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    On the Road
    by Jack Kerouac
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Entries in On the Road (67)

Monday
Mar292010

On the Road: Ashtabula, Ohio

Click the Thumbnail for the Map

Note:  Originally posted on Blogger on June 10, 2006

Unfolding the Map

Sal never actually stops in Ashtabula, just like he never actually "stopped" at the Holland Tunnel. But he mentions it, and it is our first stop outside the New York area. And as usual, Littourati, his passage will be used to spark new reflections. As always, click the image to the right to get to the updated map.

Book Quote

"It was an ordinary bus trip with crying babies and hot sun, and countryfolk getting on at one Penn town after another, till we got on the plain of Ohio and really rolled, up by Ashtabula and straight across Indiana in the night."

On the Road, Chapter 3

Ashtabula

The first time I ever heard of Ashtabula was on an old TV show. Maybe it was that 1970s sitcom set in Mel's Diner with Flo, the wisecracking waitress -- was that show called "Alice?" Maybe not, because Flo usually said "Kiss my grits!" Anyway, somebody said "You can kiss my Ashtabula!" I hadn't really thought about it since then.

What gets me thinking are a couple things that Sal says in this sentence. First, he says that it was an "ordinary" bus trip. I imagine that for many of us today, bus trips are anything but ordinary. We are part of the car culture, and if we can't take a car cheap air travel is available, and the bus seems to be reserved for down & outs who don't own or can't afford a car for some reason, and who come into town off the bus looking disheveled and like they could use a good shower. Bus stations, especially in big cities, are seen as being a bit seedy, with the type of people that one shouldn't necessarily associate with on a normal basis. However, bus trips were pretty normal in 1947. Nobody but the most wealthy could afford a plane flight and traveling by plane was a fabulous affair, with food served on good china with linen. Travel by train was very popular, but not the cheapest, and again was considered to be a chic and fancy style of travel. But if you just wanted to get somewhere, no frills attached, kind of like we use Southwest today, the bus was the way to go. It was ordinary, and lots and lots of people did it.

The second thing is his description of the what the "ordinary" trip is like. "Crying babies" and hot sun and countryfolk getting on and off. Regardless of the time period, I'm pretty sure that things have not changed much in long distance bus travel. I remember my first really long bus trip, on par with Sal's. I was asked to be in a wedding in Wyoming in the mid 1980s. I was living in Milwaukee at the time, and I did not have enough money to afford a plane ticket. My bus left Milwaukee early, and after a bit of a layover in Minneapolis, we headed out west across the plains of North Dakota. I had never seen such flat country in my entire life. People got on and off at various places, some of whom I was happy to be sharing a bus with, some of whom I wasn't. I remember cigarette smoke, the smell of alcohol on people's breath. I remember trying to sleep in the uncomfortable seats in the night. We stopped at various local stops. On the way back, I remember one mother, who looked a little distressed, getting on with her crying children. The children cried and cried for a long time. When another rider who was trying to sleep said "Shhhhhh," the woman turned around and snarled, "Don't you 'shhhhh' my fucking kid!"

I had one friend while I was in Milwaukee, Charles, who saved travel money by taking the bus. He took the bus so often that he could exactly imitate the announcements at the Greyhound station. He was very good at it, and always made us laugh with his "Now leaving for South Bend, and all points east: Fort Wayne, Cleveland, Ashtabula, Scranton..." etc. Today in Albuquerque, where I live, I see the busses leaving from little dinky stations toward points in Mexico. Our Greyhound station was just moved into swanky new quarters, where it will soon develop the seediness that befits its reputation. (The old station will probably be developed into something "swanky.") The bus seems to catch America at its most real: a little weatherbeaten, even down and out, but always moving.

If You Want to Know More About Ashtabula and Bus Travel

City of Ashtabula
Wikipedia: Ashtabula
History of Bus Service
Greyhound
Greyound Story #1: Doing the Dirty Dog in Winter
Greyhound Story #2: Straddling the Dog

Next up: Chicago

Monday
Mar292010

On the Road: The Holland Tunnel

Click on thumbnail for mapNote:  Originally posted on Blogger on June 7, 2006

Unfolding the Map

This is the first post dealing with a place that Kerouac mentions, but does not have his lead character stop at. The Holland Tunnel is one of the connectors between Manhattan and New Jersey. As usual, to see the progression of the map you can click on the image at left.

Book Quote

"'Besides,' said the man,'there's no traffic passes through 6. If you want to go to Chicago you'd do better going across the Holland Tunnel in New York and head for Pittsburgh,' and I knew he was right."

