America travel inspiration: Blue Highways

by Katie Hammel on

For many Americans, dream trips involve far-flung international destinations. Traveling thousands of miles from home to a foreign land just seems more exciting. You get to experience a new culture, sample unfamiliar cuisine, and of course, get that all-important passport stamp to add to your collection.

A trip within your own country just can’t compete with that. The food is the same, the history is shared, the language is (usually) easily understood and you don’t even have to exchange money. There’s nothing exciting or exotic about that. Or so you may think.

But travel around your own country with open eyes and an open mind and you may realize that the good old US of A isn’t as homogeneous as you thought. Approach your homeland with the same anthropological curiosity and cultural hunger than you do to foreign lands and you’ll see that there may be as much to learn about different regions in your own country as there is places on the other side of the world.

One of my favorite sources for inspiration to explore more of the U.S. is William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways: A Journey into America. Down on his luck Heat-Moon takes off on an epic journey around the country, sticking only to the two-lane country roads called blue highways. Along the way, he finds solace in the road and in the characters he meets on his journey. He explores the cultural differences that can exist between people of the same country and paints a captivating picture of life in rural and small town America. If you’ve never had much interest in traveling the lesser-known routes of the U.S., just wait until you see the country through Heat-Moon’s eyes. I know that I can’t read the book without feeling an urge to hit the open road and discover my own America.

Chameleon with a Camera and Dennis Darling’s packing list

by Jamie Rhein on

There’s a photography book Chameleon with a Camera: A Unique Primer on Travel Photography and How to Survive a Trip in the Philipsburg, Montana Public Library. It’s a slim volume perfect for taking along on a trip for inspiration. The author, Dennis Carlyle Darling is a professional photographer and a professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin.

Each summer he and his wife, Helen Darling, country western song writer and singer, come to Philipsburg. They are both charming, lovely people.

As I read through the book, particularly enjoying the travel related quotes and rejuvenating my interest in taking pictures of people–one of Dennis’s fortes, his packing list caught my attention. He’s traveled to various countries on several occasions and has suggestions for items that are easy to take along and useful. One of them I haven’t seen on a packing list before.

It’s a sink stopper. As Dennis pointed out, and I’ve found to be true, many sinks and bathtubs in hotel rooms or hostels don’t have stoppers. To do laundry, keeping water in a sink can be helpful. Dennis suggests the round, flat rubber kind. To jazz it up, try this dolphin stopper version.

Dennis also suggests:

  • waterproof matches
  • a few clothes pins
  • string to use as a laundry line
  • packing tape in case you want to send packages home. As he said, good packing tape is hard to come by
  • a small pair of scissors
  • a needle and thread
  • zip lock bags
  • maps. In many countries, the maps may not be as good as what you can buy in the U.S. Even if they are, having maps from the get go can make a trip easier.

Although the book is not recent, the information is particularly pertinent to anyone who is interested in hitting the road with a camera and ready to capture artistic images worth sharing.

Dennis also points out that taking photographs is solitary and time consuming. Great shots come from effort. When traveling with others, such shots can be hard to come by. In that case, perhaps a dolphin sink stopper might be a welcome, happy looking relief at the end of a day of chasing images.

Travel Read: Step Back from the Baggage Claim and book giveaway

by Jamie Rhein on

To win a signed copy of Step Back from the Baggage Claim, follow the directions at the end of the post.

For Jason Barger, an airport is not only a place where people depart and arrive on airplanes in their quests to get from one location to another. Airports are a metaphor about life. In his book, Step Back from the Baggage Claim, a slim volume that is a perfect size for slipping into a carry-on, Barger does a tidy job of illustrating how we might make the world a nicer place by starting at the airport. Airplane behavior is included in the mix of what can make or break us as a society.

To test out his theory about the power of air travel and airports, Barger hatched out a plane to travel to seven cities in seven days with the goal of never leaving any of the airports. Along the way, he’d be the observer, testing out his ideas. He figured that in in the midst of airport activity he’d find people from different backgrounds, cultures and ages–all going to or coming from somewhere for a variety of reasons. In the process of their arrivals and departures, Barger theorized there would be behaviors that would illustrate each person’s version of the world.

The result was he logged 6,548 miles, 10,000 minutes, 26 hours and 45 minutes of sleep, and a whole lot of writing fodder to condense into palpable bites. Throughout the book–which I’ve read twice, Barger weaves in details about his life that prompted this undertaking.

