I had about an hour today in which I was fascinated with Monopoly. Yes, the game. It’s just weird the following it has among people who never play. Anyways, I discovered, while sending much less time than I imagined devising an Austin-based board by looking at maps, a path across the Colorado which I have never used.

I’ve been here ten years, lived and worked and frolicked all over the damned place but never used this bridge. I don’t know why exactly. I’m not sure I knew it was there.

Mansfield Dam on 620, Percy Pennybacker Bridge at 360, Redbud Trail, Mopac low and high, Lamar Blvd. x2, S. First/Lavaca, Congress/S. Congress, IH-35, Airport Blvd./Bastrop Hwy./Ed Bluestein Blvd./Cesar Chavez St./Levander Loop/E. Seventh St.*, FM 973, but never Pleasant Valley Road. I seldom find myself on the now-ironically named Pleasant Valley Road. It’s a stretch of tract housing, apartment camps and almost neighborhood-like shopping in an area where car leasers fear to tread.

I think this says something about me, but I don’t know what that is.

*A site which lives as a testament to indigenous engineering. To benefit those of you outside this area, all of these roads pare down to three lanes in each direction across two bridges, southbound built in the 1960’s from a pre-war generic design, and northbound built in the 1980’s to supplement the original bridge. The maze of ramps, loops, service roads and inexplicable or inaccurate signage in this area make it a fascinating experience of regional culture. The access paths are so elaborate, the cost to build them, over time, exceeded the cost to build three more bridges.