Travel

In many ways Atlanta was my introduction to cities and things urban, both as a child and as a young adult. When I was a youngster, my mom took regular business trips to Atlanta and my dad and I would often come down and meet her on the weekend. Atlanta was the first place I stayed in a high-rise “city” hotel (the Howell House, which is now a high-rise condo building just like everything else on Peachtree Street in Midtown) and the first place I visited giant downtown department stores like Davison’s and Rich’s (later Macy’s and Macy’s). In the early 1970s, there were even still mid-block streetcar strip supermarkets dating from the 1930s, which fed the obsession that later grew into Groceteria.

In college, Atlanta became a big road trip destination, both to see bands at the Fox and to visit queer bars like the original Weekends–bars that actually played good music rather than the dreary disco slop that dominated (and probably still dominates) the ones around here. It was fun to walk through Midtown in those days before it had been sanitized and lost any trace of texture and human scale. It was all very urban but also still comfortingly southern. In other words, you could still get collard greens, and Waffle House at 4AM was still an option. Here on Otherstream, there are also documented visits from 1997, 2001, and 2003.

My big fascination with American urban development centers on the period from the 1920s to the 1950s, a time which has alternately been described as urbanism’s pinnacle or its “last gasp.” For me, the fascination stems from the fact that it was such a period of transition for American cities as they moved from a pedestrian and transit orientation to an automobile-centered form. For a while, the two development models were able to survive side by side, if sometimes a bit warily. Eventually, urban renewal and white flight would destroy this coexistence in all but a few cities and neighborhoods, and the ones where it still exists are the ones I find most interesting. It’s possible to get a bit of this feel in certain parts of Atlanta and those are some of the parts I sought out on this trip (and that I seek out on most trips to most places).

In Atlanta, I always seem to gravitate toward the Ponce de Leon and Moreland Avenue corridors and all my detours somehow end up back here. They’re the parts of town that say “Atlanta” to me, particularly now that Midtown and Buckhead have been turned into generic “everything was built last week” pseudo-urban areas that could be (and are) found in any city from Houston to Charlotte. I had the obligatory vegetable plate at Mary Mac’s. And I always make a pilgrimage to Wax n’ Facts, a record store I’ve been visiting for almost thirty years now that’s also home to the DB Recs label and to whatever is currently inside the old A&P store that masqueraded as a Piggly Wiggly in Driving Miss Daisy.

I also like the slightly dowdy Cheshire Bridge road area and finally dined at the Colonnade this trip. Suffice to say, the atmosphere is much better than the food itself. I used to stay at the adjacent Cheshire Bridge Motor Inn pretty regularly but I’m no longer that brave.

Research for Groceteria really promotes this and forces me to really get to know a city. It’s how I became familiar with SF in many ways and it’s been a big help in other cities too, now including Atlanta. I spent about ten hours in the library at Emory doing research that led to this and this. Research took me to neighborhoods I’d never visited before in South and East Atlanta–neighborhoods that lots of people would find a bit frightening. And yes, I approach every city I visit as a research project to some extent. It can be exhausting. That’s why I have historically preferred to travel alone–or at least one of the reasons.

I toured some outlying areas too, in search of adventure and old supermarket carcasses. On one of these drives, I also managed to meet up with Joseph and BJ for dinner. Joseph and I have been reading each other’s sites for many years (although his is regrettably no longer active) and we’d met only once before, accidentally in the Atlanta airport between flights. It was nice to have a chance to talk, meet BJ, and eat quite good Indian food.

It was a good trip. There will be more of these and (I hope) better documentation, just like in the old days, now that I’m traveling solo again.

See photos from the Atlanta trip.

See more photos at Groceteria.

So as you may have gathered, I made a quick trip to Canada last weekend. There was a “weekend getaway” aspect to the trip and I did get to hang out with my friend Sarah in Toronto. There was also a business aspect. All in all, it was a great long weekend–if a bit exhausting from all the driving. I always feel so peaceful and calm in Canada. An added bonus was that it was rather chilly so I was able to extend the winter I never really had by a few days.

