Day 3: Billboards

I am participating in the 8-Minute Memoir challenge from Ann Dee Ellis.

I've always noticed billboards. They line major highways, screaming at me to purchase their products, most of which mean little or nothing to me. Plastic surgery! Cars! Personal injury attorneys! Website! Job!

As you drive across Wyoming, the billboards all count down through 150 miles to the nearest Little America. In Minnesota, a billboard took me to the one and only Spam museum. In Mexico as a girl, I giggled at the billboard offering the one and only BIMBO, which I learned much later was basically just Wonder Bread.

Sometimes billboards drive me crazy and sometimes they offer comfort. In the states where a billboard could be the only landmark for miles, you smile as you pass by. Here in Salt Lake City, the billboards talk about opiod addictions and horse shows. One billboard has a giant ear painted on it, promising that the staff there will actually listen to your needs. They sell cars, so I'm not sure how trustworthy their promise is.

I wish more billboards would show pictures of far off places. "You're driving this direction already, so here's what you could see if you keep going!" I haven't seen many tourism billboards lately, and it makes me sad. I long for travel and I ache anytime I hear someone talk about how little interest they have in it. I learn more on vacations than I do anywhere else at this phase of my life. No school, no kids... travel is my teacher.