United Scenes of America
In the fall of 1960 John Steinbeck set out across the United States with his French poodle Charley. He had a custom-made camper fitted to a new GMC truck and named his home on wheels Rocinante in homage to Don Quixote’s horse. It had been over 30 years since the publication of his first novel Cup of Gold and now living in New York Steinbeck felt like he had lost touch with the American people who had inspired such literary classics as The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, and Of Mice and Men. For six weeks he drove and explored and wrote. Eventually his essays from the road became the book Travels with Charley: In Search of America and this book has inspired me to take a six month sabbatical.
60 years later I am emulating his adventure, heading East in a Mazda CX-3 that I have lovingly christened Rocinante Numero Dos. Over four months I will see all 48 contiguous states, take a cruise to the Bahamas, cross the border into Juarez, Mexico, and drive parts of Canada north of Maine as I drop down into Niagara Falls. In Seattle I will hop another cruise to Alaska and then after returning home to California I will fly to Kona to edit my essays into my own eventual book: The United Scenes of America and a collection of short stories entitled Secondhand Coffins.
The significance of the year is not lost on me. The 2020 presidential election is on the horizon and as I write this first article there are still 15 democratic candidates. When Steinbeck hit the road it was just before the Kennedy and Nixon election and while he was not looking to write about the election it definitely flavored his book. I am not looking to get involved in politics but I will be hard pressed to avoid them all together. However, I hope to report what I, a lifelong resident of Mariposa,California see on the road and what America looks like to me, a writer and a teacher. This is to be a book about the places and the people and hopefully the beliefs, traditions, and cultures that unite us.
So join me as I pack my car with every stitch of clothing I own, update the Roadtrippers app on my iPhone, and download enough audiobooks to last 15,000 miles. I plan on visiting classic locales from the Grand Canyon to the Alamo to the Capital Mall. There will be literary stops from the original courthouse that inspired Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to the Savannah cemetery featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. And, being me, there will be a liberal sprinkling of the bizarre from giant balls of twine to rattlesnake museums to the Lizzie Borden Murder House. I’d love to hear your suggestions for music, books, local cuisine, and friendly relatives who will let me do a load of laundry.
You can follow my journey, contact me, check out my 50 states reading list, and find out more at www.UnitedScenes.com
Click on states below to see where I’ve been and where I am going.
States in Black and White have not yet been visited. If viewing on your phone, turn sideways for full map.
