Down the I5

After a day and a half driving down the I5, I am flabberghasted by the number of McDonald's, Jack in the Boxes, Motel 6s, and Arco stations in this country. Not to mention Walmarts, Holiday Inn Expresses, and Chevron stations. And Outlet Malls. Does anyone actually believe that those Malls sell "surplus" goods from name brand retailers? It doesn't seem plausible that there can be more, "polo Ralph Lauren" stores in this world than there are Outlet Mall stores for that brand. And all of these things seem to happen every few kilometers along long stretches of highway. In The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Alain de Botton comments that nothing was as convincing to him as to the sheer numbers of Britons there are than a view of endless packaged sandwiches in a food factory that he visited. I am similarly convinced of the numbers of travelers on the Interstates.