On the Road: Chapter 2

The Holland Tunnel

I was really tempted to speculate before I put this point on the map. My original question concerned where would Sal have started before he went through the Holland Tunnel? I know 1990s New York, pre-September 11, and most buses out of town would probably leave from the Port Authority. But I wasn't sure about 1947. Then I thought that Penn Station might be the place where buses came and went, but again I couldn't be sure. Sal mentions the Holland Tunnel in quoting some advice another person told him and seems to agree. He also comes back into Manhattan, so I was okay with assuming that a bus that he took went through the Holland Tunnel.

It had to have been tough to chew on for Sal, coming back into Manhattan after a seemingly false start. However, the tunnel is a great metaphor -- I'm sure you can think of all the possibilities. Birth, passage, new vistas, a fresh start, a dark place before the light, new discoveries and so on. I have always been fascinated with tunnels, and a little afraid of them too. When I was growing up in Northern California, just outside of town was a train tunnel that we occasionally passed through. I was scared to death of being caught in the tunnel when the train came through, even though many of my friends who had experienced it called it a rush. The problem with the tunnel was that to be missed by the train, you needed to squeeze yourself into little hollows between the timbers that held up the sides of the tunnel. It was not an experience that I wanted. The first time I rode BART from San Francisco to Oakland across the bay, I actually feared that an earthquake would occur while I was in the tunnel, causing catastrophic collapse and my premature death.

My fears aside, there is nothing more wondrous than going through a tunnel, especially one that you've never been through, and emerging from the darkness on other side and seeing something new. I imagine that as Sal caught that bus, and went through that tunnel, that he realized that he was finally on his way and that despite his false start, he was finally beginning his trip in earnest.

If You Want to Know More About the Holland Tunnel

Holland Tunnel
Holland Tunnel in History
Holland Tunnel Movie (a guy takes his bike through)
Wikipedia: Holland Tunnel
Wonders of the World Databank: Holland Tunnel


Friday
Mar262010

On the Road: Newburgh, NY

Click on thumbnail for mapNote:  Posted on Blogger June 6, 2006

Unfolding the Map

The On the Road map has gotten another little facelift. The markers have been color-coded -- green means that Sal stopped in the location briefly, blue means that Sal mentioned the place in connection with his trip but did not stop, and red means that Sal made an extended stay. You'll find a legend down below the map. You can click the image at right to get to the map.

Book Quote

"Finally a car stopped at the empty filling station...I stepped right up and gestured in the rain...I looked like a maniac, of course...But the people let me in and rode me north to Newburgh. In Newburgh it had stopped raining. I walked down to the river, and I had to ride back to New York in a bus with a delegation of schoolteachers coming back from a weekend in the mountains - chatter-chatter blah-blah, and me swearing for all the time and the money I'd wasted..."

On the Road: Chapter 2.

Newburgh, New York

Schoolteachers on vacation are a sight to behold. One year when we lived in San Antonio some friends, one of whom was a schoolteacher, invited us to accompany her and her husband and two other friends down to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico for a day of shopping and fun. Of course, you can't go to Nuevo Laredo now because it is so dangerous there, but then there were a lot of people going back and forth and over to shop. We met at about 7:00 in the morning in a parking lot at a Wal-Mart. I knew it was going to be a long day when some of the gym teachers pulled in with a cooler full of beer, and began drinking it. One guy seemed to be stuck on the old commercial where the guy keeps saying "Whazzzzzzupppppppp!!!!!!!!" It got annoying fast. Despite that, we had a good time in Nuevo Laredo, though by the time we got back on the bus all, and I mean all, the teachers were trashed.

I've never been to Newburgh, though I did make a trip up part of the Hudson. For Sal, I imagine getting a ride back to New York seemed like a retreat, and perhaps he felt it put his whole trip in jeopardy. And I've certainly been in that place for one reason or another.

For more information on Newburgh

City of Newburgh website
Newburgh Revealed
Wikipedia: Newburgh
Wikipedia: Town of Newburgh

Friday
Mar262010

On the Road: Bear Mountain Bridge

Click on Thumbnail for MapNote:  First published on Blogger on June 4, 2006

Unfolding the Map

Today's journey for the Littourati, as we continue following Sal Paradise's travels On the Road, is to the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River. As usual, click on the image to go to the Google Map.

Book Quote

"Five scattered rides took me to the desired Bear Mountain Bridge, where Route 6 arched in from New England. ...Not only was there no traffic, but the rain came down in buckets and I had no shelter. ...I began crying and swearing and socking myself on the head for being such a damn fool."

Bear Mountain Bridge

Sal comes to Bear Mountain Bridge because he has an idea that taking Route 6, which crosses the bridge into the Bear Mountain wilderness and beyond, is the way to take west. He has romanticized the road a bit. But, he is thwarted in his plans by weather and circumstance, particularly no cars. At points like these, all of us can wonder why we chose to do what we did.

