"the Next EXIT"

Thats the title of a book that is one of the most useful travelers tool a person can have. (though I wish it were updated and corrected more frequently/thoroughly). For those who have never used one, let me catch you up right quick...

As you pass along the interstate from West to East...or from South to North...you can notice that every mile (in most states) has a little green mile marker number that is increasing. If you go the other way...that mile marker number is decreasing..but it also tells you how many miles to the state line, like a count down.

Many people don't notice that "exits" off the interstate are numbered. These numbers correspond to the mile markers. Exit 145 will be right near mile marker 145. (And in a major number of the cases if the exit number like "exit 145" appears on the LEFT edge of the big green highway sign..it means this exit is going to be from the left lane, and if it appears on the RIGHT edge of the big highway sign...this exit is going to exit from the right lane. (But this left hand right hand stuff isn't used by every state...its just a rule of thumb). Also, if you watch the white stripes on the road and the white stripes for your lane are shorter and more numerous than the other spacing...it means your lane is an EXIT ONLY...so get out of it if you don't want to exit.

This exit number matching the mile markers is usual ,Except in some parts of the North East where they use to number exits as if there were never going to be anymore...so if the 4th exit off the interstate was 20 miles inside the state line instead of the exit number being 20 it was "4". (..a system that was at least a start..though it proved to be not the best way to do it) . But nowadays even the North East is gradually changing the "old exit" numbers to the new.

California was/is another exception to the rule, some of their exits are marked this way, some that...no reliability...and changing it over has been very slow...even their "mile marker" posts are too confusing for the average driver to discern...IF they can even make out the small print. Not the brightest transportation people on staff to be sure...and if they do actually issue orders to update the interstate marking, I can easily see a 20 man Cal Trans crew assigned to each Exit sign, and getting it done at 2 or 3 signs a month. But don't get me started on that high filuting place.

Another basic just in case you didn't notice...even numbered Interstates and US highways (symbol on the map is like a federal badge) run EAST/WEST...while odd numbered US highways and Interstates like I-35 run NORTH/SOUTH. And how they choose what number to assign to an interstate.is like the mile markers , numbering starts on the West end and increases as you go East just like the mile markers...so I-5 is in California while I-95 runs up the Eastern side....and I-10 is way down south while I-94 is way up north.

Now to the point. If you are planning to go all the way thru say Wyoming on I -80 tomorrow, you can pull out your "the Next EXIT" book and see that at exit 173 (which is by the 173 mile marker) if you exit and go to the north side of the interstate there is a Loves convenience store fuel stop, and they have a Chester Fried Chicken and a Subway sandwich shop inside at this exit....etc etc. So if you're planning your trip...you can plan in advance just where you want to stop. Or if you're headed say East and you are at the 100 mile marker thinking you are hungry...and ya really like Subway...you may whip out the exit guide and see quickly that in 73 more miles, a little over an hour ,there is just what you are looking for.

Thank you for your patience if you already knew about all that stuff, but in case you didn't ..now you do. So I can make my real point. Wouldn't life be lived much more to our satisfaction if we would take the time in advance to figure out what we wanted and didn't want in our lives, and acquire the knowledge to know what exits to take to get us where we want...and what exits to quit taking that lead us nowhere we want to be?

I've been compiling a to-do list and "interest" list that is getting big enough now that I'm realizing I need to once again take a little time to identify the "places I want to go on this interstate"...like "physical fitness" and "minimized risk of financial reversal" and "increased free-choice time" and "spiritual enrichment "(ie...things that truly will improve lives of others and increasing knowledge of God's written word to man). Then look at all my "to do lists" and see if I'm making the right "exits" ..or in other words...choosing the right things to put on the priority schedule...to get me thru this state (life) having spent my time stopped where I wanted to be stopped...and skipping the exits that didn't take me where I want to go.

It's hard to hit specific targets if your aim is random. It is hard to know what targets are important to hit if ya don't keep picking them carefully.
I remember the advice of a person familiar with archery saying "The Arrow will hit where you aimed it.". And when I apply that, I often realize that my arrows are hitting nothing that I would consider worthy of the effort...which is exactly where I must have been aiming.

Well...I do know that my "next exit" has a shower (with an unusual green floor)..and a very comfortable but too seldom used bed and that should restore the engine power I need to get my trip planned for the next leg of my journey. Goodnight.