TravelStream™ news feed for member elviejo on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/elviejo en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:54:03 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708639060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708639060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708639060/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:54:03 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Huntsville, Alabama, United States

A man is not old until his regrets replace his dreams.
John Barrymore

6-15-92
Fortson Lane, Huntsville, Alabama
Warm, clear
I wakened early from the clatter of workers opening the station. They exhibited only mild interest in my presence. I filled the tank, prepared a quick breakfast before setting out on the final leg of my voyage. My last night out had passed.By dark time i would be home. And I was ready to put a temporary end to my wandering.

The temptation was strong to literally speed across the landscape. I wanted to end this trip. i combated the urge to push the pedal to the floor by engaging the cruise control at 55 mph. In a few hours I breezed through Dale (Lincoln Boyhood National Monument) and Gentryfield to the Ohio River and Kentucky. Then came Owensboro and Bowling Green. A few minutes later I was in Tennessee, only one state left to cross. It didn't take long to reach the Cumberland River, then Murfreesboro and Fayetteville. Home was only a half hour away.

When I crossed the Alabama line I felt a celebration was in order, but I didn't delay. hazel Green came and went, then I was rolling on Memorial Parkway, and west on Sparkman Drive. Then a few zigs and zags placed me on Fortson Lane, home again with over 13,000 miles behind me and dozens of rolls of slides to be developed, plus memories enough to last a lifetime.

Note: More Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I can scan and upload them. I hope you check back often and be free with your criticisms. They will help me organize my next travelogue, which I think will be an account of a month long solo tour of Mexico on a motorcycle.

Gene
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707514660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707514660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707514660/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:44:40 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Near Loogootee, Indiana, United States

you can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles these three things; a rainy holiday, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
6-14-92
St. Joseph, Michigan
Warm, clear

Helen and I left at midmorning. I took her toMidway Airport. she boarded her flight back to Huntsville. I continued my solitary voyage home. I was soon on US-231 and settled into the drive home. Near Wolcott the road edges past Tippecanoe Battlefield before crossing the Wabash River into LaFayette. It would be obvious this is a college town even if you didn't know it is home to Perdue University.

I came to Bloomfield well after midnight. I was tired. Service stations in the area were closed and my gas gauge read "E", so I stopped for the night on the premises of an auto repair garage, filling station near an exit ramp north of Loogootee.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708459900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708459900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708459900/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:27:47 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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St. Joseph, Michigan, United States

I can't change the past, but I can let it go.
6-13-92
St. Joe, Michigan
warm
Today the Bear and I goofed around in the saint Joe, Benton Harbor area. In the evening we took Nolan and Lowell out to dinner, allowing Dave and Connie a rare evening out, just the two of them. We took the boys to a Bob Evans restaurant out near the Interstate. They were surprisingly well behaved. it was a pleasant evening. These guys are sharp, very quick witted, and eager to demonstrate the fact.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708372060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708372060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708372060/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:25:22 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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St Joseph, Michigan, United States

Sign in a tavern: marriage is a necessary evil; without it men and women would have to fight with strangers.
6-12-92
St. Joe,Michigan
Warm

Cack on US-31 I continued south. At New Area a sign read: "congratulations Class of '92. Your the greatest." I hope the honored seniors spell better than the sign painter. And surely someone in town spells well enough to point out the error.

The road continued on to Muskegon, Holland, and Benton Harbor. This once proud old furniture manufacturing city is now a huge slum.

By mid-afternoon i was at the Wiggins home. Nolan and Lowell are live wires. I am eternally amazed at the growth: physical, emotional and intellectual, that they experience over a few months. They will be young men before I have an opportunity to really know them as children.

I rode with David, Connie, and the 'tough guys" over to Midway airport in Chicago. We met the Bear, who flew up for the weekend. She did not know I had arrived in Saint Joe. I think she was pleasantly surprised to see me.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708284040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708284040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708284040/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:23:08 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Shelby, Michigan, United States

A wise man never criticizes his wife's old clothes.
6-11-92
Shelby, Michigan
Warm, hazy
Shortly after dawn I continued through Epoufette to St. Ignace at the Mackinac Strait. The bridge spanning the Strait puts me on US-31 at its northern terminus in Mackinaw City. This old highway runs due south, reaching its southern terminus in Mobile, Alabama. On the way it passes within twenty miles of Huntsville. For the first time since leaving home, I have a direct route home, actually two routes, via US-31 and US-231.

