LEE RD

If you look up an online road map of Lee County Alabama, you will notice something strange, depending on which map you look. In the case of most of the roads in this county, either the roads are all not labeled at all, or all they have are numbers on them. Why is this, you ask? It's because ALMOST ALL THE ROADS IN LEE COUNTY ARE NAMED LEE RD. I'm not exaggerating. They are all named Lee Rd, and a number after them (e.g. Lee Rd 251 and Lee Rd 75) And if that is not confusing enough, they are in no particular order. Lee Rd. 2 is nowhere Lee Rd. 3. A few of the smaller roads and cul-de-sacs have evaded this fate but for the most part just about every road in that corner of Alabama is named Lee Rd.

Driving around this place if you don't know your way is a nightmare. Most people that live in Lee County either call the road by a made-up name based on a Landmark located on the road (think the Piggly-Wiggly road, and such) or they just tell you to get off on Lee Rd. Talk about frustration. But in their defense, they don't do this on purpose. I have found life-long residents of Lee County that cannot tell you how to get places based on the road numbers/names. People live by landmarks in this place.

The bad thing about this is that they don't always use PERMANENT landmarks. They will tell you to turn after a tree, or a red shed, and I've even been told to turn just after you see a mattress laying on the left-hand side of the road. God forbid someone cuts down the tree, decides to paint the shed, or if the mattress is hauled off. This whole system is madness.

I constantly get slammed because I don't give the people of Alabama a whole lot of intellectual credit. But come on, doesn't this just make my point?