Because of Baltimore’s proximity to the I-95 corridor, it’s not uncommon for me to see out of state plates on cars as I go to or from work, or to or from ACWF’s place.
Typically I see many Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, North Carolina and New York tags. Less frequently I’ll see Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, or Rhode Island. I don’t really see much of the other states, but they do come through. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every plate in the union in Maryland.
The weird thing is, when I see the plates, I start making up stories for people, or try to determine where they are going.
As an example, if I saw Virginia plates going southbound on 95, I’d probably expect someone was going home after a recent trip. But if I saw plates from Maine, as I did last night, heading southbound, I would be forced to make up a story.
In this case, the car was full, and it was a suped up Cavalier* heading south. The passenger was a woman much older than I would have expected to see in such an automobile, and I couldn’t get a look at the driver.
Still, my mind went right to work. They had relatives in Florida who had just been jailed for looting houses after the recent tornadoes swept through. They would have sent money via Western Union or something like that, but it would have taken too long to get down there. They figured it would only take about 30 hours to drive, so they just piled in the car and started moving. By the time they got to Maryland, they had been driving for 15 hours or so, and were none too happy at the prospect of another 15 hours of driving. So they pulled off 95 and made for the closest Denny’s to get something to eat.
At that point I pulled away from them and headed on my own route home (which was, by the way, rudely congested with Orioles fans. Get out of the way ya bastards! I don’t have time for you to figure out what the strange lines painted on the street, or the multi colored lights switching from green to yellow to red, mean. Go home. We don’t want your kind around here. And when I say “kind” I mean tourists.) content to let the travelers from Maine fade from my memory.
*Even if you put $10,000 worth of detailing into a Cavalier, at the end of the day you still have a shitty car with a four-banger engine. Why not just spend the money on a car with a V-8?
