting nasal swab tests for COVID-19 to simply cleaning contaminated areas.. As the death toll rises across the USA, Khalif said the most frustrating part is not being able to practice, even after having passed all the necessary exams. He described it as watching his house being attacked while being tied up and left defenseless. "All of us are just itching to get out there and help our fellow colleagues," he said. And what about the newly weds, Naila in Brooklyn and Kashif in Iowa? Although Kashif admits he is worried about his new bride as Nalia continues to work in Brooklyn, the epicenter of the pandemic, he says he is 'even more proud' of her. Happy Ramadan. #Ramamdan #RamadanMubarak #MuslimsinHealthcare #MuslimDoctors #Allah #MohamedKhalif #Coronavirus #MuslimsworkingthroughRamadan Macon Offramp. Many Music Stars Exit here.EXIT of the DAY: Exit 58 in GA I-95s To: Townsend Rd, Eulonia near Townsend, Georgia. If you drove by this EXIT and had RoadSpoke, you would hear this: "Up the next Exit many music superstars have driven. This unassuming EXIT was an onramp for success for rock stars like Little Richard, The Allman Brothers, Bill Berry of R.E.M, Otis Redding, and Country Star Jason Aldean. No surprise the Macon sound is a mix of influences and the musicians have no problem mixing with others in the broader industry. In July 2018, like many Country Stars, Jason Aldean drove up this Exit to his home town, Macon. He had just played a benefit concert to a sold out Atlanta crowd. But Jason is a new breed of country star. Jason’s songs liberally include rocker licks. On top of that, he rubs shoulders with hip hop stars. In fact, his pal Georgia born rapper Ludacris joined him on stage for a set. So while Jason sells out stadiums with country and western audiences, he is not afraid to think different. And he draws in a more mixed bag of fans. It’s a mix that allows for diversity and inclusion. Jason loves to use his celebrity to do performances that are about something bigger than himself. For the man whose hits “Any Old Barstool”, “Tonight Looks Good on You,” and “Fly Over States”, this was the third year he has done a concert benefiting sick kids cared for at the @Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital. Says Jason: “There are a lot of reasons I love doing what I do, but being able to give back to these kids and their families is definitely really important to me.” Obviously he is moved by having a large raucous family. Even on the road he tries to get home as often as he can to his 4 kids and wife, Britney. Jason’s roots run deep in Macon. He was raised by his Mom in Macon. He first performed on stage at the Macon VFW Hall when he was 15. But before that, during summer break, he would spend time with his Dad in @Homestead,Florida. Before his father went to work he would instruct Jason where to place his fingers to play chords. Then while his dad was at work, young Jason practiced all day. When his dad got home, they got out their guitars and played together. Moving home to Mom was no bad thing for Jason though. Jason loves Georgia deeply. In fact except for watching @Bulldogs Football every Saturday you could find Jason in the Georgia woods since he is an avid outdoorsman. He even owns a Hunting Company called Buck Commander. But guns and concerts created a grand tragedy in Las Vegas Nevada when a mad man began shooting in October 2017. Jason had just begun performing when the shooter began firing into the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort. 58 people were killed and 851 people were injured. Until recently, Jason stayed out of the debate that's going on over gun control. Then in a new interview, he reveals there should at least be a more thorough vetting process. After the shooting Jason visited survivors in the hospital. He admits to serious guilt over the fans who got shot. They were present to see him. He also feels a connection to the survivors from the high school mass murder in @Parkland,Florida. Many of those students have become gun control activists. Says Jason,”Unless anybody has witnessed anything like that, it’s really hard for people to really understand where you’re coming from on that stuff," he reflects. "It’s like the kids from the school in Florida, that shooting. I get it, man. I understand how they are feeling.” But no doubt, Jason Aldean wishes he did not need to address the raging gun law debate. In fact, he would have been far more comfortable raising donations with rapper friends at that benefit concert to build a kids’ wing in Macon. "
#JasonAldean #Flyovercountry #Georgia #Macon #Parkland #HarvestFestival #Massshootings #GeorgiaBulldogs #BuckCommander EXIT OF THE DAY: Exit 26 I-95n to Spiney Bluff, GA. Hear this here: On your right, you're passing the Sanctuary Golf Club. What with the all year climate, the varied terrain and the presence of The Master’s Tournament up at Augusta, it’s no surprise that Golf is huge all over Georgia. Locally several Pro golfers have hung up their woods and called the region home. Cross jump to the British Open in 2018. As written by the Des Moines Register newspaper, “There was a loud gasp in the media room just off the first tee at the British Open, where a good number of assembled reporters were waiting for Tiger Woods to talk after his round..." "A television in the corner of the room was airing live coverage and suddenly the conversation from Woods’ 5-under 67 switched to Zach Johnson’s bomb of an eagle putt at the par-5 sixth hole. Suddenly, Tiger Woods knew that sinking feeling.” The Golf Icon had reason to fear the less famous Zach Johnson. An Iowa native, Zach maybe naturally gravitated to Georgia since he won his first Pro Championship here. Zach won his first Tour event at the 2004 BellSouth Classic outside of Atlanta. He followed that up with another major win on Georgia greens. On Easter Sunday April eight, 2008, Johnson won his first major title. He put on the green blazer at the Masters Tournament in Augusta. He won the tournament by a margin of two strokes over the runner up. That contender was Tiger Woods. After winning, Zach thanked God, saying: "This being Easter, I cannot help but believe my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was walking with me. I owe this to Him.” Zach must feel closer to God in Georgia; he, his wife, their daughter and their two boys now live on the coastal island of Saint Simon’s. But Zach is not the only pro golfer in the neighborhood. Therefore he does not lack for competition in his daily rounds. Other notable professional golfers owning Saint