Lohmann: Rest areas brought all kinds of relief

BILL LOHMANN Local Columnist

After returning home some years ago from a seven-week cross-country excursion with my wife and three young children, I was invited by various groups to talk about the trip.

On one such occasion after we had exhausted the typical travel chatter of mountains, oceans and deserts, one questioner got down to the nitty-gritty of any road trip:

"How many rest areas did you stop at?" she asked.

"All of them," I replied.

That was only a mild exaggeration.

Our youngest traveling partner had only recently begun operating without diapers and, being wise beyond his years, determined quickly that he shouldn't pass up any opportunity. Whenever I saw a sign for a rest area on the highway, I'd always ask if anyone needed to stop, and an enthusiastic "Yes!" always came from the backseat.

As a result, it took us just short of forever to reach the Pacific, but we got there dry.

But now, Virginia is planning to close 19 rest stops on July 21 because of budget cuts.

This is about money the state doesn't have, so I guess it's hard to argue. And highway rest areas don't compare to something such as keeping hospitals open.

But having driven a lot of miles in a lot of places, I believe this could leave an ugly little stain on our state's reputation.

Oh, on family trips we've stopped at convenience stores and fast-food restaurants and just about any place else along the road that offered indoor plumbing. And I know there's a whole argument about whether the state should even be in the business of subsidizing rest areas that, in essence, compete against private enterprise.

But rest areas are just so big and convenient. Plus, sometimes you just have to go, and there's nothing else nearby. Then, on the side of the road, rises the most beautiful sight, a sign bearing the sweetest words any squirming traveler could hope to read:

"REST AREA 1 MILE"

Bless them all.

Although 19 rest areas will close, 23 others will stay open across the state. That's of small comfort to someone in desperate need of a stop who, coming upon a barricaded rest area that looks perfectly functioning from the road, has to hurry to the next exit.

Out-of-state visitors might be enchanted by the history of Jamestown, the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the solitude of the Eastern Shore, but they'll go home, and you know what they'll tell their neighbors? "I really had to pee," they'll say, "and Virginia locked its bathrooms."

Rest areas also serve as tourism touchstones for visitors to grab brochures and maps that might lead them to drop a few dimes to eat, sleep or play somewhere in the state. My family has picnicked at rest areas all over America when we couldn't find a local park. And, as their name implies, they are places of rest for tired truckers and other bleary-eyed travelers who need to stretch their legs or catch a nap, although the Virginia Department of Transportation is making up for the loss of truck parking places by adding more at other rest areas.

For old times' sake, I drank a bottle of water and headed for two of the rest areas slated to close, the ones in Goochland County on Interstate 64 near the Oilville exits that serve motorists traveling east and west. The parking lots were largely full on Monday afternoon with vehicles from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Tennessee and the Carolinas, as well as Virginia. A family ate a late lunch at a shaded picnic table. A guy walked his dog.

Some things never change.

I thought of my family motoring across the country and how grateful we were to find so many rest areas, like the one in Indiana where a woman greeting visitors noticed my wife admiring the lovely hibiscus growing near the entrance and offered us hibiscus seeds from her mother's garden.

A small gesture, to be sure. But a lasting memory.

Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or .