6/30/00
Dublin, GA
Mileage 60.1 miles
Max. 27.6 mph
Avg. 12.6 mph

Another day of heavy traffic. It rained heavily yesterday afternoon and evening so everything was still wet. Light fog in the hollows added coolness, and I put on a jacket for the first half hour of the ride.

East of Fort Valley are several expansive pecan orchards with 80' high trees laid out grid style over several hundred acres. Peach orchards are plentiful too. Then when the elevation dropped off several hundred feet, the orchards were replaced with row crops (peanuts, corn, and wheat). The wheat had already been harvested, only the stubble remained in the fields.

I continued to ride aggressively, that is, out in the car lane in line with the right wheel track. That strategy is successful in managing traffic behind me, but it relies on drivers' skills and my hope that they appreciate that both my day and theirs will be ruined if they run me over. I do ride on the shoulder when one appears.

In Dudley I stopped at Doug's Convenience Store where someone had erected a four story high cross in the parking lot with the warning, "Jesus is coming soon." written large in red on a white background.

The store had a thriving business in fried this and that including gizzards and livers. When I asked about some thin pancake sized brown patties, I was told they were lace cornbread. They tasted exactly like fresh fried polenta.

In Dublin, I Iearned there were no motels for 35 miles. Since it was already mid afternoon, I ended the day and signed in at a small motel.

As has been the case in far more than 90% of the small motels I have stayed at over the past 30 nights, the manager was Indian, from India.

I've asked a few questions here and there trying to figure out why they are over represented as owners and managers of non-chain motels. The answer, as I suspected, has everything to do with family life.

Most all have come to the US through the aid of a relative. Initially, they are hired on in low paying jobs by the hotel industry where they learn the business. Then when they get an opportunity to run a small motel that is owned by a relative or friend of one, they jump at it even if the location is in southeastern Georgia or on the high plains of Texas. So family connections get them here and set them up, but the essential reason so many Indians choose motel management over, say, convenience store management is their family life.

The motel provides lodging for the family as well as a living. Plus, the whole family can work and live together with flexible hours performing a broad range of tasks for both men and women. This family centered life style matches what they were accustomed to in India.

Other factors certainly influence the nationality of motel managers, but the desire to find a style of life that supports family life certainly seems to be one of the most important.

Once again, I am impressed by the power and parsimony of the family in explaining some aspect of our social and psychological world. Over and again I've said that family science concepts are among the most useful to understanding much of why people and other living beings do what they do.