Simons real estate include Davis Love III, Matt Kuchar, and Jonathan Byrd. With practice rounds with players like that, much less Phil Michelson and Tiger Woods -- plus a little boost from the Man upstairs, Zach Johnson is sure to win again -- Tiger Woods notwithstanding. #TigerWoods #ZachJohnson #Bellclassic #TheMasters #PGATour #Augusta #DesMoinesRegister Hear this here: EXIT of the Day: I-95 westbound EXIT 16 to Cedar Street, New Rochelle, New York "Just like America in the spring of 2020 with runs on toilet paper and bleach, in the early part of the 1900’s New Rochelle suffered a National Emergency which resulted in shortages and eventually even Rationing. The result was not all bad — especially for women. It was called the bra. In the 1800’s, society women bound themselves into rib cracking corsets to look beautiful. By the turn of the 20th century, women longed to abandon the “it hurts to be beautiful” mentality. They dreamed of comfort. According to Women's Wear Daily magazine, by 1910 New Rochelle's own 19 year old socialite Mary Phelps Jacob had had enough. The prick of inspiration occurred from exactly that - a painful prick. One evening, as she was dressing for yet another debutante party, she noticed that whale bone and metal were sticking out of her corset and showing through the sheer fabric of her gown. It cramped her waist and pricked her body. She asked her maid for silk handkerchiefs and some ribbon and crafted an undergarment that was not only comfortable, it also separated her big breasts and gave her the silhouette of a woman instead of the body of a cello. Mary's new undergarment complemented the new fashions of the time. She was mobbed after the debutante dance by other girls who wanted to know how she moved so freely. When she showed her new garment to friends the next day, they all wanted one. Always precocious, Mary filed for a patent for her invention in February 1914 and in November the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted her a patent for the 'Backless Brassiere'. Soon, after she married a fellow New York aristocrat and World War One veteran, Harry Van Renssaler Crosby, Mary began selling it under her somewhat coy new moniker, "Caresse Crosby". Eventually she even adopted the name herself. She in effect became Carresse Crosby. Later Caresse and her husband Harry Crosby moved to Paris and would become leading evangelicals of the 1920’s Lost Generation and were pals with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway with whom, in Pamplona, they would run with the bulls… … but that story awaits another EXIT. Unlike the usual stiff armor, the modern bra was lightweight, soft, and feminine. It was the first bra to gain widespread acceptance, though it didn’t become really popular until the United States entered World War One in 1917. That was when American Women were asked to stop buying corsets in order to help conserve metal. So thanks to rationing and World War 1, women never went back to corsets. Who would think the success of the bra was linked to the country's world war? #NewRochelle #Covid19 #Rationing #BlackSun #CarresseCrosby #Bras An Immigrant's Legacy: The 1st Vaccine for COVID-19This week in Seattle, Kaiser Permanente was first to develop and test-vaccinate 44 volunteers to immunize against the Coronavirus. The first human guinea pig to be vaccinated was Jennifer Haller, a tech worker and mother of two. Americans owe all involved a debt of gratitude. Since World War 2, companies created by the late Henry Kaiser have been in the forefront of many industries. So today we explore a prominent landmark which drivers can see from Interstate 95 and which — like the COVID-19 Vaccine — is the legacy of an American Immigrant… EXIT OF THE DAY: EXIT 67A I-95s to: Bellwood, Virginia Off to the left you can see a factory. It is a Kaiser Aluminum Plant. The founder of Kaiser Aluminum was an immigrant who rose from very humble beginnings. Born in 1882 to German immigrants, Henry’s mom was a homemaker and his father was a shoemaker. Although in time he would become one of America’s wealthiest citizens, he did not forget his impoverished origins. From the high seas to Healthcare, Henry Kaiser pioneered many firsts. An inveterate tinkerer and a stickler for efficiencies, Kaiser became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. On the west coast, he established the Kaiser Shipyards, which during World War Two built Liberty Ships launching almost one freighter a day. Liberty Ships were essential as merchant ships to supply the far flung war efforts and which kept beleaguered allies like Britain and Russia supplied with weapons and food. After getting a contract to provide ships to the US military during World War two, he began to worry about his workers lack of health care. To provide affordable care and economies of scale for his thousands of ship-builders Kaiser took over the local Permanente Hospital in Oakland, California. Therefore, Kaiser Permanente (now Kaiser Permanente Thrive) became the first voluntary group plan in the country to feature group medical practice, prepayment, and comprehensive medical facilities on a large scale. Kaiser's Healthcare became a forerunner to company health plans and pioneered today's HMO's. After the war, Kaiser founded Kaiser Aluminum by leasing and later purchasing surplus aluminum facilities in Washington state from the United States government. Buying huge factories cheap and running them lean made him a wealthy man. With his wealth, he established the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, non-partisan, charitable organization which focused on health care issues. While the man, Henry Kaiser, died in 1967, his intrepid legacy lives on in this trail blazing Foundation which is not associated with Kaiser Permanente nor Kaiser Industries. In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation operates independently as a think tank; it makes facts and analysis available to policymakers, health care groups, and the media. A leading authority on many issues, The Foundation echoes its founder’s nature. Both valued independent thinking and innovation. So apart from hulking factories, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Kaiser’s various medical companies continue to be the best legacy in Henry Kaiser's life. #HenryKaiser #KaiserHealthCare #KaiserShipBuilding #KaiserAluminum #KaiserFamilyFoundation #LibertyShips #WWII #Industrialist #Philanthropist #COVID19VACCINE #FirstCOVID19Vaccines #Coronavirus Road Test Upcoming! Now the Fast Facts...EXIT of the Day: Hear this