Traveling

Yesterday, I came across an article on CNN about the writer William Least-Heat Moon, most notable for a travel book called Blue Highways. He traveled across the country in a modified van, traveling solely on small two-lane roads that were denoted by blue on old maps. Doing so allowed him to see parts of the country he could have never reached or seen traveling over the interstates; the small towns no one ever hears of.

His idea is that by traveling this way, one can find what makes this country this country in a way traveling the interstates can't. One learns the nature of the US and its people by digging deep, not by skirting over. It's the same idea that John Steinbeck tangentially explored in Travels with Charley and America and Americans.

The book was published about 25 years ago, and in this article, he describes some of the changes he's observed"

A quarter of a century ago, towns that still had limits -- discernible edges -- now can look like they're getting swallowed by an inoperable cancer.

Sprawl is endemic today, and we've shown little interest in controlling it and what it does to our lives and to our minds.

The influence of mega-corporations has changed the face of the country, both for better and too often for worse.

Corporate-logo franchises have done in so many of what I call Bert and Betty eateries.

Regional food has taken a real hit, and today I have to look harder to find a good and genuine cafe.

On the other hand, a lot of so-called greasy spoons have been wiped off the map by franchises where a traveler can often depend on a chain to serve a similar whatever across the country.

Yes, it's likely ordinary and undistinguished, but it'll be consistent. But why travel if consistency is all you want?
'Sleep map'

I'm the kind of traveler, though, who would rather take chances -- to hell with consistency -- and hunt down a place that just might serve up a good original regional meal that I'll remember for years to come.

Food like that is one of my motivations for traveling. Take away regional foods, and staying home can look like a smart decision.

Going to switch gears; what he's saying reminds of a quote I read a while ago from Garrison Keillor: "People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know?"

Is it true that this regional identity is disappearing and irrelevant? That would be rather sad. I'm not from one place but rather from many, having moved around quite considerably when I was younger.

I spent the first few years in the US in Chapel Hill, NC, so I might have picked up a few regionalisms from there; Notably, a mild touch of a southern accent, as this is where I learned English.

I grew up mainly in Florida, which oddly enough, becomes more of the south the further north you go, but whose regional culture and identity I've yet to nail down.

I'm half Swiss and half Austrian, but at this point, these are just nationalities. I'm proud to be where I'm from, but I was 6 when I left. The strong emotional ties notwithstanding, how well do I really identify with the national identity of these countries--the things that make Swiss folks Swiss, and Austrians Austrians?

I am from where I'm from, but who I am is where I am. My moving around so much as a kid and becoming temporarily part of many communities must have implanted in me a desire and curiosity to explore the areas I lived in in the most micro-travel (I think I just made that up) methods so that I can become a part of them: by foot or by bike, and if I wanted, by the two lane roads. I have a hard time tempering my curiosity to see what's around the bend or where I'd go if I'd take a left instead of a right. I always feel a sense of momentary regret for the bend not explored or the turn not taken.

This country is so big, and I have still so much I want to see here.

All this said, it would be a monumental drag if now, America has lost some of its regionalism, like Keillor suggests. I want to travel and find ways we are unique yet the same somehow, as opposed to discovering there aren't any differences anymore. I guess I'll only know when I explore.

Some travel tips from William Least Heat Moon

Go with a loose sense of destination.

Don't go farther than your time easily allows, and try to move reasonably slowly.

We're a nation of speeders: speeders in all sorts of things; we invented fast food.

But speed and good travel aren't comfortable or useful companions.

Speed is anathema to deep travel.

If you want to learn the territory between your place of departure and where you end up, you have to have time and use it wisely.

Speed corrupts travel far more than bad Chinese food.