They’re baaaaack!
The drive into work normally takes 15 minutes, but lately that’s been increased by 5-10 minutes. The culprit? Snowbirds — older folks who spend the more oppressively hot summer months up north (Flagstaff, Payson, Prescott, etc), but return, right on schedule, to enjoy the mild winters in Phoenix.
When I was growing up here, I remember hearing the term Snowbirds, but I didn’t really understand it until I started to drive. Because of my August birthday, I was one of those kids who was older than everyone else in his grade — so I got my license before everyone else. Which meant that I drove a lot. To swim practice. To school. To “gatherings”. Every day to and from swim practice. The same way every day at the same time. I had everything timed and knew exactly when I’d get home.
And then one day, bam! It seemed like everything was off. More cars on the road than usual. Slower cars on the road than usual. It took me a few days to figure it out, but I finally looked around at all the cars. Lots of Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs. Lots of “10 and 2s”, with spectacled white-haired heads poking up. That’s when I got it.
In the years since, it has gotten more obvious to me. I still do a lot of driving, the same way every day. And in early October, the roads suddenly get more crowded. And they stay that way until June. A month that can’t come soon enough.
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