here… I-4, EXIT 108s onramp I-4S: To Valdez, Deltona FL “Ok Road Trippers, as we approach Deltona, it is time for a Road Test. This Road Test is brought to you by Joe’s Gas and Convenience Store 1 minute off upcoming Exit 108. If you get the answer correct, you can get a "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" deal of any Pepsi or Dorito Product with a fill up of fuel above $15. So get right to exit. Now listen to the Fast Facts! There are some ridiculous laws on the books in the state of Florida. We did some research and found some of the silliest. Many of these laws are only in effect in certain cities. So for example, selling fruit in one city is all right but you could spend hard time if you cross the county line. Up in Destin, Florida please don't set off any torpedoes. It's illegal there. Not sure about the rest of the state, but they have a problem with torpedoes in Destin. Must be a lot of large alligators or something. Also Good to know: in all of Florida, men are not allowed in public wearing a strapless dress. As long as you've got straps of some sort, you're cool. Also, in Destin, it is illegal for an ice-cream man to sell ice cream in a cemetery. But what’s really weird, in Hialeah, strolling or ambling is a misdemeanor. Still all that’s nothing compared to selling certain fruits in Miami. In Miami, you could face up to 30 days in jail for selling oranges on the sidewalk. And don't even think about showering naked! It's an actionable offense. Maybe the cops perp walk you with your handcuffs in front.... Raincoats must be popular round here. And as if people do not have enough outdoor activities to entertain them, in Daytona Beach, you're banned from molesting trash cans. In Key West, don't molest the chickens. They're a protected species. But they need to hear that in Key West… Finally, here is one that does make sense. In the state of Florida, it's illegal to have physical relations with a porcupine. Ouch! But maybe you can have relations with a chicken outside of Key West. The State Law is not clear on that issue. And finally, in case you are riding down the interstate on Jumbo, know this: When you tie it to a parking meter, your elephant gets charged just the same as your car would. Now for the Road Test. How many days do you get in jail for selling Grapefruits in Miami? You have three seconds. 3…2…and 1. The answer is "No time." You get no time in jail. That’s because it is only illegal to sell Oranges. Now go park your elephant and feed the meter. And when you visit upcoming Deltona, no romancing porcupines. Pervert! Oh and go get your "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" Deal of Pepsi or Doritos at Joe’s. Just tell em RoadSpoke’s Silly Laws sent you!” #sillyFloridalaws #Roadtrippers #FastFacts #Jumbo #ParkingElephants #Florida #Snowbirds The Midnight Ride of Sybil LudingtonHear the Here: Road Test! EXIT 17 to Westport, CT Hi. Hello. Ok, listen up kids! Upcoming is a Road Test but first the Fast Facts: Paul Revere is well known. Much of that is thanks to the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem entitled “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” published about 80 years later in 1861. Not many people know that there was a young girl who did the exact same thing, but much much better. That’s because, unlike Paul who was caught after 16 miles and imprisoned by the Brits, she finished her gallop a free teen. This is the story of a girl of sixteen who rode 40 miles to New York warning towns and minute men all along the way. But who beyond local school kids have heard of her? Typical right? The man gets all the press. Anyways, on a dark and rainy night in April 1777, the British invaded Fairfield County landing on beaches from ships off Westport. Sybil Ludington mounted her horse, Star, and galloped into sorta history. During the Revolutionary War, Connecticut's agricultural output led to it being known as "the Provisions State”. In 1777, the British Commander-in-Chief, General William Howe in New York City ordered an officer, William Tryon to interrupt the flow of supplies from Connecticut that were reaching the Continental Army around British New York City. Tryon led a fleet of 26 ships carrying 2,000 men to Westport's Compo Beach to raid Continental Army supply depots 20 miles north up in Danbury. That’s when Sybil galloped to New York to alert the militia. Though they arrived too late to save Danbury from burning, the New York militia later dislodged the British at the Battle of Ridgefield. Most importantly, Sybil’s ride and the British incursion galvanized neutral citizens to join the American cause. In the days after Tryon sailed away from Compo Beach, approximately 3,000 Connecticut Citizens joined Washington’s Continental Army. Now for the Road Test: how many miles did Sybil gallop? And how many did Paul Revere gallop? If you said 40 and 16 — congrats. You would be correct! And Sybill deserves more credit! #SybilLudington #PaulRevere #WestPort #CampoBeach #RevolutionaryWar #WilliamHowe EXIT OF THE DAY: Exit 11 To: MD 4, Pennsylvania Ave, to Upper Marlboro, Maryland Hear This Here! "In one of the most crime ridden areas of the United States, a most religious basketball player grew to become a Most Valuable Player. Did you know that the MVP in the NBA of 2014 was born in this upcoming neighborhood off the Upper Marlboro Exit? Did you know he praises Jesus before every game? When Kevin Durant aka KD comes back to visit his hometown of Seat Pleasant Maryland, the town goes into lock down and it is only in the best of ways. Kids and adults throng around him and they all celebrate his great success and their infinite potential. That's because from these mean streets, sprung a true American Success story. Simultaneously, KD wants to inspire a lot of folks -- especially the kids. He likes to come back and share his awards with the community that inspired him. Maybe that is because he still considers himself to be just a kid. But more on that in a minute. A United States Olympic gold medalist of 2012 and 2016, Kevin Durant has played for many teams from The Oklahoma Thunder, to the Golden State Warriors, and recently for the Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. A long way from his humble beginnings, he is one of the highest paid pro athletes in any sport. A so-called franchise player, in 2013, he earned $35,000,000, making him the 4th highest-earning basketball player that year. Kevin's talent was evident early. Durant was a heavily recruited high school prospect. Then before going pro, KD played just one season of college basketball for the University of Texas, where he won numerous year-end awards and became the first freshman to be named Naismith College Player of the Year. As for March Madness that year, UT lost to an underdog USC in the second round —this despite 30 points and 9 rebounds from the freshman. Even today KD thinks of himself as a kid. He even describes himself as a "high school kid" and enjoys playing video games in his spare time. He is very close with his mother, Wanda, a relationship that was detailed in the Lifetime movie The Real MVP: The Wanda Pratt Story. A Christian, Durant goes to chapel before every game and has religious tattoos on his stomach, wrist, and back. In 2012, he tried his hand at acting, appearing in the children's film Thunderstruck. