Travel

The itinerary describes the trip as it actually occurred, and includes all changes made on the road, including the elimination of Phoenix, San Diego, and Fresno. But here’s the original, if you’re that curious…

Tuesday 2 September (Reno):

• Route: Leave San Francisco on I-80 eastbound through Sacramento to Reno.
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goals: Finding the cool dyke I met while she was working at Subway in Winnemucca five years ago, and comparing Reno’s cheap buffets to those in Vegas.

Wednesday 3 September (Salt Lake City):

• Route: Continue on I-80 to Salt Lake City (two nights).
• Accommodations: Coutesy of Eric.
• Goals: Obtaining an Osmonds lunchbox. Maybe a T-shirt too…
• Obscure TV Reference: Donny and Marie.

Friday 5 September (Denver):

• Route: Continue on I-80 through Cheyenne, switching to I-25, headed for Denver (one night).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: Not running out of gas between SLC and Cheyenne.
• Obscure TV Reference: Dynasty.

Saturday 6 September (Kansas City):

• Route: I-80 to Kansas City (two nights).
• Accommodations: I’ve been offered lodging by Bernie and dinner with Gary.
• Goals: Managing to get through the whole visit with no references to Dorothy or “The Wizard of Oz”, and visiting Country Club Plaza, which was more or less the first suburban shopping center in America.
• Obscure TV Reference: Lots of Cops episodes, Mama’s Family.

Monday 8 September (St. Louis):

• Route: East on I-70/US40 to St. Louis (one night).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goals: Never spent any time here. It intrigues me. I want to check out a few Route 66 landmarks, like Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard. If memory serves correctly, this is also the first place I get to eat White Castle Burgers.

Tuesday 9 September (Madison):

• Route: I-55 (old Route 66) north to Peoria, I-39 north to Madison (two nights)
• Accommodations: Chez Steven.
• Goals: Last time I drove through Madison, all I did was buy a Coke and a Kit-Kat bar. I plan to eat better this time. A side trip to Milwaukee is very likely at this point in the trip.
• Obscure TV Reference: Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley

Thursday 11 September (Chicago):

• Route: I-94 east to Chicago (two nights)
• Accommodations: Staying with Joseph. Visiting Curt.
• Goals: My last trip to Chicago didn’t do it justice. Buildings…the el…White Castle…the South Side…Big Chicks (the bar)…
• Obscure TV Reference: Good Times, Bob Newhart

Saturday 13 September (Indianapolis):

• Route: South on I-55/Route 66 to Peoria and west on I-74 to Indianapolis (three nights).
• Accommodations: Here I visit Bob, to whom I am eternally indebted for suggesting the trip in the first place.
• Goal: Rumor has it Indianapolis is a roadside archtecture mecca, with a smattering of interesting historic districts as well.
• Obscure TV Reference: One Day at a Time

Tuesday 16 September (Detroit):

• Route: Switch north on I-69 (I’m excited about this particular highway) through Fort Wayne to I-94 and Detroit (two nights).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: I really want to see this place; my friend Rae (a native) loves it, plus I just have this fetish for urban decay. Auto-culture exhibits at the Henry Ford Museum. A WOWO bumper sticker and T-shirt.

Thursday 18 September (Pittsburgh):

• Route: South on I-94 to Toledo, east on I-90 to Cleveland and west on I-76 to Pittsburgh (one night).
• Accommodations: A last minute offer from David (I LOVE people named David) has resulted in accommodations and a Mac here.
• Goal: I’ve known an awful lot of people from Pittsburgh over the years. Hopefully it will not be obvious why they left.
• Obscure TV Reference: Mister Rogers Neighborhood

Saturday 20 September (Baltimore):

• Route: East on I-70 (veering onto US 40, the old National Road) to Charles Town and Harpers Ferry. Then on to Baltimore (two nights).
• Accommodations: Risa, the only high school friend with whom I still communicate is here.
• Goal: Cruising the Giant Foods near Johns Hopkins, recapturing my childhood and photographing motels in Charles Town and Harper’s Ferry. And I love Baltimore. There may be a side trip to Washington and/or Wilmington.
• Obscure TV Reference: Homicide: Life on the Street

Monday 22 September (Greensboro):

• Route: South on I-95 through Washington to Richmond. West in I-64 to Norfolk to visit Taylor, and then onto Greensboro via US 58 and I-85.
• Accommodations: Mom and Dad. Plus I get to hang out with Jeff and Adam and Daniel and Taylor.
• Goal: Very much rest. Very little driving. Babylon, Waffle House, K&W, Libby Hill. Cruising UNCG. Side trips to Myrtle Beach, Reidsville, and hopefully the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.
• Obscure TV Reference: The Andy Griffith Show.

