"The Moth" by Wes Aldridge
Ok. Today was a bit of a chore. I drove down the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville, Tennessee to Ridgeland, MIssissippi. Bad idea. I was originally told it would take 5 hours to make the drive. I thought, "Ah, 5 hours isn't so bad."
Well, let me tell ya it took longer than 5 hours. Let's do some math. The distance to Ridgeland from our Franklin office is right around 350 miles. If an automobile were traveling at theconstant rate of 70 mph for 5 hours, then in fact, my trip should have only taken 5 hours. But, see, here is the kicker... I found out today that the Natchez Trace Parkway is 50 mph, except in some places where the speed limit bottoms out at a sludge-rate of 40 mph. Well, that pretty much sucks for me.
Let's pretend that the 40 mph zones didn't even exist. Then, the 350-mile trip would take 7 hours, with no stops of course. Well, lets throw in gargantuan thunder storms throughout most of the journey. Hehe. It got so bad at one point that I had to pull off the Parkway and sit for 45-minutes to let the storm pass because I literally couldn't see the yellow lines on the road in front of me, much less oncoming vehicles or those total idiots that don't believe in turning their head and tail lights on during a storm. Throw in couple of pitstops at a total of 15-minutes and there you have it.
AN 8-HOUR TRIP. 8 HOURS. OF DRIVING. PLEASE SHOOT ME.
It totally and completely wasted the entire day of photography (as if I could have shot anything in the monsoon and haze anyway). I think that I listened to that Coldplay album 7 times. It kept me kind of mellowed out, thank God.
Anyway, at one of the pitstops along the Parkway, I saw this huge creature resting on the wall leading to the men's room. I thought he was just too bizarre not to take a shot of. So, here is a big green moth. Kind of evil looking, ain't he?
