Ballad of a Traveling Buddha
byI’d been carrying him for more than 10 years — a little rosewood, pot-bellied, traveling Buddha with a big smile and a hobo sack…
Cross-Country Drive
Rocky Mountain Arrival: Howdy from the Hogback
byColorado greets us with winter, the first snow on the first day of fall which, apparently, has been cancelled this year. It is frosty…
I gots dem Interstate-70 Bleary-Eyed Blues
by…from my thinnin’-hair head to the bottom of my gas-pedal shoes. Though I dread the impersonal, thundering girth of a road like I-70, I…
Keepin’ it Tranquilo in Middle America
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Pushing through West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana on blue highways is both a nice break from the I-70 main vein and a refreshingly weird slice of Los Estados Unidos. We drive past high school football games, yard sales, bingo halls, and a hundred churches. There are frontyard forests of local election signs (“Pudge Richardson for Sheriff!”); there are exits for Turkeyfoot Road and the Dixie Highway. There are towns named Rabbit Hash, Gnaw Bone, and Stoney Lonesome.
Roadtrip Ho! To West Virginia
byThe welcome sign to my birth state used to shout “Wild Wonderful West Virginia!” Now it says “West Virginia: Open for Business.” Yes, the…
Raise the Blue Peter! Setting Sail for Middle America
byWhen the Blue Peter, a nautical flag consisting of a white square against a blue background, is raised by a ship in harbor, it…
Ready, set, . . .
byPart of roadtrip/moving preparation (besides all the packing) is recalling the last time I drove cross-country, NorCal to NYC. I also discover things like…