Tuesday 30 September (Charlotte):

• Route: South on I-85 to Charlotte.
• Accommodations: Duncan.
• Goal: Gus’ Sir Beef, my first Krystal burger.
• Obscure TV Reference: The PTL Club.

Tuesday 30 September (Atlanta):

• Route: South on I-85 to Atlanta (one night).
• Accommodations: Tony.
• Goal: Krystal Burgers, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and Little Five Points call.
• Obscure TV Reference: Matlock, Gone with the Wind (OK…it’s not a TV show, but I couldn’t skip it…)

Thursday 2 October (Memphis):

• Route: West on I-20 to Birmingham, north on US 78 through Tupelo (the Elvis birthplace) to Memphis (one night).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: Graceland? Beale Street? The National Civil Rights Museum?
• Obscure TV Reference: In the Heat of the Night (Mississppi leg only…)

Friday 3 October (Oklahoma City):

• Route: West on I-40 (detouring onto Route 66) to Oklahoma City (two nights).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: Many many Route 66 sights. The seduction of a member of Oral Roberts’ family.

Saturday 4 October (Amarillo):

• Route: West on I-40 (more Route 66 detours) to Amarillo (one night).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: Cadillac Ranch.

Sunday 5 October (Gallup):

• Route: West on I-40 (with yet more Route 66 detours) through Albuquerque to Gallup.
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: The hidden cities of Route 66.

Monday 6 October (Kingman):

• Route: West on I-40, through Holbrook (home of the Wigwam Village Motel) and Flagstaff, to Kingman (one night).
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: More hidden cities of Route 66.
• Obscure TV Reference: Route 66.

Tuesday 7 October (Bakersfield):

• Route: West on I-40/Route 66 through Barstow and Needles to Bakersfield.
• Accommodations: Motel.
• Goal: Making it through the desert without a dead grandma in the back of the truck (per Steinbeck).

Then back to San Francisco, where by this time I will most likely be homeless. OK…just kidding…

Bags packed. Laptop configured. Email answered. Winnemucca tonight!

Monday was laundry day, which was a more daunting task than one might imagine. Afterward, there was another last minute Target run with Sarah, at which point she provided me with a really cool book for the trip (review forthcoming).

The rest of the day was spent making road tapes, packing, moving things around the house, asking myself what the hell I’m doing, etc. Fortunately, Nick at Nite provided a sanity break in the form of a “Green Acres” marathon.

It all starts this morning.

Left home a little later than planned (surprise…) and decided that it would be worth an extra two hours tomorrow to just stay the night in Reno. The choice was thus: $40 for a room in Winnemucca, where it’s boring and the sights take ten minutes to see, or $25 for a room in Reno, where there are cheap buffets, sleazy motels, and even queer bars. Hmmm…some choice…

Lunch at the Chick-fil-A is Farifield was a good thing. However, I think I first started getting excited about the trip when I passed Sacramento and the scenery stopped being so familiar. I really started getting excited around Truckee, where it stopped being insufferably hot.

I think I like Reno better than Vegas; it seems less slick and processed. The grittiness adds a certain charm which Vegas is lacking. And everything is on a slightly smaller scale. The casino strip is not nearly so exciting, but then again, it’s also not nearly so oppressive.

So now I’m comfortably settled into the Motel 6 on Wells Avenue. It has its own Denny’s. Alas, I missed “Roseanne”, so I think I’ll take a crap now and find food…

****

Good crap, passable food. Love those $6.49 bloat buffets. I sampled Fitzgerald’s. The food and service were not upto Vegas standards, but it worked.

A few observations on Reno:

• It’s a much better spot for a carless vacation than Vegas. Everything is pretty much concentrated around the intersection of 4th and Virginia. There are even queer bars within walking distance.
• On the Tuesday after Labor Day, the average age of everyone in Reno seems to be about 70. Everyone smokes. I wonder how many of these characters are locals.
• It’s really dark here once you leave the strip.
• It rained here most of the evening. I didn’t think it rained anywhere west of the Rockies this time of year.
• Why I’m sitting here watching “Moesha” and “In the House” just like I was in SF I don’t know. Could be the lack of sleep last night. I’m beat.

The Reno bar tour proved pretty uneventful, most likely due once again to the fact that it was the Tuesday after Labor Day. I limited my drinking to The Quest on Commercial Row, but I also drove by the empty parking lots at 1099, Visions, the Five Star, and Bad Dolly’s. I wasn’t inspired.

