State Road 54

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published June 24, 2007

Goodbyes rarely last long on State Road 54.

A moving truck passes me east of Gunn Highway. We meet at a traffic light west of Little Road. Similar reunions happen with a red convertible, a Mitsubishi Galant and a Ford pickup.

Is this an open highway or a chockablock suburban strip? SR 54 can be both, and that's part of what makes it such an inscrutable road.

One moment, you're in that classic commuting haze: You're a heavy-footed daydreamer, coasting at about (ahem) 60 mph and barely remembering the scenery. (On a side note, shouldn't we be slowing down as we approach the Little Road intersection?)

You wake from your haze only to skirt the occasional piece of sod that has fallen off some truck, to move around a light-footer clinging to the left lane or to notice the poor armadillo that never made it to safety.

Then, depending on the time of day or where you are on SR 54, you're suddenly stuck in what feels like a funeral procession for that armadillo: Everybody and his brother and his construction truck is making the trip en masse.

Turns out this trip is going to take you longer than you'd planned. (I've been late for two appointments in Wesley Chapel because I didn't take into account the traffic.)

You start to question yourself: Is there an accident? Just too many of us? Didn't I see a billboard advertising vasectomies not long before I saw this one advertising sonograms?

Confusing place, and I have to say that's part of the strange charm when it comes to the landscape. I like that you can pass a neighborhood called Heron Cove and later see an actual egret stalking the edges of a pond.

Driving the other afternoon, I was struck again by the lush greenery of one particular area just near the interstate in Wesley Chapel. That is, of course, where the Cypress Creek Town Center will go one day. I guess some goodbyes on SR 54 do last forever.

Jodie Tillman
Distance traveled: 21 miles, from Pasco Times office in Land O'Lakes to U.S. 19
Time taken: 32 minutes, morning rush hour; 32 minutes, evening

[Last modified June 23, 2007, 20:23:58]