My Iowa Commute

[bluecuracao]

OK, I'm gonna beat our regular song-quoters to the punch:

Oh you know we're gonna ride
On a blue highway
Walk with the legs you're blind
On a blue highway
Wave hellow to pride
on my highway
Yes I almost died
On a blue highway

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by lizzymahoney

Sundae Girl, you might want to get a copy of William Least Heat-Moon's

Blue-Highways-Journey-into-America.

This is one of my favorite books and I usually have a few thrifted copies around for people who haven't read it yet.

Blue Highways are the old US routes before the interstates went in. They still criss cross the country but are forgotten America in many ways. Route 66 is a blue highway.

PM me if you have one knocking about and you're willing to take a chance on a virtual unknown

Bruce - I know it wouldn't be non-stop pleasure, but it's a dream and if I had the money then I know I could schedule it so I could enjoy it.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by lizzymahoney

Sundae Girl, you might want to get a copy of William Least Heat-Moon's

Blue-Highways-Journey-into-America.

I concur. This is a riveting, excellent, next best thing to being there read, and also one of my favorite tomes. When this book was at the height of its popularity in the 80's, I heard the author on the Larry King Show when it was still on radio. It was a nationally syndicated call in show back then, so I called in, and got on. My question of Least Heat Moon was simply, "Where did you get all the information for the stories you tell about the places you stopped? All the little historical asides, people's names and such?" His answer?

"You know all those roadside markers you usually drive past? I stopped at *all* of them."

Brilliant.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

"All road": the commutes generally are; I have a slightly longer, much more scenic "back road" which I'll sometimes take if 422 is really hosed. It involves going over Valley Forge Mountain, past some of the most expensive houses in the area including a beautiful horse farm. The tree coverage is so dense it interrupts my satellite radio reception. Stupid question: would you like me to take pictures of that commute?

Edit: you can choose to take these kinds of "long ways" if you travel coast to coast. My own thinking is that I want to fly to Denver (sorry midwesterners, your places are nice but boring to drive through) and then rent a decent vehicle and drive over the Rocky Mountains, through the badlands of Utah, down to the Grand Canyon and on to Vegas... on mostly the smaller roads, generally skipping the Interstate Highways.

Oh yes!

All I meant is that although many Brits commute, the word here just means "my trip to work". And in the vast majority of cases that doesn't mean along motorways/ urban freeways. Don't get me wrong - there must be thousands of people here who have journeys like yours, it's just yours was the first of the US ones that had enclosed roads. And I still liked seeing it! It's just I now understand that days on end of a similar view might pall.

[HungLikeJesus]

The term 'Generica' describes what you see driving the freeways across the US. Every exit looks like every other exit. McDonald's, ABC restaurants (Applebee's/Bennigan's/Chili's), Home Depot, Wal-Mart, two gas stations, variations on a theme, a strip mall, a concrete wall.

If you're going to travel around the US and want to see something, stay off of the interstates.

[bluecuracao]

Originally Posted by HLJ

The term 'Generica' describes what you see driving the freeways across the US. Every exit looks like every other exit. McDonald's, ABC restaurants (Applebee's/Bennigan's/Chili's), Home Depot, Wal-Mart, two gas stations, variations on a theme, a strip mall, a concrete wall.

I feel fortunate that I don't have to see these things on a regular basis. I think I'd go completely nuts if I did.

[Sundae]

I love the idea that I could do that HLJ - I'd like to at least have a beer with many Dwellars, although I'm so much more comfortable being the one imposed on than imposing.

I keep promising myself that with the great exchange rate (for the UK I mean) I'll buy at least $10 a week before the dollar gets any stronger. Something always comes up though!

I'll get my finances in order once I move. I promise I'll start working on a plan then.

[Undertoad]

Commute route B. 10 minutes longer, unless 422 is seriously hosed. Usta be the same distance as commute A, but the fuckers closed a critical road I needed.


mill grove, historical home of john audubon


what "st gabe's curve" is named after

422 hosed again, as we pass over it

over the schuylkill river



the country club

over valley forge "mountain"


invisible driveways to the homes of the rich.

trees so dense and lush they interrupt mah satellite radio



horse farms

one lane bridges



and into officeland.

[Cyclefrance]

That beats the first commute for me, UT (but then I'm greenery fan!). Looks far more inviting and interesting - and much less stressful with so little traffic to contend with.

[wolf]

I didn't know they called that "Saint Gabe's Curve."

I see the place and it just makes me get irritable.

(Saint Gabe's is a school for exceptionally bad children, most of them from Philadelphia, all of them miserable, manipulative, little criminal bastards. Well, mostly bastards. I think that one or two have come from intact two-parent families.)

[lumberjim]

i jumped off the schuylkill today and went down East River Drive....thought of this thread and wished I'd had my camera....I'll get it one day...

[monster]

OK, so my regular commute is to and from the kids' school. Usually there on the freeway (because I'm always on the last minute) and back across town.

1) waiting to turn left at the first main intersection
2) Southbound US23

[monster]

3) Eastbound I94 (with water tower in distance for cyclefrance)
4) it's neverending....

[monster]

5) The city park with the ice rink where I take skating lessons. Melted in summer, though -they have an outdoor pool with a waterslide running in the summer
6) Zingermann's Roadhouse Diner Drive-through. The trailer has a huge aluminum coffee-pot spout on the front, but I didn't manage to get that in the picture.

[monster]

7) Looking behind me towards the freeway I just left (still sat at the intersection with the ice rink on one corbner and the diner on another)
8) Heading straight for downtown Ann Arbor -about a mile from the very center