Flashback Wednesday: Rest Area

When we travel from Florida to Mississippi, it will take us 12 hours on the road. If we leave early in the morning, we usually arrive at dusk. There are instances that we leave after lunch so; we either spend a night in Panama or Destin. I love it when we spend a night in one of the hotels in Destin Beach. Anyway, road trip is fun and I like taking pictures when I sit by the passenger seat. Most of the time, we stop in the rest area to attend the call of nature and stretch a bit as well. The photos below were taken in one of the rest areas during our trip.

Rest Area is a public area which is also called as travel plaza, rest stop, service center, service plaza, service station or service area. Most of them are located next to a highway, an expressway, or a freeway. Thank goodness for rest areas because both drivers and passengers can rest as well as buy food and eat in the car or in the picnic area. Most rest areas have these facilities: park with picnic area, fuel station, rest-rooms, convenience store, drinking fountains, vending machines, pay telephones, gas station and restaurants. It also has parking areas for buses, trucks as well as recreational vehicles. At night, rest areas usually have a security officer.

Facilities may vary in every states and every town. Some have complete facilities while others have only the basic such as the car washing area minus the gas station, Some rest areas have the vending machines minus the restaurants. Most rest areas though have driving information bulletin, maps and traveler information or exit guides which contain maps and advertisements for hotels, tourist attractions and restaurant discounts. Anyone can have all these for free. Some of the rest areas have visitor information centers with staffs on duty too. In Florida, there is a welcome center or Visitor Information Center that give out free orange juice for everybody and the juice is made from a fresh Florida orange produce. I also remember that it is either Alabama or Mississippi Visitor Information Center that give out free can of soda to everyone.