I had a similar experience while traveling in Ireland in the mid-90s. I was traveling with a group of Germans and I and three others decided to split off from the group and hitchhike down the west coast of Ireland, from Sligo to Galway. It seemed like a great and romantic thing to do. We set out on a sunny day from Belfast, and took the bus over to Sligo. At Sligo, where we should have stopped to visit Yeats' Grave but didn't, we set out on the road, in pairs, some ways apart so we would be sure to get a ride. Anita and I got a ride relatively quickly, but we realized very soon that anyone who gave us a ride would only be going a short distance, as they were locals and going only small distances.

However, we managed to get a series of three or four rides, until we hit an impasse. At one point, we sat for hours outside a lonely house on the coast. A young man came out to talk to us, and at one point offered us a place to stay if we really needed it. It was dark, getting cold, and we both were a bit frustrated. I was pretty sure that we had to give up when a truck came by. By this time I was hiding because people were okay about picking up a lone woman, but not with a guy. Anita persuaded the guy to let us in, and as luck happened, we were able to ride with him all the way into Galway, arriving just after midnight. Our friends ended up taking a bus the next day, as they weren't able to get a ride at all.

Unlike Sal then, we got a ride, but purely by chance. What might have happened had we put ourself on the kindness of the stranger in the house? I really don't know. However, despite being with Anita, after a few hours on that beautiful coastline, outside that house in the middle of nowhere, I felt pretty lonely, as I imagine Sal felt out there on the edge of the wilderness, and I'm pretty sure I cursed myself for a damn fool as well.

More information on the Bear Mountain Bridge and Wilderness

Bear Mountain Bridge
Images of Bear Mountain Bridge

Virtual Walk on the Bear Mountain Bridge
Wikipedia: Bear Mountain Bridge

Fun fact: The Bear Mountain Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed in 1924.

Friday
Mar262010

On the Road: Up the Hudson River Valley

Click the Thumbnail to go to MapNote:  First posted on Blogger on June 3, 2006

Unfolding the Map

Welcome Littourati! At right is the latest screenshot of Sal Paradise's journey map, in which two new points have been added. Click the map to go to it. A couple of changes have been made to the map that you should be aware of. First, the map has changed. I have made the switch from the Google Maps API version 1 to version 2. This means a couple of things. First, the map should work now in earlier versions of Firefox, however, it may not work properly in Safari as version 2 does not fully integrate with that browser. The other thing that will happen is that as I learn version 2 more completely, the markers will change -- I hope to color code them to indicate various things, like whether Sal stopped or just passed through, and if he stopped for a longer time. That's right, as I learn I'm taking you along for the ride!

Book Quote

"If you drop a rose in the Hudson River at its mysterious source in the Adirondacks, think of all the places it journeys by as it goes out to sea forever - think of that wonderful Hudson Valley. I started hitchiking up the thing."

On the Road: Chapter 2

End of Yonkers Trolley line

At some point when we travel, we reach a point where when we look behind us, all is familiar, but in front of us is wilderness that is unknown and frightening. I am reminded of the scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring when Sam, following Frodo, stops in the middle of a cornfield. When Frodo turns and asks him what's the matter, Sam says (and I paraphrase) "If I take one step, I will have gone farther from home than I've ever been before." For me, that point came when I stepped onto a United flight to head to the Midwest after I graduated from college, and has been repeated in various ways since, especially when I've settled in one place only to move to another. I believe that Sal may have been at such a point as he stepped off the trolley, a tangible piece of his former life, and began to hitchhike into the unknown up the Hudson.

Of course, the Hudson is a river, and as Sal says, it too makes a long journey from the Adirondacks to the sea, passing by wonderful places. To me, it's the bodies of water that ground me to the places I've been. In Northern California, where I grew up, it was the Pacific Ocean that connected me to other places. In Milwaukee, Lake Michigan and the entire Great Lakes System draining through the Midwest and Northeast washed my feet as they washed countless of feet along their shores. In San Antonio, the San Antonio River washed into other watersheds that made their way one way or another to the Gulf of Mexico. In New Orleans, the Gulf of Mexico was ever present, and ready to assert its power as we all observed this past year. And now, in Albuquerque, I am connected through the Rio Grande not only to other Albuquerqueans but also to every village and settlement along its path through New Mexico and Texas. Hitching along the highway, Sal is like that rose he imagines, drifting along the highways of America, connected through those asphalt rivers to all the places he will journey by, as he will soon discover.

If you want to learn more about the Hudson River and the Hudson River Valley

Clearwater.org
Hudson River Valley Heritage Home Page
HudsonRiver.com
New York State Hudson River Home Page
New York State Hudson River Home Page
Travel the Hudson River Valley
Wikipedia-Hudson River