Nice Ride...

Every now and then, you see a car that just looks so fine, even though you know it's not your style. The boys would like this one, especially if it came with neon lights that reflected off the road at night.

Seeing an automobile like this brings up a larger question: How great is it to live in a nation that not only produces the original, but has the imagination and capacity to upgrade all the improvements?

Is this a great country or what?

Everywhere Signs

There are any number of places in America where major roads cross. It's not too easy to get lost, if you just stay close to the big road and watch the signs.

In Mt Vernon, Illinois, somebody took a sampling of signs and put them all together in one spot. Hopefully, travelers will remember how to get back to the highway.

As we all know, signs can be confusing, especially in Mt Vernon.

End of the peaches

As I said earlier, South Carolina grows far more peaches than Georgia, the self-proclaimed "peach state". Any trip near the small town of McBee, SC is incomplete without a purchase of the delicious fruit from McLeod's Peach Farm. Otherwise, you just feel like something is unfinished.

In previous trips, we have tried transporting two(2) or more cases back home to the Rocky Mountains. We look pretty funny hauling a couple of boxes of peaches into motel rooms every night. No matter how hard we try the peaches always give up before we can get them to our house. Inevitably, we end up eating way too many in an attempt to waste not.

So, when we left South Carolina for the last time this year, as always, we stopped by the Peach Shed on the way out. Knowing that we had that two thousand miles to go, mostly in September when the weather is still warm, we opted to buy only one(1) case of Mac's Pride #1's this time instead of the usual two(2). Good thing.

Nine(9) days later, in Colorado and still two(2) days from home, only three(3) peaches are left, not a one thrown away. I am tempted to declare victory, but not until these last ones are gone.

Mobility is everything, these days

Like I said earlier, small businesses have to find a way to get noticed. And, if you can get seen in more than one place that is even better.

Up in Wisconsin, a place noted for its cheese, this pizza delivery arrangement not only brings dinner but confirms the well being of the American entrepreneurial spirit.

At first, I couldn't tell whether the moose was accidental, a hired hand, a freeloader or just in love. Nevertheless, there he rides, a monument to free enterprise and the great northern woods.

Environmentally sensitive

If you look closely, you can see a mother goose and goslings, crossing a road. It happened as we were madly dashing for Canada, so we could turn around and madly dash back. We turned a corner along with dozens of other travelers who were hurriedly on their way to wherever, and there they were.

I suppose it could be argued that ravelled up in their DNA was the information that deeded that particular piece of real estate to them from their ancestors and so they had a right to be there, no matter that Big Box and several smaller Boxes had built right there on their property without their permission.

Someone got out of a car and yelled "stop" and we all did while they ambled across the dangerous byway to safety. Just for that still moment everyone at that exit understood what was really important in our mad dash world.

Me, in another life

So, whenever my mother-in-law's children, which after a little breaking in period included me, got off track from whatever life pursuit we were supposed to be following, she would invariably accuse us of "going to the mountains to play a flute."

I often wondered exactly how this would play out and what it would actually look like in real life.

A good many of my questions were cleared up the other day when we passed through the mountains of Western North Carolina. And there I was, complete with my faithful dog lying at my feet, wondering what tune I would play next.

Signs of the times

I can remember a time, not so long ago, when just knowing there was a pay phone ahead gave a comforting feeling. Family, friends and emergencies could all be handled by the cling clang of a few coins.

Having to pay for the call insured against getting too longwinded, and seldom was a waiting line so long it could not be endured within a few short minutes.

My, how times have changed. No more queing for the next empty booth. Now we wait behind the person in the car ahead, hoping he won't be too distracted to drive.

Now nobody sticks his head up into the booth squeezing for that tiny bit of privacy. Everyone's conversation is out in the open, like a community discussion.

And those old pay phone stations? Just like a body with no heart...dead as a door nail.

The Long Road

What's wrong with America can easily be discovered by paying close attention to road habits, particularly among the youngsters.

Whenever you see a car with children in the backseat with their eyes glued to a video screen and earphones plugged in, you may feel justified about feeling unsure about the future.

In the 1950's and 60's when we were first crossing the country, a view of the road stretching out in front of the car was an invitation to guess the distance in miles to the farthest point we could see. Everybody guessed and the victor got only the satisfaction of knowing he had won, but usually a conversation followed on geography, geology or history, and sometimes weather. No one dared to look down or go to sleep in daylight for fear of missing the next game or interesting landmark.

That was then, this is now. Technology is great, but it simply does not replace the real world experience that happens from now to the horizon.

The State of Music

We have already established that Georgia has peanuts, South Carolina has peaches and California has wine and a little of everything else. I suppose every state has a trademark item that makes its residents proud.

Wisconsin has cheese, about which more later, Michigan used to have cars and may again someday. Think of horses for Kentucky, hams from Virginia and maple syrup dripping out of Vermont.

But what about Tennessee? Well, the Volunteer state makes music and a lot of it. And the folks that live near I-81 in the eastern hills of Tennessee want everyone to know just how big music is.

Moonshot

It was sometime after we ran into the astronaut, well, we didn't actually run into him, he orbited into us, but I digress, which I do a lot, that we happened upon John Glenn's old jalopy, somewhere in Ohio.

Being on a first name basis with pioneers in the space program means you had better familiarize yourself with what they do in case you get into a long conversation with one of them sometime. I mean, you don't want to let on to how little you really know about man's crowning achievement in the field of space exploration, do you?

So I sat in the driver's seat, turned around backwards to the heat shield while Debby took this picture. I intend to have it made into a snapshot I can carry around in my wallet, so the next time we meet a spaceman I'll be ready, you know, just in case.