Steadily Into the Future

I have a picture in my mind...a dusty plains, some plants, but mostly cacti and scrub brush. Small wind gusts pulling up sand every once and a bit.
A couple of horses and their riders trotting along.

Behind, a jalopy, a Model T fresh out of the crate, filled with hemp oil fuel and rumbling up behind the two trotters, who now looked over at these two fellows in leather headed caps, goggles, and distinguished  handlebars shaven back up their sideburns and under their helmets. They could have been bald for all anyone knew.
But, that didn't matter.
What mattered was that it was obviously a taunt to race, machine against horse.
Well, the car started to pull forward, however, once the horses picked up a quicker rhythm, they propelled out in front and began opening the gap.

The automobile, not to be bested, poured on the oil, too, so to speak, and tried to close the opening gap. The heavy whine dangerously close to finding any errors in workmanship, as even the most minute error will be multiplied greatly by energy transfer....and then two HUGE bumps!
BANG!  BANG!
and the car slowed to a stop, spewing black smoke into the air...
The driver and his passenger pulled off helmets and goggles, and stepped from the car just as the two horse riders returned.
"You fellas need a ride?" the tall one said.
More of a dumbstruck look you will never see than the look that fella gave the horse rider. Why? I just couldn't say. I've just got no idea how some can come up with the dumbest thing ever to say..."You're a GIRL!"
"Well, your eyesight seems to be working, only these aren't carriage horses under us. We can give you a ride back to town. You can rent a carriage horse, there," ..and she looked over at her sister and chuckled a bit.
"Unless y'all are afraid of us? Are you?"
"Er, yes mam. I mean..no mam. er...no, we aren't afraid, but, yes. We WOULD like a ride, thankyou."

As they crossed the flat plains Jean spoke plainly the problem.
"We can probably beat you always. Till you get a flat surface out there."

And that was pretty much the story for a while.
Four horses carried well, people, cargo, communications. They carried for far into and beyond the automobile age. But, it DID end.
Trucks came around after roads became more worn.

I had heard, and seen the history of it, though don't own right to the pictures now,
that most places are different from how they used to be. US 421 was still a gravel road known as the Boone highway, a supposed trail of Daniel, himself...
Where there were alive things, now asphalt and concrete and metal
and lit all day and all night...
Glass.
Vehicles traveling faster than the posted speed limit. Way above the speed limit.
Probably faster than any speed limit in the US, only here, it's the town.
The village. The city. Metropolis.
LIGHTS all day and night.

And the horses are illegal except with a permit.

Horses and bicycles on the Interstates are illegal.

That's some jump into the future we made there, eh? I think maybe we strayed a bit into a use it as fast as you can society, and those with do just that while those without try to get what they can, and THEN use it as fast as possible. Flying is the least efficient method of transportation, and yet, the most popular. For recreation, man fills his power boats and ATVs and just rides with the wind in his face. You know what? As much as I hate people running a fan for nothing, how about just putting on a travel sales DVD and put a fan to your face while you watch? Same great breeze, a thousand times less energy used.

The point of the story is simply, there might be some slowing down as we transform into alternate energy vehicles, but, knowing mankind...they will not be denied their idiocy by the droves. Only, the time to start was twenty years ago. We're late...

I default to what my ♥ sent me..

We did NOT inherit this land from our ancestors.
We are borrowing from future generations.