Well, that would have taken you through a stretch of the Flint Hills, which is the best we’ve got.
I hope, however, that your time on Highway 50 didn’t steal your soul.
There is some truth to this on the microscopic level. An alley in one city will look like any other city. That’s why Hollywood will film in any city and call it wherever. The cities for the most part only look very different from a distance. (Which is why movies and TV shows will have “establishing shots” to show you where they are supposed to be, before zooming in on “generic city street”.)
There are exceptions. There are places that are unique. There are areas of San Francisco that don’t look like anywhere else. There are streets in Seattle that look different than anywhere, and if I see them I know it’s Seattle. I’ve been to parts of Portland that look unique. But those are certain distinct spots. There are large parts of any US city that are visually interchangeable with any other.
You should travel in Japan (this is the opinion of a foreigner who has spent a fair amount of time there, and a fair amount of time watching Japanese TV here in the US.) All Japanese cities except maybe Kyoto look the same to me, except some are bigger and some are smaller. Especially the neighborhoods look the same – the streets, the residential buildings, the commercial and office buildings, the store fronts, the signage. There is more than one style for each of these things, but they are repeated endlessly. But then, Japan was always a pretty homogeneous society, especially compared with other countries.
We did that one year, from about Las Animas to Great Bend. The distinctive feature you must see is the scenic viewpoint just east of Dodge City, with its horseshoe statuary – a fine overlook upon the stockyards. We figured it must be there to give teenagers a place to make out.
I’d recommend walking around more than a few. Cities with history and personality are very different. It’s the newer areas, the suburbs, that get homogenized.
My one trip during the pandemic was driving to Chicago and walking around downtown, Millennium Park and along the river, very distinctive. BUT, as soon as I decided to drive home through the 'burbs, omigod…
EVERY major intersection looked IDENTICAL, and had exactly the same stores (possibly on the same corners!).
I found myself disoriented: "This is… Arlington Heights and Biesterfield?.. No, wait, I recognize this, it’s Barrington and Schaumburg Roads, I know that Target and Jewel and Chipotle and Chick-fil-A! Oops, Waze says I’m at the Roselle and Golf Chipotle.
I was so sad to leave the city, but so relieved to get out of the suburbs with my soul intact.
Or did you? music sting
< twilight zone music >
A regular man, just an ordinary guy. A man who saw identical stores wherever he went. Luckily for him, he just barely managed to escape this nightmare. But walked straight into… The Twilight Zone.
I watched a movie called Vivarium. I really do not recommend it, it was a tedious slog disguised as a Twilight Zone-style sci fi suspense film. It starred Imogen Poots (who I like) and Jesse Eisenberg (who I tolerate, mostly).
But basically, the premise is about being trapped in a suburban neighborhood which is almost a torus; you wander streets endlessly where everything is identical and eventually return where you left. There is no escape. But this conversation vaguely reminds me of it.
It sounds like it would be a special kind of Hell for @eschereal.
You can’t make up headlines like this
Well, you can But it takes drugs.
I sense an update to a Sammy Hagar song.
Career suicide by cop?
The pilot, James Clifton, 52, was taken into custody after registering a blood-alcohol level of .17
Wow. Can you imagine looking out the plane’s window while you await takeoff and seeing a uniformed pilot going through field sobriety tests?
Clifton told authorities he’d had seven to eight drinks before getting on the Fort Lauderdale-bound aircraft, the spokeswoman, Helen Tederous, said.
Clifton submitted to the test after telling police he needed to get his gun from the plane’s cockpit, Tederous said.
[bolding mine]
In just how many ways could that have ended poorly ?
Also, why didn’t the article begin with “A Florida man …” ?
RU-486 is Zyklon-B and Jewish women only have sex with one person.
Colonel Saunders has gone nuts!
Taylor withdrew days after conservative sites, including Breitbart, published allegations that he had had an affair with Tania Joya, a Plano resident referred to by tabloids as the “ISIS bride” because of her past marriage to an American who joined the Islamic State terrorist group. Joya told Breitbart News that Taylor had paid her to keep quiet about the affair.
They are going to have to rename their airline, “Jet Blew a Breathalyzer”.
“We adhere to all DOT rules and requirements concerning alcohol at all times and have a very strict zero-tolerance internal alcohol policy,” the statement added.
Make that a zero-point-one-seven tolerance.
14 CFR § 91.17 - Alcohol or drugs.
Emphasis mine. Not only is there a maximum amount of alcohol allowed in the system, pilots are forbidden to fly within eight hours of consuming alcohol. By my reading, you can have zero percent alcohol in your body, but you’re still in violation if you’d had a drink within eight hours of flying.
§ 91.17 Alcohol or drugs.
(a) No person may act or attempt to act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft -
(1) Within 8 hours after the consumption of any alcoholic beverage;
(2) While under the influence of alcohol;
(3) While using any drug that affects the person’s faculties in any way contrary to safety; or
(4) While having an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater in a blood or breath specimen.
What if you gargle Listerine, and a bit of it gets down your throat?
(I’m just being an asshole. 
)