on the road
--Bathing at La Grenouillere (1869),Claude Monet
We were all delighted, we all realized we were
leaving confusion and nonsense behind
and performing our one noble function of the time, move
--On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!
--Auntie Mame (1958)
Good mornin', good mornin'!
It's great to stay up late,
Good mornin', good mornin' to you
--Good Morning, Singing in the Rain
And I left for a life of my own.
I left for a life on the road.
--A Life on the Road, The Kinks
______________
We realize this may be gauche, but decided to take the risk anyway. Ranger's etiquette cannot be enlisted in such matters and Ms. Post has not addressed this particular blogosphere issue just yet. Generally it is not in good taste to invite yourself to meet people, and it violates OPSEC, but Ranger has been trained to fight his way out of ambushes.
Ranger is taking it to the street. For the next month, we will be on the road, up the East Coast on an inland route basically up the 81 corridor with a goal of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. No special destination, just meandering.
It is an earnest effort to avoid "death by blogging" and it is also a discovery mission. The route will go through Asheville, Charlottesville, Pennsylvania, western New York, through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Maybe a bit of Canada, too. Then back to Bowling Green, Ohio, down the 75 corridor to Florida. Circuitous. We'll still write along the way.
First day out, we've met old First Sergeant Lowell Jergens, a retired Command Sergeant Major, and old friend Paul Longgrear of Lang Vei fame. We will write more on Paul later.
Each half of the dynamic duo is searching for something, and I have every faith that we will find it. As for why the holiday didn't occur in the thick of a mucky Florida Summer, that is another story, and quite nonessential.
The point is, it would be fun to meet some of our correspondents, so if you think we might be going near your neck of the woods and you would like to meet, drop us a line.
To the chaps who invited Ranger to their bunker outside of Ft. Bragg last year to sing Lili Marlene: thanks, no. All visits will be above ground, in public spots.
Labels: on the road, to the northeast
posted by Lisa at 7:21 AM
16 Comments:
Well, shucks, wrong coast.
I have to say that if you ever come to California, SF/Bayarea, I'll treat you both to a pint and a hearty meal at my favorite Pub, the Kingshead pub in Campbell.
Above ground, above average food, and outstanding ales.
Mind your speedometer, a lot of the seaboard states like to supplement their state treasury with the involuntary tithes of vistors with a slightly heavier right foot.
Hey sheerah!
Have you ever been to the now departed Flying Lady Restaurant in Morgan Hill?
I hope you both remembered your towels!
Tips from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc, etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
(Douglas Adams, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")
Maine is God's country. I hope to get back to the old family homestead there next year, but for now I am also stuck on the wrong coast.
Don't stop on your way through southern Maine. York County, home of Bush's Kennebunkport, is just a suburb of Boston. If you want to see the real Maine, then head up to Aroostook County and see the towns of Caribou and Presque Isle, canoe the Allagash River, or drive thru one or two of the Plantations. You are too late for the Potato Blossom Festival, but then you can't have everything. Besides that would spoil you and you would probably never return to Florida.
It is a perfect jumping off point for Quebec or for the Maritime Provinces if you are headed to Canada.
God's country is Israel, dumbass. He doesn't fraternize with the heathen of this continent.
"Have you ever been to the now departed Flying Lady Restaurant in Morgan Hill"
Nope, in fact...not sure I remember that one at all. lol, in fact, never been to the Gilroy garlic festival either...always been a nightmarish trip down 101 to get there.
Even though Caltrans has expanded the freeway, still, the traffic flows very, very, oh my god, so ever slowly still.
"God's country is Israel, dumbass. He doesn't fraternize with the heathen of this continent."
pfft!
G-d calls the earth his footstool, which I take to mean that the planet is his, lock, stock, and barrel. So Mike is literally, and technically correct.
Putz!
sheerakhan and labrys,
Next time, next coast, and a rousing visit with the liberals of a different stripe. Thanks for the kind offers.
mike,
Thanks for the advice on the Southern Maine coast. Sounds like your neck o' the woods is a place of beauty. We're avoiding Boston.
Sheerahkahn,
Gilroy garlic is a thing of beauty in its many bloomin' incarnations. I don't know what the traffic is like these days, though.
"I don't know what the traffic is like these days, though."
Imagine a thousand snails, all lined up, nose to tail (do snails have noses?), and then throw in some slugs making lane changes, and perhaps a few banana slugs galloping in to get their spot in the line up...and you pretty much get the idea of what 101 traffic can be like.
The best festival I've ever been too was the...uh...hmm, think they marked it as Monterey, but it was closer to Salinas...anyway, the tomato festival was outstanding, expensive, but outstanding.
sheerahkhan,
Ooh, slugs and snails--disgusting, even when they go by the name escargot. Love tomotoes when they are not those pale, pink mealy approximations under saran wrap in the grocers.
Sounds awesome, Lisa! You'll catch the change of the colors in New England and/or the Maritime provinces...! Spectacular scenery! All those hurricanes giving ya some itchy feet? Hawaii is always a worthwhile destination too...! I'd love an opportunity to hoist a couple of brews with you and ranger! ;-)
Thank you, CT. Next year in Hawaii?!
It will be a pleasure to meet you in person one day. Aloha.
M.C.,
I am never far from my tin of McVities, with or w/o face flannel!
I've enjoyed reading your blog for awhile now. Will you be traveling through New York city at some point?
Curt,
Thanks for your reply . We are not going thru the eastern corridor and will not go thru NYC. I generally avoid all major cities, but if you're ever in N. Fl. pls. give me a buzz. jim
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