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Entries in Fredericksburg (2)

Sunday
Dec232012

Blue Highways: Fredericksburg, Virginia

Unfolding the Map

Four wheels, two wheels, or even three wheels?  Which is best?  As a person who utilizes two wheels of the human powered variety for transportation, I envy motorists sometimes.  But, as William Least Heat-Moon (LHM) stops in Fredericksburg for some gas, I look at the the pros and cons of each, at least in my life.  To see where Fredericksburg sits, pedal or accelerate over to the map.

Book Quote

"Vern, in his antique ways, believed that anyone who got behind a steering wheel could rightly be expected to operate the car rather than just steer it; that's why you wee issued an Operator's Permit.  He believed the more work a driver did, the less the car had to do; the less it had to do, the simpler and more reliable and cheaper to repair it would be.  He cursed the increasing complexity of automobile mechanics.  But, as I say, he was a man of the old ways.  He even believed in narrow tires (cheaper and less friction), spoked wheels (less weight), and the streamlined 'Airflow' designs of Chrysler Corporation cars of the mid-thirties - designs Chrysler almost immediately gave up on before proceeding to build the biggest finned hogs of all.  We boys of the fifties loved their brontosaurean bulk.

"Another of Vernon's themes we laughed at was his advocacy of the comparable economy of and safety of three wheels (he drove a motorcycle with a sidecar) for city driving.  He would say to us, 'Two wheels ain't enough, and four's too many. So where does that leave you, boys?'  'Three wheels!' we'd shout back, mocking him.  'No sir, it leaves money in your jeans.'"

Blue Highways: Chapter 10, Part 1

Downtown Fredericksburg. Photo by Ken Lund and hosted at Wikimedia Commons. Click on photo to go to host page.

Fredericksburg, Virginia

At the time I am writing this post, it is a winter morning in Albuquerque.  We've had no snow yet, but we've finally gotten to the point where the mornings are very cold, around 17 degrees in the morning just when the sun comes up.

For a person who rides his bike to work, such as myself, it isn't the greatest experience, especially when the wind blows.  On those days I bundle up in layers, but not too many, so that I can be warm enough on the ride.  I put on a hat, or a snood, and after the new year my new balaclava, under my helmet and gloves on my hands to keep my hands from freezing.  No matter what kind of gloves I get, they never seem to keep my hands warm enough and I usually end up with biting cold fingers by the end of the ride.

The ride is only about three miles, and I do it as fast as possible.  While mostly downhill, it is a strenuous workout because I have to do a couple of nice rises in there.  Those mornings, however, when the wind is pushing against me so that exposed areas of my face are frozen and after a few minutes certain parts of my body are retreating rapidly like rabbits into a hole, I really wish I had a car.

The reason I don't have a car are various.  Mostly it has to do with money.  Two cars in our family would increase our costs.  We would pay more for gas, though my wife does most of the driving.  Repairs would double, especially since neither one of us has had great luck with cars so there is usually some huge thing that needs to be fixed every three years or so.  I would also have to pay $450 or so a year for the privilege of having a parking space about a half-mile away from my office, or much more if I wanted to park closer.

I am mostly fine with the arrangement, except, as I wrote, on cold winter mornings and the occasional day when I find myself having to ride to work or home in rain or, even worse, slushy snow.  Another advantage is that I get exercise, especially coming back home where my downhill turns to a steep uphill climb, and by the time I get home my heart is pumping hard.

But there are some disadvantages.  If I'm late, I'm usually really late because I can only go so fast on my bike.  I usually have to leave earlier for things that I need to get to.  Also, my freedom of movement is limited to where I can get on my bike.  I envy my wife's ability to go where she wants, even up to Santa Fe, down to Socorro or over to Gallup if she needs to.  Bike racks on the bus could make my radius a little larger, but one is limited to the bus schedule and places they go.  And the safety factor is also a disadvantage.  While Albuquerque is a relatively bike-friendly city, some drivers here see bikers as a hindrance.  This has not been helped by serious bikers, that train in Albuquerque because of the altitude, who sometimes seem to go out of their way to annoy drivers by riding in packs in the middle of the road.  The clash of bike culture and car culture, and people on both sides who don't understand the rules of the road, means that there are far too many "ghost bikes" along the sides of highways.  There is one at an intersection right next to the university where I work.

My wife and I often joke about getting a motorcycle with a side car.  The joke goes that I could drive the motorcycle, and we could outfit our dog in goggles and she could ride in the sidecar.  But that will never happen because my wife really doesn't want me on a motorcycle.  "Donorcycles" she calls them.  I've thought of getting a scooter at times, but they face the same disadvantages that a motorcycle does, though I think that my wife is worried about me on a motorized two-wheeler on the open road rather than in a city, which I think is probably more dangerous than the open road.

So when it comes to keeping money in my jeans, as LHM quotes from old story of his youth, I'll probably remain on two wheels, ride defensively and hope that I remain safe.  And I'll just suck it up with those cold winter mornings - they give me a reason to look forward to the warmer temperatures of spring when I can shed my layers and ride in shorts and a polo shirt.  And, as we look for a house, we'll just have to look for one within biking distance of my work, which is where we want to be anyway.

Musical Interlude

I debated putting this video on.  Queen's Bicycle Race was the first song that came to mind when I wrote this post.  The video, featuring naked women in a bicycle race at Wimbledon, has been linked with the song so that one can't think of the song without the images.  So, if you are sensitive to mild images of naked women riding bikes, don't watch the video.  And be assured, I'm not advocating naked bike riding nor have I ever ridden a bike naked.  Nobody wants to see that!