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Durant claimed that, despite his high earnings potential, "global marketing and all that stuff" does not interest him. But don't tell that to Nike, where his laid back demeanor off the court attracts legions of fans and makes KD one of their top earners and influencers A humble guy and generous with his time, he has participated in many philanthropic causes. In Twenty Thirteen, he pledged $1,000,000 to the American Red Cross for the victims of the Moore tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. Finally, when he is not on the court or working in philanthropy, KD likes technology and follows lots of other trend-setters. In fact, the college drop-out has his own Venture Fund, called — after his jersey number — 35 Ventures. A fan of social media he also has a YouTube account and uploads live stream blogs. Now if all that ain't typical of a college drop-out, I do not know what is! #KevinDurant #GoldenStateWarriors #NBA #MVP #Maryland #Christianity #TheWANDAPRATTSTORY Evolution in our BackyardsHear this HERE! EXIT 71; I-95n To: FOUR MILE RIVER RD, Rocky Neck State Park, East Lyme CT Ok, listen up kids! Upcoming is a Road Test but first the Fast Facts: People living in Eastern Connecticut may not know that eastern coyotes aren’t true coyotes at all. They are hybrids, or coywolves. Coywolves only emerged over the last century and have since spread successfully over much of eastern North America. A hundred years ago, as deforestation and poisoning depleted the population numbers of eastern wolves, the last wolves interbred with western coyotes. The hybrid is about 55 pounds heavier than pure coyotes. Coywolves today are one a quarter wolf and one tenth dog. That blend helps make the hybrid so successful that it now numbers in the millions. Wolves hunt large prey in open space in packs. Coyotes hunt alone anywhere for smaller prey. Despite being almost as large as a wolf, Coywolves have borrowed their coyote ancestor’s trait to hunt small prey alone in our suburban patchwork of vegetation. And yes, all too often that prey includes Puss and Fido. So bring your pets inside at night! Interbreeding has produced an animal skilled at catching prey anywhere. At least 20 now live in New York City. They even stalk prey of fin, fur, and feather along our eastern beaches. Since coywolves can still breed with wolves and dogs it means it doesn’t quite fit the definition of a new species. But that may change. According to a PBS Special focused on the new canine, Coywolves are telling an "amazing contemporary evolution story that’s happening right underneath our nose but for now coywolves are enjoying the advantages of hybrid vigor.”
Now the Road Test: Are eastern coywolves bigger or smaller than western coyotes? #Coywolves #Coyotes #Wolf #Evolution #Hybrids #Connecticut #Connecticutcoywolves #Preyonpets #Huntalone Exit 108 I-95n in SC To: SC 102, near Summerton, SC Foreign Investment is BIG business in South Carolina. Such companies as Michelin Tires, Fuji Film, Daimler Benz and BMW have made products in the Palmetto State. One such symbol is that BMW has had a production facility in Spartanburg County near Greenville since 1994. According to McClatchy Newspapers, 22% — almost 1 in 4 jobs in South Carolina — are supported by Foreign Trade and or investment. In fact, there are roughly 2000 foreign-owned firms operating in South Carolina. They employ around 130,000 South Carolina citizens. In 2010, Foreign Direct Investment brought 1 billion dollars to the state economy. Since then it has only grown. So Attracting and supporting foreign direct investment is essential for this state’s economy. But that does not mean the municipal leaders are resting on their laurels. In fact they may be worried. Donald Trump’s tough talk on trade and vowing to rip up international trade deals and stand up against foreign cheating to bring jobs back to Americans has played a large part in raising support from his Republican blue collar base. It clearly has resonated in South Carolina as well, where he won the presidential election over Hillary Clinton. But in a state that has heavily leveraged globalization into jobs, many are saying that if South Carolina looks backwards, it could harm the state’s economy. Says University of South Carolina economics professor William Hauk, explaining how the state “was hammered” a few decades ago by losses to the textile industry: “I think there’s a bit of a nostalgia sometimes for the jobs the state used to rely on, but many haven’t noticed that lots of new jobs are benefiting the state.” Like the rest of the country, South Carolina has suffered the loss of farming and blue-collar jobs — but it has benefited MORE than almost any other state from foreign investment. According to McClactchy Newspapers, focusing on creating new jobs through free trade would do more for the state than Trump’s protectionist policies. But what about cotton and textiles? University of South Carolina economics professor John McDermott says, “They are never coming back. If these jobs are not in China or Mexico they’ll be somewhere else soon. It’s simply an era that is gone for good, so we’ve got to compete in the global marketplace and South Carolina has done a really great job at it.” Evidence is provided by huge factories and packed employee parking lots all around the state. In 2014 alone, twelve hundred international firms from 42 countries invested five point one billion dollars into the Palmetto State. Another foreign automaker, Volvo selected South Carolina for its first American factory, investing $500 million in a facility in Berkeley County outside of Charleston that will create about 2500 good jobs. And what about that BMW plant? Over 2,000,000 cars have rolled off its assembly line since