I stopped in Pittsburgh on the way up, my last visit there since we sold the house. Frankly, I was a little nervous about that. There’s a lot of “breakup baggage” associated with Pittsburgh. But I love Pittsburgh and I’ve decided not to let negative associations ruin it for me (a decision I’m trying to make on a regular basis lately) so I drove into town, had my Italian sub at Tom’s Diner in Dormont and then drove up to Mount Washington to look down on the gorgeousness. And it was good.

On Saturday I made the drive to Niagara Falls with a brief stop in Erie. The border crossing was relatively uneventful, all things considered, and I made my way into Fort Erie for cash before driving the 30 km to Niagara Falls. It was at about this point that I realized it was starting to get cold and rainy and I had somehow neglected to pack a jacket. So it was off to Value Village. I checked into my ridiculously cheap room ($29) at the Super 8 and eventually headed back out in search of dinner. I found said dinner at a wonderful place called The Flying Saucer Restaurant, which was kind of like eating inside an episode of Space:1999, decked out as it was in that beautiful late 1970s vision of the future. I also walked around the Clinton Hill tourist zone for a few minutes.

Sunday morning brought breakfast at a most wonderful diner that was way off the beaten (tourist) path and was dirt cheap–particularly by Canadian standards. I explored Niagara a bit before meeting Sarah at the new Walmart (it was right off the QEW and had a big parking lot, making it perfect for said rendezvous) so we could make a day trip to Toronto. It was great seeing Sarah; we had lunch and roamed about The Annex a bit before popping in to the new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens and then heading home. After sending her back across the border, I explored a bit more.

On Monday morning, I packed up, checked out got gas, had breakfast at Bassell’s, and did my necessary grocery shopping and other final errands. I shot a few photos downtown and managed to locate the building that served as the morgue in Niagara (I’d scouted a couple of other locations the day before). Then it was back to the USA, appropriately entering through the hellhole known as Niagara Falls, New York. I stopped by Wegman’s, detoured through Buffalo, and got on the Thruway.

After my late start, I couldn’t quite make it home in one day, so I spent Monday night in one of the newly-renovated Motel 6 locations outside Charleston WV. My room was sort of a half-assed version with mostly new paint and a new (but yet still cigarette-burned) bedspread and no actual new furniture.

After a quick breakfast and an unproductive stop by the Charleston Department Store, I came home.

Photos:

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This may be brief. I’m a little worn out tonight.

Yesterday:

• Breakfast at another great coffee shop in Pasadena.
• Toured the Valley shooting lots of photos and videos.
• Visited Mildred Pierce’s house in Glendale.
• Lunch at Wienerschnitzel (finally).
• Found a great used bookstore in North Hollywood which also happened to be a magnet for cute geeky boys on a Saturday afternoon.
• Shawerma for dinner.
• More twilight photos and videos.
• Brief, ill-advised nightlife experiment.

Today:

• Tested my airport route for Tuesday morning.
• Visited the oldest operating McDonald’s in Downey.
• Came back into town via Slauson, Figueroa, and Broadway.
• West Adams, Pico-Union, downtown.
• Spent an hour or so walking around in in Westlake/MacArthur Park. That area makes me smile a lot.
• South on Crenshaw to Inglewood, with detours.
• Walked around Santa Monica for an hour or so.
• Back east via Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards.

Tomorrow, I’ll probably stay mostly around Pasadena being a pedestrian. I’m weary of all-day drives and a little worn out in general. Plus I hit a bit of a mood tonight in Santa Monica for several reasons which I shan’t detail right now. A low-key last day may be just the thing for me.

Fifteen years ago today:

My first online road trip enters its second day and I go from Reno to Salt Lake City. Highlights include Winnemucca and Wells, Nevada; Utah and Mountain Time Zone;
Bill & Nada’s in Salt Lake City (now demolished); Salt Lake City by night.

Original narrative.