US-31 runs along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. It's a beautiful route through attractive towns like Petoskey, Charlevoix, Traverse City and Elberta. The latter calls itself "Home of the 1992 State AA basketball championship," Don't you think it's strange that you never see a town boast that it is "Home of two 1992 National SAT Merit Finalists" or something similar. I think this says something about our sense of values. I believe the impression that excellence in sports is something to take pride in, while academic excellence is not worthy of note comes across to our young people. No wonder they don't do as well as they could in the classroom.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708196320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708196320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708196320/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:16:50 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Engadine, Michigan, United States

Bumper Sticker: I'm the person your mother warned you about.

6-10-92
Engadine. Michigan
Warm

The drive across upper Michigan on US-2 ran parallel to the Wisconsin line through Wakefield and Crtstal Falls, then dropped back briefly into Wiscinsin at Florence and Spread Eagle. A few miles farther it cut back into Michigan through Iron Mountain and Powers. I re-entered the Eastern Time Zone, but only for the duration of my time in Michigan.

I skirted the northern shore of Lake Michigan beyond Escanaba through Gladstone and Engadine, where I spent the night. Within two days I would be in St. Joseph.

The reason I had been driving so steadily was to put me at David and Connie's home on this weekend. Helen planned to fly into Chicago for a weekend visit with them. They were to meet her at Midway Airport. I wanted to ride over with them and surprise her. She thinks I'm still out in the Dakotas or somewhere.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708107100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708107100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/708107100/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:14:38 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Ironwood, Michigan, United States

Sign in a tavern. "If you drive your old man to drink, drive him in here.

6-9-92
Engadine, Michigan
Warm, Hazy

The final stretch across Minnesota was pleasant, though uneventful. I drifted through Osage, Park Rapids and Nevis. In Akeley the townspeople host a Paul Bunyan Days celebration each July.

Near Hill City I crossed the Mississippi River. Here it is 1290 feet higher than at its Louisiana delta and is more like a creek. I drove across an old steel frame bridge with wood plank flooring. The river originates at springs a few miles north from this crossing.

Beyond Floodwood lies Duluth, where a modern high span bridge arches over to Wisconsin and Superior. Before crossing the bridge I swung north into downtown Duluth along the waterfront. When I left the bridge provided an excellent view of the same waterfront. It was a short drive to Michigan through Ironwood.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/1141313640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/1141313640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/1141313640/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:12:31 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Spellman, Minnesota, United States

A filthy mind is a terrible thing to waste.

6-8-92
Near Spellman, Minnesota
Warm, clear

The first town on US-83 in North Dakota is Strasburg, which is the boyhood home of Lawrence Welk. The farm where he grew up is advertised as a historic site.

I drove along, through Linton and Hazelton, reflecting on ideas about how environment shapes the character of people who live in an area. Family values are strong in small towns and rural areas because they have to be. People have to depend on one another. The non-cooperating person in this society can quickly find himself without any support systems. Out here you truly must "Go along to get along." Having said this, I think other forces are increasingly at work.

The automobile opened these rural areas to outside influence, radio widened the crack and T V will finish the job. It brings the whole world in. Regional accents are fading. Styles of dress and social activity are becoming homogenized. T V, more than we realize, shapes the standards or lack of, by which our people live.

beyond Fargo the Red River forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. This is not the same red River that marks the border between Oklahoma and Texas. This Red River flows into the Minnesota River, which joins the Mississippi at Minneapolis.

geologists teach that about two million years ago glaciers up to a mile thick covered most of Minnesota. It has only been about 10,000 years since the last glaciers melted. They left behind thousands of depressions and basins with plenty of water to fill them. Today, Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes." Actually its surface is dotted with almost 12,000 blue lakes measuring 10 acres or larger.

Red Lake, almost surrounded by the Red Lake Indian Reservation, is the largest lake located entirely within the state.

it's not surprising that more than 900,000 Minnesotans have fishing licenses. They net tremendous quantities of walleye, northern pike, bass, lake trout and panfish.