it opened in 1994. And they are not done. That German automaker announced a new billion-dollar investment in its Spartanburg plant in 2016. A few years back, in 2010 that was the cumulative foreign investment from all foreign investors. If you were to ask one of the newly employed at these factories, they would say that kind of money is better than “High Cotton!” #SouthCarolina #SouthCarolinaInvestment #BMW #Volvo #SouthCarolinaBMW #DirectForeignInvestment #McClatchyNewspapers #Textiles #Trump Hear this right…. HERE! On "Yankee Doodle Bridge" approaching EXIT 14 I-95s: to South Norwalk & Connecticut Ave, Norwalk Connecticut Right now, you are driving across the Yankee Doodle Bridge over Norwalk, Connecticut. So Road Trippers, time for a Road Test. If you get this correct, the person in the driver’s seat will pay you $20. Driver, keep your eyes on the road. Time for the Fast Facts: The traditional American song "Yankee Doodle" has Norwalk origins. The song’s lyrics go: “Yankee Doodle went to town, Yankee doodle Dandy. Yankee doodle went to town, Riding on a pony. Yankee doodle went to town, Stuck a feather in his cap, and Called it Macaroni.” Fifteen years before the American Revolution, during the French and Indian War between the British Colonies and French Canada, Connecticut towns were required to provide citizen soldiers to augment the soldiers of the British Army — the most well provisioned and powerful fighting force on Earth. American Colonials were dirt poor back then. Reporting for duty, a regiment of poor Norwalk chicken farmers arrived outside Quebec. The smart British cavalry in their bright redcoats, burnished leather bandoliers, and tall thoroughbred horses looked down on this rag-tag crew. They began to ridicule the rag-tag Connecticut troops. These Norwalk famers had used chicken feathers to decorate their tattered uniforms. No doubt too, these Yankee doodles came to town, riding a single pony. A British Officer sang a popular melody of the time but he added words―“He stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni.” "Macaroni" was London slang at the time for looking like a foppish dandy. You called something “Macaroni” when it was too chic, too stylish — Italian. So the British redcoats were making mockery of these dirt poor partners in arms. The Norwalk Chicken Farmers were humiliated by their own poverty. Twenty Years later, in the American Revolution, these same Norwalk Chicken Farmers sang the same song. They sang it proud. They sang it loud. This time, Yankee Doodle Dandy was a victory chorus. The poor troops of the American Colonies rolled back the fancy Red Coats and kicked them into the sea. Now for the Road Test. What did Yankee Doodle ride, a horse or a pony? I'll give you three seconds: Three. And Two. And One. You said pony! Correct! Now Driver pay the winner. You owe twenty dollars. Cough up friend, and and don’t be a poor sport. #YankeeDoodleDandy #YankeeDoodleBridge #FrenchandIndianWar #Norwalk #NorwalkConnecticut #AmericanRevolution #Redcoats #BritishArmy #RoadTest #FastFacts #ChickenFarmers #Quebec EXIT of the DAY: Exit 31b I-95s to Silver Spring, Maryland and I-495, Capital Beltway Silver Spring, Maryland is a nice place to grow up. It is most notable as the hometown for trail blazing environmentalist, Rachel Carson, who wrote SILENT SPRING about the town’s namesake DDT polluted water source. Rachel also wrote a book called THE SEA AROUND US in which she became the first scientist to question the concept that science only brings good things. Plastics and chemical pollution did not easily melt away in the seas that were getting unsustainably polluted even in the early 1960's. Rachel discussed how -- as a rare lady scientist in the US Navy during World War Two --along with the benefits of science we have an obligation to be responsible with the fruits of science. The potential and threat of Nuclear Physics proved her thesis exactly and Rachel would go on to be one of the founders of the environmental movement. Sadly, the first University of Virginia student to die in combat since the Vietnam war was also from this DC suburb. Before going to UVA, he attended and graduated in 1996 from nearby John F. Kennedy High School. There he taught swimming to disabled children. This was not surprising because his father was both a lawyer and a humanitarian. As a young child, this student read extensively about Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. ” His Dad, the lawyer, even kept a mini version of that document in his pocket at all times. Perhaps this was not surprising either. His family were immigrants from repressive regimes in the Middle East. Civil Rights? Forget about it. In America, his Dad carried a pocket copy of the Constitution everywhere he went. Also not surprising was that the immigrant child would enroll at UVA — the college created by Jefferson himself. Muslims have served in every American war since the Revolution. An African American Muslim named Peter Salem was at the Battle of Bunker Hill near Boston. He is credited with shooting a British Major sending the redcoats into retreat. Muslims have fought in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. At UVA, the Muslim student from Silver Springs signed up to join the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Upon graduating in 2000, that UVA grad, Humayun Saqib Muazzam Khan, was commissioned as a Captain in the United States Army and was deployed to Iraq. Only 6 years previous, the US military had commissioned its first ever Muslim Chaplain. Military Chaplains are empowered to support all faiths. Still, it took roughly 200 years before a Muslim got ordained to perform the same duties as countless Protestants, Catholics and Jews had before them. In military modesty the occasion was discreet. And meaningful. The Frocking Ceremony for the Navy's first Muslim chaplain, was conducted by his colleague Navy Chaplain Arnold Resnicoff. Chaplain Resnicoff attached shoulder boards with a Muslim crescent insignia to the uniform of Imam Monje Malak Abd al-Muta Noel Jr. It was 1996, the same year that Monaj Khan graduated from John F Kennedy High. While new Chaplain Monje Noel was a Muslim, Chaplain Arnold Resnicoff was himself a Rabbi. At that time Imam Noel was just one of 2 Muslims to serve the military's growing Muslim community which numbers around 10,000. Noel, a native of Salem, New Jersey, said the unique epaulets on his uniform are a positive sign for Muslims. ``I think it's good for the Muslim community to be able to see them in the service. It lends an air of legitimacy