A habit born out of sheer coincidence

US, Interstate 70 W, Exit 42, Myersville MD. An obscure exit just like any other exit on any Interstate in any part of the US of A. During my stint as yet another yuppie working in the Northern Virginian tech industry, whenever I drove back from D.C to State College, PA to visit my old buddies at Penn State, I would stop at this exit for gas. It happened just as a matter of fact since I wished to avoid the traffic on the beltway and I-270 on a Friday evening, I would stop at the first exit after Fredrick and as it happened, it turned out to be this little exit.

With a couple of gas stations situated just a stone throw's away from the exit ramp it made for a quick off and on exit allowing me to spend as much time possible before the last calls at Sports and 210 with my friends. With a McD's and BK it also gave me the option to make up for the occassionally lost lunch in my quest to finish work early to get away for the weekend.

And then when the routes were reversed when I started my PhD and would go visiting my old buddies from DC, it happened that the exit would be ideal to make a trip from State College to DC and back to Myersville starting with a full tank of gas. Also it provided for a cheaper gas alternative to the ones being pumped in the DC area. And thus was born my own personal habit to visit this exit similar to few other ones (such as eating Chicken fried rice at Miukee at 1:00 AM).

And then it spread...like a virus. With the Penn State cricket club team also catching on to my habit by stopping at this gas exit on our way back from yet another triumphant match, we would regroup and wait for the slower drivers (read that as Samsi/Charan). It was no longer a quick off and on, it was a liesurely gas filling followed by pulling someone's leg (invariably Nishant's) for a good 15 minutes before the party would head out. A few days back after New years, Subash text messaged me saying he was filling gas at Myersville (ofcourse he was not driving). I was not even there. I laughed my ass off.

And so I can rest peacefully considering myself a trendsetter. And the town of Myersville can thank me for bringing a good amount of bussiness their way and putting the town of Myersville, MD on the map. (wait a minute... it was always there, just like the Mississippi was before Desota got there)