| Van Buren, AR |
I’m still trying to find the right mix of driving, hiking, sightseeing, sleeping, and writing.
And writing thus far, seems to be the one slipping by the wayside.
So I’m going to try to do it more often and be less lengthy when I do so.
So some random catch up pieces and thoughts this morning from a Starbucks outside of Van Buren, AR.
BTW – I’m not normally a Starbucks drinker, but the coffee at the hotel this morning tasted like it was run through an old dirty gym sock, and I definitely need a little pep in my step before several more hours of driving.
I’ll be curious as to how many of you get the reference.
Speaking of driving…
I’ve done about 1500 miles so far and it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I might have expected it to be.
I normally hate – or at least strongly dislike – driving, and get horribly aggravated and inpatient when doing so. But I’ve been reasonably calm on this trip and am mainly using the time to catch up on podcasts including the terrific This American Life .
It feels like we’re in a golden area of multi-media content nowadays between all the streaming video options, but if you’re looking for a way to fill in some other time – be it driving, chores, etc., allow me to heartily endorse podcasts.
Hopefully the glory of podcasting comes as no surprise to many of you, but if you’re not on board that train yet, know that the amount of free content, on literally every topic imaginable is all but limitless.
To some extent, many of the ones I enjoy – including This American Life – have an old-timey feel to them as I think back to the days when radio was one of your main forms of entertainment.
Imagine the whole family gathering around the radio as President Roosevelt gave one of his fireside chats and all of a sudden having a connection to the greater world – and all its resulting crises at that time. There was no Interstate Highway system – let alone TV, Internet or cell phones, so your world must have seemed fantastically small, and all of a sudden the President of the United States started talking to you, in your house!
I’ve heard a few radio stories from my mother including her vivid memories of The Shadow , and I’ve actually looked up some of the old time radio serials and dramas, listened with closed eyes and tried to imagine how remarkable that invention must have seemed at the time.
So while today’s podcasts certainly don’t necessarily have that remarkable quality to them, they’re still pretty fantastic, and you should check some out if you haven’t.
Some of my favorites include: Serial, The Way I Heard It (Mike Rowe), Pod Save America, StoryCorps, Planet Money and really pretty much anything else by NPR.
Also on driving…
The last couple of days have been spent in Tennessee and Arkansas, a land of not only hills and mountains, but also a land of pickup trucks.
And in a mountainous region such as this, my 2012 Hyundai Veloster has gotten a major inferiority complex.
She’s trying her best, but laden with gear, on a hill, she’s struggling. Big time.
Though I’m likely being looked down upon (literally) as people blast past me, there is a distinct gas mileage advantage to the fact I’ve got a standard transmission. I’ve actually coasted for miles coming out of the mountains with nary a hint of acceleration.
And speaking of coming out of the mountains…
In my tale about Mount LeConte, I promised you an addendum on Gaitlinburg, TN.
—–
After my odyssey on the mountain, I had about 15 miles to go to get to Gaitlinburg, where I figured I’d find a hotel for the night.
So after gathering myself, I started creeping down those winding pitch black roads in the Smoky Mountain National Park towards my destination.
And I’ll remind you again that we’re talking ‘regional power outage’ dark, and it was made even more so by the fact that they apparently had recently paved the roads in the area and this, were that new shiny blacktop, which made it worse…
So I get to the edge of the woods and I can see a few lights off in the distance and I’ve got service on my phone again, so we’re getting back to civilization, and boom, right at the edge of the woods is the city.
And one of the more surreal experiences of my life…
You come out of the woods and immediately you’re on the main drag and it slaps you right in the face.
Tattoo parlors, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, throngs of people on the street, shops, neon lights everywhere, street hustlers, etc.
It’s like some combination of a mini-Las Vegas, Niagara Falls, ON, and Carnivale.
Perhaps some of you already knew this, but I sure didn’t and I felt like I went from North Korea to South Korea instantly.
Truly, truly bizarre.
The weather…
I’m a white guy. A really white guy.
The last two days have been sunny and 75-80 degrees and the Arkansas Delta felt like 200 percent humidity, in the beginning of April.
And now I’m headed through Oklahoma, North and West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, etc.
So if I come back looking like a different person, or I literally just melt, and thus never come back at all don’t be surprised.
I’m working on the photo collages and will likely start posting them as galleries on the site in the next couple of days.
Lots more driving ahead as I make my way to the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas. At that point the driving should slow down some and the hiking and ‘National Park-ing’ should truly begin.
The Long Road 