and credibility. We are represented. We are here.’' Later, at a reception including military brass and Muslim leaders, Noel tried to shy away from the Limelight. Said he: ``This is the Navy's night. This is God's night.'' Now new Muslim Soldiers or Chaplains are hardly newsworthy. Fast forward to 2004. Captain Khan was inspecting a guard post in Iraq when a suspicious vehicle approached. Ordering his troops to stay back, he stepped forward. The car stopped. Then detonated. Later it was determined to have been carrying more than 200 pounds of explosives. Captain Khan’s father, Khizr Kahn, still carries a miniature of the Constitution in his pocket. He also has a wall dedicated to his son’s service. It’s hung with medals, flags, and photographs. Despite or perhaps because he is an immigrant and a Muslim, he knows intimately the sacrifices so many other military families have suffered through our history — and other of his countrymen still take for granted. #KhazirKhan #CaptainKhan #ImanMonjeNoel #FirstMuslimChaplain #KhizrKan #Muslims #JohnFKennedyHighschool #HumayunKhan EXIT 92 on I-4, to Altamonte Springs and Casselberry FL Hear this here: "Casselberry is the retirement home and death place of a fascinating cast of characters. What does the Jewish wife of Hitler’s Arms producer, a major Hollywood Starlet, Howard Hughes girlfriend, and the creator of the original tech that created both wifi and bluetooth have in common? The answer is, drum roll please, they were all one woman. That woman was Austrian immigrant and Hollywood golden girl Hedy Lamarr. Best remembered perhaps for playing Delilah to Victor Mature’s Samson in the 1949 classic Samson and Delilah, Hedy was a European beauty queen who before World War Two, fled her Nazi husband because he was enthusiastically underwriting Hitler's hateful war machine. The fact that the beauty queen was isolated in her husband’s castle did not prohibit her from accompanying him on business trips to meet arms engineers and scientists. A rank amateur, still science fascinated her. Already a rising star in European Film, her husband disapproved of his 19 year old wife playing sexy ingenues. So she fled the gilded birdcage, jumped the pond, and ended up with a man immensely more wealthy. Hedy landed in Hollywood and soon was the girl friend of aeronautical pioneer and billionaire Howard Hughes. In the 1930’s Howard owned quite a few businesses including TWA Airlines, RKO Movie Studios, and his two cash cows, Hughes Tool and Hughes Aerospace. Hughes Tool had a patent on drill bits for oil rigs. But Hughes Aerospace made things that fly. Unlike Hedy’s ex husband, during Hedy’s downtimes between films, Howard arranged consultations with his engineers and scientists. A student of life, it is rumored that Hedy encouraged Howard to emulate the streamline aspects of birds, insects, even rain drops to make his planes fly faster. No surprise, Howard won many world speed records in the 1930’s. Then World War Two broke out. Hedy felt useless. She loathed the fascists. So she started to apply her creativity to make tools which would be helpful for the allies. In her spare time, Hedy created a frequency hopping technology that aided radio controlled torpedoes from being jammed. Later frequency hopping tech became the basis of tech in blue tooth and wifi. Reviewing the documentary of Hedy entitled Bombshell, Forbes Magazine writer, Shivaune Field, wrote an article entitled: “Hedy Lamarr: The Incredible Mind Behind Secure WiFi, GPS And Bluetooth.” Ms Fields asserts that, “The striking movie star may be most well-known for her roles in the 1940s Oscar-nominated films ‘Algiers’ and ‘Sampson and Delilah.’ But it is her technical mind that is her greatest legacy.” Hedy’s musings were patented and became the basis for much of the internet some 50 years later. “The brains of people are more interesting than the looks I think,” Hedy admitted in 1990, 10 years before she passed here in Casselberry, Florida. So in sum, maybe we misspoke earlier when we said the thing Hedy was best known for, was her role in 'Samson and Delilah'. Perhaps in all likelihood, Hedy may one day be recalled as the mother of the internet. So move over Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergei Bin, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. There is a new girl in the pantheon of Tech Titans. And best of all, that Beauty Queen was no pasty nerd! Pretty cool, huh?" #wifi #Bluetooth #HedyLamarr #Frequency #Moviestar #ForbesMagazine #ShivauneField #Jewish #HowardHughes #TWA #RKO #Hollywood #MarkZukerberg #SteveJobs Hear this right... Here! EXIT 10A I-95 northbound; to 125 Street. Hialeah, FL While the Florida Panthers play hockey up north just west of Fort Lauderdale, their home rink runs up against real panther country. Compared to a bunch of toothless be-muscled hockey jocks, the big cat is no less fierce. The real cat, the Florida Panther is a species of mountain lion that inhabits the swamps and Everglades just a few miles west of I-95. Even with six million neighbors the lurking panther is seldom seen. The National Park Service writes: "Once common throughout the southeastern United States, fewer than 100 Florida panthers are estimated to live in the wilds today. Florida panthers were heavily hunted after 1832 when a bounty on panthers was created. Perceived as a threat to humans and livestock the species was nearly extinct by the mid-1950s. Today, the primary threats to the remaining panther population are habitat loss and degradation." Big kitties indeed, males can weigh up to 160 pounds and live within a range that includes the Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. This population is currently the only cougar representative in the eastern United States — although some sightings have been recorded in New England of late. In fact, just 25 miles from New York City in suburban Connecticut, a mountain lion was hit and killed by a car along the Merritt Parkway a few years back. Being so elusive, their range and population are not entirely known. Whether or not it can be said of the Hockey Team, the 100 big cats now represent something of a comeback story. In the 1970s, there were estimated to be only 20 Florida panthers in the wild. An enthusiastic conservation campaign raised awareness. Poaching plummeted. Amateur sightings increased. Rangers used collars to track the animals. Most significantly, motorists were put on notice — especially drivers crossing the Tamiami Trail between Miami and Naples — to avoid hitting the big cats. That’s because the primary killer of panthers was getting hit by speeding highway vehicles. In 1982, the big cat was even chosen as the official Florida State Animal. Finally, folks were assured that living in panther country was quite safe. Unfortunately, they are known to take an occasional Fido or Puss but about 90 percent of their diet is feral hog, white-tailed deer, raccoon, and armadillo. Occasionally they consume rabbits, rats, and birds, and occasionally even alligators. No wonder the Hockey Team chose the panther to be their team emblem. Any animal that eats alligators is one tough competitor.
