What follows are excerpts from a month’s long voyage around the U.S. from August 28th, 2012 until January 2, 2013. Our travels included side trips into Canada and a holiday cruise in the Caribbean. We shaped our itinerary around visits to our far-flung friends and family members. For much of the time, we traveled in a rented motor home, which, to borrow a title from David Foster Wallace, was “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” Though I’ll mention friends and famliy in passing (first names only), the intent of this account is to highlight the experience of seeing familiar parts of America after a long absence and unfamiliar parts for the first time. All in all, it was a journey of a lifetime.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Manhattan is like no other city we’ve ever seen. Its mix of people, commerce and both high and low culture confined and compressed in a single island gives it an atmosphere and an energy that is unique. We think of New York City the way Samuel Johnson did about 18th-century London. His dictum: “No sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”