After 3 weeks in Miami, I have had the veil of ignorance removed from mine eyes, and it was good....
One of the things any newcomer in this city will struggle with is finding one's way around town. It can be maddening at times. It's possible, nay, likely, that there is a 75th Street, 75th Avenue, 75th Court, 75th Place, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad naseum- and they may well all be in DIFFERENT parts of the city. So, yes, a map is a must if you're from out of town. Otherwise, someone may find buzzards circling your shriveled corpse on the shoulder of the Palmetto Freeway.
Yesterday, though, I learned the secret- courtesy of a native Miamian in my office. The secret? It's all CRAP (no, really...)- Court, Road, Avenue, Place. CRAP runs north-south in Miami, and everything else runs east-west. Pretty simple, eh? Well, unless you happen to be in Hialeah, which is a trip down the rabbit hole in and of itself. NO ONE here has been able to explain Hialeah to me, but that's OK, because yo soy turista. Finding your way around Hialeah is a clusterf**k looking for a place to happen, but I've got a built-in excuse. I'm from out of town.
I've yet to figure out how to deal with the "kill or be killed" mentality on the roads around Miami, and I'm not certain I ever will. Of course, I'll be going back home to Texas in 8 days, where the drivers may be @$$holes, but at least they're familiar @$$holes. Accordingly, Job One over the next few days is survival- not always the most easily attainable goal when I feel like I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear in a room full of starving Pit Bulls.
Yes, there are things I like about Miami, but while it's a nice place to visit....
