Billboards inviting messages register tires churn, chew miles we can’t ............Stop we log miles, gallons, miles per gallon, speed, drive time and dollars dollars spent on sodas, water, Snickers bars, and soggy fries quick stops to use the rest room, stretch our legs inhale exhaust fumes, eye other travelers, grateful to not be stuck with a fussy baby or sullen teen study our maps, evaluate route, consult watches, as if it mattered change out cds, re-fasten seatbelts we log more miles, more gallons, and raise our average speed by one one more mile per gallon because we did not ........................Stop to see the caverns we missed the caverns we didn’t turn around the billboards begged us to enter the caverns wished us a pleasant trip to come back to the caverns we can’t .............................................................Stop © Joanne Faries Joanne Faries, originally from the Philadelphia area, lives in Texas with her husband Ray. Published in Doorknobs & Bodypaint, Off the Coast, Orange Room Review, and Salome Magazine. Joanne is the film critic for the Little Paper of San Saba.