#FloridaPanthers #Floridapanthers #Gators #Everglades Park #NationalParkServiceandNationalHockeyLeague #NHL #Extinction #Mountainlions #cougars With RoadSpoke…Hear this HERE! At Exit 106 in GA, I-95s To: Jimmy DeLoach Pkwy No Services near Savannah, GA You are about to cross the line… a line of march that lives even today in the minds of Georgians. On the morning of December 20, 1864, if you were stopped right here, right where you are driving now, you would encounter tens of thousands of soldiers in Blue. No doubt there would be smells of breakfast fires and bacon commingled with the sweat of men who had been marching for weeks. You would hear the groans of the suffering, the whinnying of horses and the creak of wagon wheels. You would also see bedraggled former slaves who camped nearby under the protection of the Union Army. On December 20 in 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s troops arrived outside Savannah. Sherman’s army had departed Atlanta on November 15 for his so-called March to the Sea. History is best told in the words of the combatants themselves. As the sounds of war approached, R.D. Arnold, the Mayor of Savannah, wrote this letter to Sherman: “The city of Savannah was last night evacuated by the Confederate military and is now entirely defenseless. As chief magistrate of the city I respectfully request your protection of the lives and private property of the citizens and of our women and children. Trusting that this appeal to your generosity and humanity may favorably influence your action, I have the honor to be, your obedient servant.” Then, the Mayor himself rode out to offer the surrender of the city. After devastating almost every town and homestead in his path, General Sherman surprisingly accepted the terms. Sherman promised to protect Savannah’s citizens and their property. By 8am December 21, Savannah was in Union hands. Still, visitors to any of Savannah’s homes are not likely to find a portrait of General Sherman. In another Georgia City many miles northwest of here, even today Atlantans jokingly credit Sherman for inspiring an "urban renewal project”. Atlanta had been the railroad and armaments hub of the Confederacy. Knock out Atlanta and the Southern war effort would die. Nobody knew that better than Sherman. Starting in July, his torch throwing soldiers reduced 4000 homes to ashes. Throughout Georgia, they set fire to plantations, blew up factories, slaughtered cattle and turned the rails into twisted steel. They occupied Atlanta for two months. Only a few churches, a medical college and about 400 homes were saved. Then, without supply lines to the North, Sherman's army marched toward the sea. The army would live off the land -- which meant every home and farm was a source of sustenance. The soldiers took everything and left nothing. But Sherman had plans for Savannah all the same. It would pose as a propaganda piece. A Christmas gift to the Union. And even perhaps a premonition that the north could be forgiving of the Rebel South. In the final five months of the Civil War, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln: his three hundred mile “March to the Sea” was done. He had split the heart of the South in two. Sherman’s letter was published in the December 26 edition of The New York Times. It read, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift: the city of Savannah.” President Lincoln wrote back to Sherman: “Many, many thanks for your Christmas-gift, the capture of Savannah. When you were about to leave Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering that ‘nothing risked, nothing gained’ I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours.” After Savannah, Sherman did not however lay down his scorched earth policy. Sherman’s troops marched north through the Carolinas, again destroying everything in their path, including the South Carolina capital of Columbia. Sherman’s tactics remain one of the most controversial subjects of the war. Many argue that he brought unnecessary hardship upon the Southern people. Like his Commanding General, U.S Grant, General Sherman believed the sooner the end of the war, the better for everyone. And being chivalrous just prolonged the suffering interminably.
This then became the future of warfare. It was called "Total War”. But lucky Savannah managed to avoid Total War. Get off Exit 106 to the Jimmy DeLoach Parkway. It will lead you to an untouched antebellum gem that is the city of Savannah. You will be riding along with tens of thousands of soldiers who trod the road before you. Their footsteps promised hell for some -- but hope for many others. #marchtothesea #BurningofAtlanta #SavannahGeorgia #Sherman #GeneralSherman #AbrahamLincoln #CivilWar #1864 #ExitoftheDay #TotalWar If you had the RoadSpoke app you would hear this here on your car radio. EXIT 15X in NJ: I-95s to Lincoln Tunnel at Meadow Lands, New Jersey "Up ahead the highway runs up onto elevated pylons along the shoulder of a rocky hill. Even now you may be driving over the bodies of many lost and tortured souls. " I kid you not... The ground below you was once a graveyard for the un-named and insane. They were deemed beyond the help of even their own loved ones. But more about that later… Not far from the Holland and Lincoln tunnels which daily belch a hell fire of automobile soot upon the wetlands that were once known as the "New Jersey Dumps", there rises a gnarled and strangulated hill, barren and grey where men once disappeared into a massive lunatic asylum that never would tell their tales. As Richard Conniff wrote in National Geographic, “In the strange territory called the Meadowlands, just west of Manhattan, a battered volcanic knob of rock juts up from the mudflats and reed thickets. Its history, like its name, is colorful. Snake Hill was once home to the insane, and prisoners in the county jail here broke up the rock with sledgehammers. Its solidity once inspired a passing ad man to use “the rock” as the symbol of a great insurance company (though