‘Of all the risks one might take on the road, ‘The Sharp Drop to Santa Monica’ is perhaps the one place where a traveler should heed the road signs and mind the mirrors. An artifact of the defunct ‘Inter-I’ (or ‘Inter-Interstate’), ‘The Sharp Drop’ is a scattered and fading phenomenon: a sudden dip in the road that inexplicably drops a vehicle in Santa Monica, California. ‘The Drop’ used to exist in a dozen places around the states and as far away as Virginia but, as of this writing, it has shrunk to just one: an unsigned exit off a Texan strip of I-35.
The rancher that owns the land just off this exit has taken to leasing the space for advertising and this offer is happily accepted by a number of West Coast resorts which will usually plaster an indulgent, billboard-sized image of their property right about where vehicles tend to move from one state to the next, making it seem as though the passengers have driven directly into a dream. Rumor has it that mischievous Texan businesses will sometimes lease a similar billboard on the Santa Monica end, making it seem, through the rearview mirror, as though the car has escaped from a high-speed chase or emerged from the buttocks of a trending model. It’s rumored that this sign sometimes simply reads ‘Good Riddance.’
These are all rumors, of course, because nobody who has entered ‘The Sharp Drop to Santa Monica’ has ever been seen in Santa Monica or ever again and because the businesses sometimes advertised tend to have alien amenities and uncanny features. It’s best to read the road signs approaching ‘The Sharp Drop to Santa Monica’ because most recommend avoiding it at all costs.’
-an excerpt, Autumn by the Wayside