Minnesota is also home to the world's largest shopping center, The Mall of America at Bloomington. Nearby, in Edina, the Southdale mall is the country'y first fully enclosed shopping Mall (built in 1956).

small towns across this part of Minnesota, like Moorhead, Dilworth, and Glyndon, Hawley, Lake park, Audubon and Detroit lakes are alive. Their businesses thrive.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707951040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707951040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707951040/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 14:10:49 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Near Herried, South Dakota, United States

If you drink soda pop and laugh at the same time it will come out your nose.
Age 7

6-7-92
near Herried, South Dakota
Cool, light steady rain (rained all night)
Early morning I moved east in light rain along I-90 towards the Badlands. Again the terrain leveled into flat grasslands, really flat. Traffic was light. It was a pleasant Sunday Morning. tThe roadside, mile after mile is lined with signs advertising the vast array of bargain goods on sale at Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. No matter how much I tried to ignore the intrusion I found it impossible not to read them.

It appears that thousands of tourists deliberately come to Wall to spend money in the much ballyhooed store. I gassed up and got out as quickly as possible. The main street was clogged with automobiles and trucks, vans, trailers, and motor homes.


south from town SD-240 took me to Badlands National Park at the Pinnacle entrance. Traffic was still light in the misty rain. Most of the travelers preferred to buy junk in Wall Drug Store.

Out in the Dakota prairie rain and wind and frost have carved steep canyons with sharp ridges, gullies, towering spires, and knobs of volcanic ash. We call this the Badlands, bad in the sense that early travelers found it difficult to travel across.

I stopped at a prairie dog village, amused at the antics of the entertaining little creatures. I was equally entertained watching an extremely obese woman, who could hardly see her feet, as she tried to clean buffalo shit off her shoes. She had steeped out of her car into a huge fresh pile.

From the badlands area I headed north on county dirt road 8. it stretches across flat wheat farms, straight as an arrow to Cottonwood, where I took US-14 east to Philip. Pheasants with speckled gray bodies, black necks, and red heads were common in roadside fields.

In Philip i had an opportunity to test the "calendar system" for rating eating establishments. Travel writers are fond of designating the relative merits of gourmet restaurants under the star system, usually with four stars assigned to the very best. William Least Heat Moon, an Osage Indian College professor, in his book, "Blue Highways, a journey into America, rates cafes in small towns by the number of calendars hanging on the walls. Any cafe with four calendars hanging can be trusted to serve good, tasty, down-home country cooking, the kind of food that makes you know you've eaten, and glad you did. His theory is that four or more calendars hanging about is proof that local business people and church members eat there. They give their advertising calendars to the cafe owner, who hangs them on the walls, not wanting to slight any regular customers.

The DJ Cafe in Philip, South Dakota is a true four calendar cafe. I had a delicious bacon/cheese-burger, with a side order of potato salad. The burger was piled high with all the extras; lettuce, dill slices, a thick onion slab, and an equally thick tomato slice. It had mayo, mustard and ketchup, so juicy it dripped off my elbows as I ate. The salad had big chunks of potato, just the way I like it. All that, and a bottomless cup of excellent coffee, came to $4.55 including tax. As an added free benefit, I could be reminded of the date from any direction.

By late afternoon, about 4 p.m., beyond Midland and Hayes, sunshine and blue skies became visible through breaks in the clouds. That considerably improved what had been a cold, dreary, dismal day. AS did the unexpected view of four hawks sitting in a row on roadside fence posts THE rains returned as I crossed the Missouri river and headed for Pierre. North of Pierre, along US-83, rolling grassland and wheat fields level out to become huge flat expanses of rolling grassland and wheat fields and occasional pastures where fat beef cattle or sheep graze. Around Onida and Agar and Shelby. I frequently saw more pheasants. These had a white ring around their necks , and green heads. I cruised across the lonely landscape, radio tuned to a disc jockey. Country music dominates radio all across rural America. Out here in the vast spaces AM reception is good, and it's almost all country.

At a tavern in the little crossroads of Mound City most all the happy hour crowd were farmers. What were they talking about? The weather, of course, mixed with a little sports, but mostly the weather.

By the time I reached Herreid I had decided, with pleasure, that my first impressions of South Dakota were not valid for the entire state. The hucksterism and con-man attitude of the south-west corner melded into a rich agricultural state with the exception of Wall, which is a place like no other.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707844480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707844480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elviejo/viejo_west-92/707844480/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:57:47 -0400 "El Viejo goes West". Over two months and 13,000 miles wandering the back roads of the American west to celebrate my retirement.

