“[T]here are so many small towns across American that are still dying…. The decline of these small towns, sadly, is measured in the death of dreams — every time I see a shuttered restaurant, a boarded-up gas station, or an abandoned Main Street store, I imagine it is someone’s dream that failed. Someone who always dreamed of having their own restaurant, their own gas station, their own little shop. Thus it always feels good to stop at a small-town diner, or stay at a Mom-and-Pop motel. Keep those dreams alive.”

Source: Far and Away: A Prize Every Time, by Neil Peart, ECW Press 2011.