KentsUSdrive

From out of the blue (Highways)

I've been talking about taking a drive around the United States for more than seven months.

I've mentioned it to classmates, new friends, old friends, clients, associates and relatives. I tell them that I plan to drive around as much of this country as I can in two-and-a-half months, taking state and country roads and staying off major highways, thruways, toll roads and expressways. I tell them I want to talk to as many people as I can in hardware stores, diners, gas stations, bookshops, barber shops, stationery stores and other establishments in small towns across America. I want to get a feel for this country on the ground. I want to get a personal sense of the people who call themselves Americans, and a personal knowledge of the geography of this vast nation.

Invariably, people ask:

"Great idea! Have you ever heard of "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon?"

"Sounds cool. You're sort of doing what Steinbeck did in "Travels With Charley", aren't you?

"Didn't Charles Kuralt do this a few years ago? Is that what gave you the idea?"

The fact is, I read "Blue Highways" more than 30 years ago. I've never been able to get out of my mind Mr. Heat-Moon's unique adventures and the wonderful book he wrote about them and the people he talked with. You could say I've been wanting to do this same kind of thing -- sticking to the 'blue highways'  and talking to everybody -- ever since I put the book down.

Whether these blogalogs will ever become a book or an essay or a travelogue or just a collection of wonderful personal memories is something I can't predict at this moment. But I do plan to keep describing what transpires on this journey, and I invite you to come along.

Away at last...almost

Getting out of Dodge is probably easier than getting out of New York.

Planning to leave about 1 pm on Saturday, May 26, my wife (Linda) and son (Jason) drove me to the North Brunswick, NJ Hertz office to pick up the Toyota Sierra van I’d rented for my cross-country drive. Trouble was, we couldn’t find the Hertz office in North Brunswick. And it got later and later.

When we finally pulled up to the Hertz office (1:45 after leaving New York City), a young man came out the door with keys in his hand. My van keys, I thought. How thoughtful. But no. They were the keys to the building. He said, “You’re too late. We’re closed. You can come back Tuesday.” And he began locking the door.

I’m not known for an even temper. But on the flies-&-honey principle, I mentioned in somewhat elevated tones that I had reserved this van more than six weeks ago…that I was counting on starting my cross-country drive this very day …that it would throw off two-and-a-half months of tight planning and scheduling if I had to wait until Tuesday to get the fan and leave…that we had driven 70 frantic miles from New York City expressly to pick up this van…and that I would greatly appreciate it if he could give me immediately the bane, phone number and address of Hertz’s CEO.

Luckily, he was a nice young man, He relented. He opened the office, spent 30 minutes at the start of his holiday weekend filling out paperwork, got the van for me and checked it over, instructed me on the somewhat arcane features of this new (to me) vehicle, and sent us on our way. On the drive back into New York City (Jason followed us back in my car, which he will care for during the time I’m away), all I could think of was all the stuff I still needed to do before I could leave. I began to have the sinking feeling that despite my best intentions, I would not be able to throw my gear into this new van (with Florida plates, of all things! What will they think in Montana?) and speed away from Manhattan..

When I returned to my apartment, I found that I had about two hours of client work still to finish, find stuff I’d forgotten to plan to take (I now have more electronic gadgetry with me than your average Circuit City), load additional programs into my laptop computer, charge camera batteries, and on and on. More to do that it’s worth telling about.

The result is that I did not get away from Manhattan until Sunday morning, May 27. Luckily, Jason agreed to come with me for the first five or six days of my journey, and I’m extremely grateful for his company. (Turns out he set up a job interview for Friday, June 1 with a company in Kalamazoo, and I can easily take him there as I cruise north into Michigan from Indiana.) Jason knows about all things electronic and mechanical, and was an immense help in making cameras, iPods, Sony Playstation Portable (aka PSP, he says), a Sony video camera (with luck I’ll be able to upload videos to this blog, but don’t hold your breath), two mobile phones, and a video/computer editing program. And so has ended our first day on this journey.

We made it to Olean, NY (famous for ceramic tiles and a lifeless town center), checked into a Best Western. Right now, we’re planning for Day 2 and an assault on Ashtabula, Cleveland and Canton, Ohio.