the concept somehow got refined along the way from Snake Hill to Gibraltar). On a windy evening, this remnant of the Triassic is an excellent spot to sit and look out on one of the weirdest and least reputable landscapes on Earth: the New Jersey Meadowlands. Everybody’s trying to get somewhere else. Rush-hour trains moan and clatter across the wetlands. Trucks on the New Jersey Turnpike roar right through a cut in the rock. A tailwind sends a flight of swallows whipping past and strips back the leaves on the trees so only the pale undersides show. Still impressive, what you see today is only a fraction of the story. Snake Hill was largely obliterated in the 1960s by quarrying. The rock was used as building material in areas like nearby Jersey City. The soil was used to fill in the graves of so many inmates lost and forgotten. Today, the remnant of the hill is the defining feature of Laurel Hill County Park. The high point, a 203-foot (62 m) graffiti-covered rock formation, is a familiar landmark to travelers on the New Jersey Turnpike's Eastern Spur, which skirts the hill's southern edge. Snake Hill was formed by the same intrusion of magma that created the Hudson Palisades. These cliffs are all roughly 200 million years ago. The Dutch colonists who originally settled the area called the 252 foot high bluff 'Slangenbergh' ('Snakes Mountain') because of the many snakes found there. But for over a hundred years this was a place of insanity and sorrow. From 1855 to 1962 there were Hudson County penal and charitable institutions on Snake Hill, which was essentially a self-contained city in which hundreds of people lived at any given time. The grounds had its own support facilities that included a sewer system, reservoir, electricity plant and incinerator. The on-site institutions included two almshouses, which provided shelter for the poor and elderly, a penitentiary, quarry and a number of medical facilities, all grouped on the north side of Snake Hill. In an era of wholesale quarantining, the medical facilities included a Contagious Diseases Hospital, a Tuberculosis Sanatorium, and the Hudson County Lunatic Asylum. The Asylum existed from 1873 to 1939. When the Asylum opened it had a capacity of 140 patients. Different wings were designated for men and women, and each room held several beds. More feared were the numerous operating rooms where frontal lobotomies were frequently performed to neutralize troublesome patients. People admitted to the Asylum were not restricted to the mentally ill, and whose conditions ranged from schizophrenia to syphilis. Many people were admitted to the hospital "who had no reason to be there: healthy residents who had been determined by their relatives to be a burden." Residents sometimes signed in their elderly relatives when they could no longer take care of them. Once committed, these old relatives rarely emerged alive. It was not difficult to sign in a patient, but harder for one to leave. According to Secaucus Town Historian Dan McDonough, "Anybody could sign somebody in. However, you would need three doctors to sign you out." The causes of death of many patients were not recorded, because the patients had been given pauper's funeral in the potter's field on the grounds, which is known as the Hudson County Burial Grounds. Society slowly amended its treatment of the mentally ill and indigent. By the late 1920’s Snake Hill was renamed Laurel Hill. Then in the 1930s the Asylum adopted the name Mental Disease Hospital as that was believed to be a less offensive name. At the end of that decade, the hospital was moved to County Avenue in Secaucus, at the location where Meadowview Psychiatric Hospital now exists. In 1939, the Mental Disease Hospital, which by then housed 1,872 people, ceased operations. In 2003, more than 4,500 bodies of poor people, prisoners and patients were moved from the grounds to make way for the Turnpike's Exit 15X ramp. You may take that Exit now. And do not worry about aggravating avenging angels: all the cadavers of the poor unfortunate inmates of the Snake Hill Asylum have been moved.
Or have they? #SnakeHill #SnakeHillAsylum #PottersField #Insane #InsaneAsylum #Meadowlands #Secaucus #HudsonCounty EXIT of the Day: Hear this here! EXIT 81 I-95s To I-40: to Wilmington, NC Ok road Team listen up. Michael Jordan is widely considered the GOAT of basketball… translation: Michael Jordan is the GREATEST OF ALL TIME... The GOAT. To go visit his modest beginnings, you should get right to exit. Interestingly, the EXIT sign also points to Michael’s current home. Michael Jordan now lives in Charlotte North Carolina where he owns the Charlotte Hornets basketball team Wilmington was where Michael grew up. And given that he is so famous, we will take any opportunity to trumpet his North Carolina roots even so slim as to notify you about the upcoming intersection that leads you back to his childhood and adolescence. We all know that during his pro career, Michael Jordan surpassed greatness. He scored 32,292 points, earned six NBA championships and five NBA MVP titles, and made 14 All-Star Game appearances. He is, by acclamation, the greatest basketball player to ever live. But back in 1978, Michael Jordan was just another kid in the gym, along with 50 or so of his classmates, trying out for the Emsley A. Laney High School varsity basketball team. According to Newsweek Magazine, there were 15 roster spots. Jordan—then a 15-year-old sophomore — was only 5’ 10”. The Future Air Jordan could not yet dunk. So he did NOT get a spot on Varsity. He was cut. “It was embarrassing not making the team,” Jordan later said. He went home, locked himself in his room and cried. Then he picked himself up and turned the cut into motivation. “Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it,” Jordan would explain. “That usually got me going again.” Michael starred that year on the Junior Varsity. He perfected his skills. He was ready when a growth spurt grew him to his final 6’6”. After that, he went to his beloved University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he led them to the National College Championships… with a final second jumper over fellow Future Hall of Famer, Patrick Ewing and his Georgetown team! But let that be a lesson to all of us who think of quitting. From adversity we can find greatness. For Michael Jordan, the Hall of Fame Career would never have happened if he was not cut from Varsity at high school in Wilmington North Carolina.
#KobeBryant #GianaBryant #MichaelJordan #EmsleyALaneyHighSchool #Newsweek #HallofFame #NBA #WilmingtonNC |