This morning brought a daylight version of the tour, with stops by the Deseret Industries Thrift Store, Sam Weller’s Book Store, and the Utah State Fair (two hours before it opened). Then I was treated to a look at the surprisingly cruisy parks in Sugar House and Memory Grove. Lunch at Hire’s Big H, with carhop and tray.

I could go into more detail about Salt Lake City and the “Mormon factor” and all, and I will…later…Right now I’m fantasizing about Beck on MTV and trying not to think about tomorrow’s horrendous drive to Denver.

Thursday night in Salt Lake brought a trip to Brick’s, the happenin’ bar in town. The scenery was nice, if untouchable; it was all-age rave children night. Nice bar…they serve double-size Rolling Rocks. I’m not sure if this is a good thing.

A few more random notes on Salt Lake City:

It was similarly unnerving to note the similarities between Eric (my host) and myself. That’s another story entirely.

Salt Lake is a definite cute boy magnet. Maybe that caffeine-avoidance and all that clean living have some benefits. Everyone looks really healthy here.

It’s frightening how much this place reminds me of North Carolina. Substitute “Southern Baptist” for “LDS” and you immediately understand both the religion and the politics, not to mention the oppression. Also, Greensboro and Salt Lake are physically similar in a number of ways; both are about the same size and both seem to have a huge preoccupation with making sure that everything is pretty and inoffensive and appears free of any type of conflict.

All in all, I had a strangely good time in Salt Lake City. My good experience here made me somewhat less apprehensive about the mysteries of the remainder of the trip.

As promised, I slept through Denver and saw almost none of it save for the inside of a car wash and a drive down the Colfax Avenue strip (old US 40) on the way out of town. There was also breakfast and a thrift store moment, as well as my first Waffle House sighting of the trip, albeit too late for breakfast. On the down side, Denver provided the first functional spotting of a Hardee’s as well, although I did run across one in Salt Lake which had closed, no doubt to the delight of anyone who ever ate there.

One hundred sixty miles of Colorado farmland proved none too exciting. And then came Kansas…

It’s actually not such an awful drive, I guess. It’s just so damned LONG. Over 400 miles of minimal variation in scenery and many, many small towns. I was very excited when the first Stuckey’s appeared 35 miles in, right as I crossed into the Central Time Zone. A complete chicken-fried steak dinner for only $2.99 (and an ashtray on the table) almost made up for the fact that there were no extra large Stuckey’s T-shirts to be had.

Ever onward, yer humble host and the little car that could trudged forth into the heartland, through Colby and Hays and Salina and Russell, and eventually through the strip mall formerly known as Topeka, at speeds which rarely fell below 75, and with the air conditioner set on sub-arctic.

Finally, at 10:30, I arrived in the Missouri side of Kansas City and found my way to Country Club Plaza, where Bernie, my host for this part of the tour, manages an espresso bar (which is mercifully NOT a Starbuck’s). I sense good things about this trip to KC; tonight’s quick drive into the city more or less erased my five-year-old memory of Kansas City being completely creepy. Who knows what a little more time might do….

As I left KC, I had breakfast at my first Waffle House. Grits are always a happy thing. The run through Missouri was not bad and the state flew by pretty quickly. After the west and Kansas, a few hills and trees were most welcome. Missouri skies during the day look as if a huge storm could develop at any second. It never happened.

Now I’ve made it to St. Louis. I’m reminded of just how much a nervous white boy I can be, simply because this town gives me the willies so far. I guess it’s a combination of the fact that my car seems to be a little cranky, and of the one or two wrong turns I made which put me on some fairly intimidating streets. I’d like it much better here with a tour guide. Somehow, though, I feel I will find the “courage” to venture back out later tonight.

I have to say that my entrance to the city along old Route 66 was a little disappointing. Only three motels on the whole stretch, none of them spectacular. Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard was pretty cool, but I was a little disappointed to find that they don’t serve any food. I had a hankering for a hot dog, but had to settle for turkey with the old folks at a nearby cafeteria (but at least it was “free pie” night.)

Off to do whatever comes next now and finish it in time to take the car for a morning checkup and visit the top of the arch tomorrow.

Aah…Saint Louis. Ultimately, I found I was a bit unprepared for the level of decay I found there. It was staggering, as if the entire northern part of the city had just been abandoned. I’ve read about the phenomenon of entire urban blocks returning to grassland as the buildings which once occupied them burned or simply collapsed, but I’d never really seen it until now. Frightening. Once again, it’s as if the residents just decided one day to abandon a great city and go somewhere else. In areas like this, you find yourself being scared not of the people you see on the streets, but of the fact that you don’t see ANY people on the streets.