Travel Tips

To quote my good VT-brotha caffeine_induced78, I will be freestyling tonight. Could there really be any other way?

Concerns about the dependence on foreign oil aside, I luv roadtrippin'.

A roadtrip can be only in the continental United States, although an exception is made for southern Canada. A long drive through anywhere north of Edmonton is an "expedition." As is a long drive through the fine state of Alaska. A drive in Hawaii is a cruise. A long drive through Mexico, Central and South America is an adventure, a long drive around Europe is a holiday, a long drive around Africa is part of a job for a National Geographic or Public Television program, or it is a homecoming. Long drives around the Middle East would these days probably be catagorized as some sort of "mission" or "action" and a drive around Asia would be, well, I don't know what that would be.

A roadtrip must be circular. People on business trips take the same path to and from the area where they are based.

A majority of the trip must be made off the Interstates, on the "Blue Highways." Interstates were intended for the quick mobilization of military forces, not for pleasure cruising. Leaving them as often as possible enables one to see what was and what is at once.

fall 2000

   the girl who wore a short leopard spot coat and nothing else on Halloween night in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After gleaning that bit of information I was told my jaw went slack and I muttered, "Thank you."
   a cheap, tasty swill called "Olympia." I drank it often.
   the Native history of the southwest
   spiritual rejuvenation at the great White Dover of the Desert, Mission San Xavier del Bac.
   horrifying Ciudad Juarez. Damn those maquiadores.
   the Arizona Fall Leagues, watching today’s young superstars before anyone else did.

   bunking down in warm places on cold nights: the Mansfield sibling’s couch in Colorado Springs; an otherwise unremarkable hotel in Cozad, Nebraska; the home of the Rev. and Mrs. Paczkowski, Waterloo, Iowa.

summer 2002

I have to snicker about this one a bit.
   quirky Columbus, Indiana
   the friendly people of Chillicothe, Ohio
   Mount Airy, North Carolina: the inspiration for one of my favorite TV shows, The Andy Griffith Show. A mush-mouthed imbicle yammered on about trying to find "that drunk ol' Otis" to his old, weary mother. how I kept getting turned around in a town of 8000 people is beyond me.

   elegant Charleston, South Carolina where I took three showers a day and was attacked by the No-See-Ums.
   playing the role of Crash Davis in Chapel Hill, NC for I too believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Oh my!
   the Smokey Mountains at sunset with bluegrass on the radio.

   and a whole lotta baseball in a lot of little towns. Richmond, IN; Chillicothe, OH, Greensboro, NC; Charleston and Columbia, SC and a chance to meander around the hallowed field of old Durham Athletic Park, Durham, NC.

spring 2003

   who needs an itinerary when you can ramble to your friends, family and history?
   getting far, far away from the shallow, consumerist hell that is Chicago’s western suburbs. you people are empty. gated communities create bad Americans.
   eating the biggest pancake I have ever seen in charming Galena, IL
   ultra-friendly Dubuque, Iowa. glad I didn’t let the clouds deter me from staying!
   the quaint ballpark of Clinton, Iowa
   US 67, hugging the Mississippi River at a gentle sunset. Heaven.
   Maid-Rite burgers in Rock Island, Illinois (at least I got to see ONE of the Quad Cities)
   crossing paths and hanging with my old man on Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois.
   hanging with good friends in Indianapolis and Bloomington, IN. Hoosier folk are good folk.
   communing with the spirits: of those who lived centuries before the man who rose from the dead thousands of years on a day we now call "Easter" (The Great Mound of Anderson, IN), of those brutalized in the madness of white supremacy (the Mississinewa Battlefield. before making judgment ask yourself want you would do if your home and livelihood were under attack) of those who’s secrets could only be told after death, along the Spoon River (Lewistown, IL) and one who crashed hard before he could burn out, and will never fade away (Fairmount, IN).
all the while learning to appreciate the beauty of the rain, thanks to Dar Williams.