If you want to know more about Fredericksburg

City of Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg.com (news site of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
Greater Fredericksburg Tourism Partnership
University of Mary Washington
Virginia Tourism: Fredericksburg
Wikipedia: Fredericksburg

Next up: Spotsylvania, Virginia

Tuesday
Feb082011

Blue Highways: Fredericksburg, Texas

Unfolding the Map

Click on Thumbnail for MapSprechen Sie Deutsch?  Möchten Sie in Fredericksburg zu stoppen und ein Bier trinken, erfahren Sie Chester Nimitz, und machen einen Abstecher zum Enchanted RockKlicken Sie auf die Miniaturansicht der Karte zu sehen, wo diese den meisten deutschen Städten von Texas befindet, und Prosit!

Book Quote

"People who think the past lives on in Sturbridge Village or Mystic Seaport haven't seen Fredericksburg.  Things live on here in the only way the past ever lives -- by not dying.  It wasn't a town brought back from the edge of history; rather, it was just slow getting there.  And most of the old ways were still comparatively unselfconscious."

Blue Highways: Part 4, Chapter 6


Downtown Fredericksburg, Texas. Photo by Frank Thompson at virtualtourist.com. Click on photo to go to site. 

Fredericksburg, Texas

Fredericksburg is a strange place.  I don't mean that in a negative way.  It is strange as in the good strange.  I never knew much about the town, other than its German roots, before I visited there.  Nestled in the Texas Hill Country, it is seems to defy what you'd think a Texas town would be.

First of all, as LHM chronicles in the chapter from which I took the quote, this town in about as landlocked a place that you could ever think was the home town one of the bigger than life leaders that won World War II, Chester Nimitz.  That might not seem too off kilter, because we expect Texas to give us bigger than life military heroes.  But an admiral?  And not just an admiral, but the admiral in charge of the entire Pacific theater during World War II.  And not only that, but a man of German descent who helped defeat the Axis Powers - we should remember that when we question immigrants' fidelity to their new country.

LHM writes that Nimitz' grandfather built a hotel in Fredericksburg, and the shape of the hotel suggested a steamboat.  He speculates that the young Chester Nimitz might have gotten his attraction to his maritime career by seeing that hotel "sail" across the Texas landscape.  Nimitz, like a lot of bigger than life heroes, was a straight-ahead military commander.  He was the exact counterpoint to General Douglas MacArthur, the other larger than life commander in the Pacific Theater, whose military style was based on deception and counterthrust.  Nimitz's straight ahead style got him in trouble in his early career when he ran his first command, a destroyer, aground on a reef.  The resulting court martial did not derail him, however, and his efforts and the efforts of the men of all services that he put into battle turned the tide against the Japanese and won the war.  Today, his deeds are celebrated in history, on film, and in the National Museum of the Pacific War in his home town of Fredericksburg.

That's just one little example.  A second example is Fredericksburg's overwhelming German feel.  When I lived in San Antonio, a neighbor and colleague in my Master's program was German - I mean speaks fluent German German.  I was surprised to learn that his father, an officer in the German Air Force, was stationed in El Paso and retired to Fredericksburg.  Why would the German Air Force have an officer in El Paso, I wondered?  A liaison?  It turned out that the German Air Force had planes and men stationed in El Paso because they used the air base there for training.  When my friend's father retired from his military service, they settled in Fredericksburg.  And after visiting there, I understood why.  The town is SO German that English is almost, but not quite, a second language.  Townspeople gather at public places and play skat, a German card game.  The town has a distinct German feel and taste.  The only thing was at the time it didn't have a brewery, which surprised me, though you can get good beer in Fredericksburg.

Of course, the Fredericksburg that LHM describes, the unselfconscious town, has been somewhat replaced by tourist-grabbing stores.  Fredericksburg now knows it's a tourist destination as that German city in the middle of Texas.  But in some ways, because many of the residents are first or second generation Germans and its comparative isolation, it still retains that sense of authenticity that you don't find in other similar places nearer large population centers.

Some of our best moments near Fredericksburg came at Enchanted Rock State Park.  Enchanted Rock is sort of like Texas' mini-Ayres Rock.  It is a large buried boulder sticking out of the ground a few minutes north of Fredericksburg.  A short climb brings you to the top, where you can view out over the surrounding Texas landscape. 

I walk down a side of Enchanted Rock while my dog Hannibal watches. Photo by Megan Kamerick.The natives in the region considered it sacred, and one can almost feel the eons of history that the rock, unmoving, has experienced.  Sit on top of the unchanging rock, with the breeze whistling through your hair and past your ears, and you can be at any point in time you choose. 

Boulder sentinels stand guard atop Enchanted Rock. Photo by Michael L. HessOn the rock, the cosmos whirl about you, until with cleansed heart you travel back to Fredericksburg for a bratwurst and kraut, a good beer, and the sound of German in the middle of America.

Musical interlude

For a Texas musical interlude, we have Austin singer-songwriter Sara Hickman, another of my favorites.  Sara was named the 2010-2011 State Musician of Texas.  She is a fun songwriter, and very committed to children and moms.  I've never seen her live, unfortunately.  This is a little throwaway ditty called "Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again" that she did on a local television show, but you can see her humor in her lyrics and her style.  When I first heard her I got a crush on her...and this song does not help that at all.

If you want to know more about Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce
Fredericksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau
Fredericksburg History
Fredericksburg Online
Fredericksburg Standard (newspaper)
Oktoberfest Fredericksburg
Wikipedia: Enchanted Rock
Wikipedia: Fredericksburg

Next up: Mason, Texas