Category: USA

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Charleston, SC – Hendersonville, NC

We’re on the road again. Hendersonville, North Carolina is in the western part of the state south of Ashville. We’d never come here before and wouldn’t be here now were it not that my friend Pat had recently relocated here with her husband from Chicago’s North Shore. Pat and Jim are now retired. They love to play golf and wanted to escape the harsh Chicago winters. Sound familiar?

Like other relationships I’ve written about in these chapters, Pat and mine is the story of a friendship interrupted. We knew each other as teens in small-town Onarga, Illinois where I was a cadet at the Onarga Military School. Pat tells me that I was her date for her high-school prom. I remember the excitement of sharing ideas about books and other cultural matters.

Forty years after Onarga, Pat and I reconnected via the Internet and have been corresponding regularly since.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 13

“I had the blues so bad, they put my face in a permanent frown          Now I’m feeling so much better I could cakewalk into town.”

A visit to Clarksdale, Mississippi, center of the region known as the Mississippi Delta, has been on my bucket list for a long time because for blues lovers the Delta is like Mecca. Once, in 1989, Kay and I set out to come here from New York. Unfortunately, our van’s AC malfunctioned and our vacation time ran out too soon.

Continue reading Evening at the Bluesberry Cafe

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Clarksdale – Vicksburg, MS

I pushed hard to get us on the road as early as possible. Vicksburg was 150 miles south, and we would have only today to visit the famous Civil War Battlefield and anything else that caught our interest.

If Route 66 is the most legendary highway in America, then Highway 61, especially as it runs through Mississippi, must run a close second. Not that there is so much to see along its roadsides. As Route 66 grew famous because of a song, so does Highway 61 owe its fame to music.

The spot where highways 61 and 49 cross just on the edge of Clarksdale is where legend has it that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in return for his preternatural ability to play the guitar. Then, there is Bob Dylan’s great Highway 61 Revisited.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 12

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Oxford – Clarksdale, MS

“I had the blues so bad, they put my face in a permanent frown.

            Now I’m feeling so much better I could cakewalk into town.”

A visit to Clarksdale, Mississippi, center of the region known as the Mississippi Delta, has been on my bucket list for a long time because for blues lovers the Delta is like Mecca.

Clarksdale is an anomaly. Once, decades ago its downtown must have been bustling. Today, seventy percent of its shops stand empty. Its broad streets are nearly devoid of traffic, and parking is certainly not a problem.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 11

Monday, November 26, 2012

Memphis, TN – Oxford, MS

Even if we are not or never were big fans of Elvis Presley, we have to acknowledge that he occupies a unique place in American Culture. More than Marilyn, James, or Humphrey, whose legends grow and whose images continue to surround us (Yes, even in Turkey), Elvis is revered in a special way. It’s almost like he never really died and only left the Earth and went to another place where his presence can still be felt. (Have you seen the film True Romance?)

I don’t want to make too much of Elvis’s demigod status, and yet, becoming conscious of just how many people in this country and abroad venerate him, I’ve wondered how and how come the apotheosis of Presley took place.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 10

Friday, November 23, 2012

Oklahoma City – Tulsa – Bartlesville, OK – Bentonville, AR

As I stepped out of the Beast to go to the wash house before dawn, I felt the change immediately. Yesterday’s comfortably warm temperatures had plummeted. I was reminded that winter is not far off.

By the time Kay and I had showered, eaten, washed the dishes, unhooked the RV, and emptied the waste tanks, the sun was up and it was even colder. The wind, our companion for the last three days, was still with us.

Our principal destination was Bartlesville, Oklahoma in the northeast of the state. On our way we made a stop in Tulsa whose downtown blocks, according to what Kay had read, contain some fine Art Deco buildings.

This being Black Friday and still a holiday of sorts, driving in and around Tulsa was easy. As we approached downtown, we encountered a striking building.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 9

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Big Sur – Pfeiffer State Park – Pomona, CA

At 6 a.m. I stepped out of the Beast into cool air and the fresh smell of evergreens. We hadn’t realized it last night but we are camped in the midst of redwood trees that seem a mile high.

The unheated wash house was bone-chillingly cold and it took a long time for the heated water to flow in the shower. I write, “heated” because the water never became hot. We are camping after all.

Today has been a driving day, 350 miles, from the redwoods of Big Sur, along the California Coast to San Luis Obispo, then on Route 101 through the Central California hills, and onto to the traffic-clogged freeways around Los Angeles.

Along the way we made a couple of memorable stops:

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 8

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

This is Election Day. Finally, the long and acrimonious campaign has ended.

The Mt Shasta KOA is only a short walk from the pretty town of the same name. After registering and hooking up the Beast in an almost empty kampground, we took the walk into town to see what we could see.

Walking along Mt Shasta’s Main Street, we passed the usual array of professional services, gift shops, bookstores, and cafes. A sidewalk kitchen, improbably named Pancho and Lefkowitz, caught our eye. Behind the counter a sign read, “We do not solicit the patronage of hippies.” It was ironic as the owner who served us was himself an aging hippie. Although we weren’t terribly hungry, Kay ordered a dish of beans and rice while I ate one of the best hot dogs west of Chicago.

As we sat at an outdoor table in the warm sunshine, we watched the parade of locals come and go. They were a mixed lot: a working man shopping for a used truck on his smartphone, a bearded and tattooed hipster with a guitar slung over his shoulder, and various, oddly-dressed oldsters stopping for lunch or a snack.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 7

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Boise – Portland, OR

Today’s drive was really long, not only because of the distance (over 400 miles) but because it rained most of the way. This is not the best time of year to visit the Pacific Northwest. Crossing the entire State of Oregon through the Wallowa Mountains, then the Cascade Range and along the mighty Columbia River is to pass through some of the most splendid scenery in our country. The irony is that today we couldn’t admire much of it because of the weather conditions.

Stopping next to some gas pumps in the town of Pendleton, Oregon, we were surprised when a young girl with crooked teeth and a friendly manner appeared and wanted to pump our gas. This is first time we’ve experienced this service during this entire trip.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 6

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Denver, CO – Cheyenne, WY

There is a Denver Cultural District with three museums situated adjacent to each other. We won’t say much about the Denver Art Museum except that it was by the architect Daniel Libeskind and looks more like an overwhelming sculpture than a building. Judging by today’s visit, it is also a very attractive venue for school field trips. Inside, there were many kids, some as young as seven or eight, so the atmosphere felt very crowded and noisy.

Continue reading The Big Trip, Part 5