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Rapid City, South Dakota, United States

Another candle on your cake?
Well, that's no cause to pout.
Be glad you have strength enough
To blow the damn thing out.

6-6-92
Rapid City, South Dakota
Cool, clear

Today I visited a succession of tiny towns, places that would never be marked on maps of more populous states. I saw Glenrock, Douglas, Shawnee, pop. 25, Lost Springs, pop. 4, and Lusk, pop. 1504, a large town for this area.

Around Mule Creek Junction herds of deer graze on the prairie fields. When disturbed they run, leaping fences, till they reach shelter among the nearest clump of trees, usually along the bank of a stream.

The remainder of the trek across Wyoming spanned rolling meadows. The grass covered hills reach to the horizon and the sky was filled with huge clouds that grew darker as the day went by.

As I entered South Dakota I began to anticipate the fast approaching end of this journey. There's really not much that interests me across the North from here to Michigan. And from Michigan to Alabama the drive crosses countryside that is very familiar to me. I have often traveled that road.

In South Dakota the topography changed abruptly. It went from the rolling grasslands of Wyoming to steep hillsides, heavily timbered, with huge rock outcroppings. The countryside resembles North-East Alabama. In the Black Hills area the rock formations become larger, huge granite spires appear around Edgemont, Pringle and Wind Cave.

i began to anticipate the fast approaching end to my journey. There's really not that much that interests me across the north from here to Michigan. And from Michigan to Alabama the drive crosses countryside that is very familiar to me. I have often travelled that route.

In South Dakota the topography changed abruptly. It went from the rolling grasslands of Wyoming to steep hillsides, heavily timbered, with huge rock outcroppings. The countryside resembles North-east Alabama. In the Black Hills area the rock formations became larger, huge granite spires appear around Edgemont, Pringle, and Wind Cave.

Near Custer at Crazy Horse Mountain there is a mountain sculpture in progress. It is being carved out of the granite mountain to replicate a 1/300th. scale model carved in marble by Korczak Ziolkowski in 1947. Work on the mountain carving began in 1948. No completion date has been set. When completed the monument will tower 563' high and span 641' length. The head of Crazy Horse will be over 87 ' high. It is intended to commemorate the life and death of the Oglala tribe leader, Chief Crazy Horse.

a few miles farther on State road 244 I came to Mount Rushmore. It is carved into one of the largest of the tremendous rock formations that occur in the Black Hills. Carved images of Washington, Jefferson, teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln are very impressive. They pay powerful tribute to the American Republic and its ideals. The heads of the four presidents, carved in bold relief, symbolize the birth and challenging trials of the first 150 years of United States history.

In 1924 Doane Robinson, a South Dakota State Historian, invited the renowned sculptor Gutzon Borglum to the Black Hills to study his proposal for a monument on the mountainside. Borglum was famous for his work at Stone Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia. Work started on Mount Rushmore in 1927 and ended shortly after Borglum died in 1941.

"Carving" is a convenient figure of speech when applied to Mount Rushmore. It is actually "a unique engineering accomplishment". Borglum first designed a grouping of the four presidents to conform to the mountain's granite cap, but deep cracks and fissures, later discovered in the rock, required nine changes in the design. Measurements were taken from the model heads, each measuring five feet high, using a horizontal bar and plumb bob. The dimensions were enlarged 12 times and transferred to the mountain. After a reference point, such as the tip of a nose, was located, excess rock could be removed with dynamite. About 450,000 tons of rock were removed in this manner.

Mount Rushmore exhibits quiet, solid dignity, but the surrounding roadsides are like a cheap carnival. Promoters copied the worst in bad taste from tourist traps like Rock City in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Nevada, and most of Dlorida. They emulate the evangelistic fervor of Tammy Baker. Every kind of cheap, stupid attraction you can imagine lines the highways around Mount Rushmore.

Somehow, to me, the glitzy clutter says more about contemporary American culture than the dignified statement of the Memorial. I was particularly saddened by the little town of Rockerville, touted as a ghost town from the 1800's. All the "old" buildings are built of plywood. This type of nonsense lines Hwy. 16 all the way from Mount Rushmore through Keystone and Rockerville to Rapid City.
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