Sunday, March 13, 2005

Beware of Snakes


We saw this sign at a rest stop somewhere in Florida. Nearby was a congealed looking pond that was fenced, with warning signs not to drink or touch the water. Another sign told us that the area was monitored 24 hours a day. Lastly, solicitation and pandering were strictly forbidden. What a great place, huh?

I used to think that Texas, especially the rural areas, had a lot of billboards. Then I went to Florida. I swear that there was a full size billboard about every quarter mile from the border to Orlando. Florida seems to be a state of extremes. For every pro-life and religious sign, there was one proclaiming "We Bare All" at Exit 364. (Note - I make no promises that this is the correct exit from Interstate 10 - we didn't stop by). It's all sort of disconcerting - we're on a nice family vacation to DisneyWorld and being bombarded by information about abortion and strippers. The only other signs I noticed were for Ron Jon's Surf Shop. These seemed to make up the remaining third of the roadside advertisements.

The very strangest sign we saw was on the way home - it was sponsored by this organization. I think it was the last billboard we saw before we crossed the Florida border. A few hundred miles later, we were back in Texas, where the billboards advertise normal things, like ambulance chasing lawyers and barbeque places.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Everything about that photo cracks me up: the sign, Ben's expression, and the fact that it looks like he's holding it up himself, behind his back.