I am also learning to appreciate the change in traffic types that I am encountering. I still have the usual cars, trucks, semis and bicycles. However, now I also have to contend with tractors (of a normal type), tractors that are set up on wheels with axles 10ft above the road to allow for travel amongst the corn, tractors that pull trailers of all sorts of stuff (lots of it smelly), and random ATVs. There are also vehicles that pull out into the road from where there is not a road, so you must be on high alert, as these vehicles tend to move slowly and be rather large, similar to elephants. If they do not see you, they will drive right over you.
Additionally, I have also to pay attention to trains. These are not the trains that I am used to, that carry people to and fro for work and play, but they are working trains that carry carloads of grains, oil, and other products from our part of the country to the coasts. These trains are large, and move fast. These trains have very loud whistles that blow many many times as they approach the Small Town. They must blow their whistles, as much of the time the tracks are laid right thru the middle of the Small Town. In mine, they cut directly across Main Street. If you happen to be out and about and encounter the train, you must wait for it to get all the way thru the town, as most of the possible alternate routes also have the train tracks crossing them. You must also be on alert while driving around the countryside, as often there is very little warning that the road that you are on will be crossing the tracks of the train.
In order to get a sense of where I am and where things are located, I often try to take a new road to discover new parts of the land, and to find out where a road goes exactly. I have been lucky so far, as I have only gotten lost once or twice, and after driving around randomly for some minutes managed to get myself unlost, or at least to a road I recognized. These types of traffic encounters make sense. They are what you would expect in a Small Town and the parts nearby.
A recent traffic encounter, however, gave me quite some thinking to do. In this Small Town, not only do you need to watch out for automobiles, trucks, tractors, and trains, but apparently you also need to be on the lookout for Airplanes. Yep, that's right. Airplanes.
Here I was, driving down a nice street for the first time, looking at the houses and people and such - exactly what you'd expect to see in a Small Town.
When all of a sudden, I come upon the following sign:
Now, you may be wondering, what exactly is an Airplane Crossing? Indeed, I was wondering also. What it is, to satisfy curiosity, is exactly what it says. A place for Airplanes to cross. As in cross the street. On their wheels. Not in the air. Apparently the Airplanes do not need to obey normal stop signs like other vehicles. They are allowed to randomly cross the street without any warning.
Who knew? My Small Town has its own airport right in town. And I do mean right in town. As in the middle of the block. If you drive a bit farther down this road, you come across the sign that you'd expect to see near an airport:
This makes sense. Planes should cross roads while flying, not while rolling, taxiing, taking off or landing. This is what I expect to see. Well, almost anyways. I didn't expect to see this in the middle of town, with houses all along the airstrip. If you have lots of money, or maybe a plane and some money, you can buy a house right on the airport landing strip. They include an extra-large garage for you to store the plane in. Kind of convenient for those folks who have such items.
I will have to be extra careful from now on, to make sure that my observation of traffic includes that from above, and not just that on the street.
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