Barger is is a guy who notices things. Like when the ding goes off on an airplane to signal that retrieving bags from the overhead bins is a-okay, who leaps up, who stays put and who helps others? It’s not just about what other people do, but what do we do?

At a baggage claim, who lets the older person struggle, and who offers a hand? In Barger’s world, wouldn’t it be a lot easier for everyone if we all just took a few steps back from the conveyor belt and worked together? He saw that system work with a group of adolescents he traveled with. Instead of each elbowing his or her way to the circling bags, those in the front, passed bags back making the task easier for everybody.

Even though the book is a missive in a way of doing better, but Barger also looks at the circumstances that creates a situation where we might not try harder. Frustration is a big one. (I have to put in a plug for stupidity.)

Seriously, haven’t you wanted to lob a shoe at someone while you’ve been stuck at an airport? I have. But, there is always the high road option of flowing more easily with a smile, no matter our circumstances. Barger saw the pinnacle of great decorum, for example, when one woman’s neatly packed carry-on was rummaged through by TSA as part of a random check and her belongs left in a pile for her to repack. Instead of fuming and fussing, she remained pleasant, repacked and dashed off to catch a flight–still buoyant.

Even if you want to remain a crab when you travel, Step Back from the Baggage Claim offers a glimpse of the various airports where Barger headed, and what it’s like to hang out in them for extended periods of time. After reading Barger’s book, I don’t think I’ll be throwing elbows anymore as I haul my own bag out of the mix of belongings that are circling by. (Actually, I don’t think I ever have thrown an elbow. Maybe growled, but nothing more.)

Oh, yeah. Where did Barger go? He started in Columbus to Boston to Miami to Chicago to Minneapolis to Seattle to San Diego and back to Columbus.

Here’s one of Barger’s thoughts to take with you when you travel. It might help you have a much better day.

“I’m going to embrace the quiet moments an airplane seat offers us. When the ding sends most into a frenzy, I am going to sit still.”

To read more about Barger and the book, here’s an article that was published in the business section of The New York Times.

To win a copy of the book Step Back from the Baggage Claim:

Leave a short comment about an act of kindness you witnessed while traveling. Maybe it was your act of kindness–or someone else’s. Even the smallest act counts. The winner will be randomly picked.

  • The comment must be left before Friday, May 1st at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
  • The winner will receive a signed copy of the paperback book Step Back From the Baggage Claim, (valued at $14.95)
  • Click here for complete Official Rules.
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, including the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.

    • Co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die” recently died: Sad news and a reminder to not wait to travel

    by Jamie Rhein on

    If there was ever an indication that one should seize the day and not wait to take that wonderful trip you’ve always wanted to go on, it’s this story at msnbc.com.

    Dave Freeman, the co-author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss unexpectedly died on August 17. He fell and hit is head in his own house. He was only 47.

    As a person who is reaching a hallmark birthday this coming Saturday, I can say that the title of the book certainly gives me the sense that time can slip by if one is not careful. Freeman’s death, illustrates the point. It also points to how unpredictable life is anyway, so why not take chances?

    Sure there are the health threats that may loom in the future: cancer, diabetes and heart failure that niggle at you to hit the road while you still can, but there is the truth that anything can happen at any time, so don’t fret the small stuff and travel. Take a risk.

    A friend of mine once borrowed money, for example, to come to visit me while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia when we were both single. Years later, she recently returned from a trip to Peru with her husband. They left their elementary age children at home.

    Whenever I wonder if a trip makes sense, I think of my friend, and how her life has continued to be one open to surprises even though she is the most organized person I know. She’s the reason I applied to go to school in Denmark when I was in college. I partially tribute her to my life that is largely one filled with travel.

    For ideas on where to start traveling and what to look for when you go, Freeman’s book is a place turn to for ideas that offer some extra umph. I’m sure Freeman felt the pull of urgency to not waste time which is probably why he picked this topic in the first place. I hope that Freeman was able to see and do the 100 ideas he wrote about.

    If you pick up the book and hit one of the places Freeman and his co-author Neil Teplica recommends, tip your hat to the sky and give him a big thank you.

    If any of you have used Freeman’s and Teplica’s suggestions already, please let us know. It would be neat to see just how many people Freeman influenced while he was gracing the planet with his presence. How wonderful that his influence can live on.

    Condé Nast Traveler names 86 best travel books of all time

    by Neil Woodburn on

    Just in time for Christmas, Condé Nast Traveler has released a very detailed list of the 86 Greatest Travel Books of All Time. (Actually, the list came out in the September issue, but now is a far more appropriate time to be looking for gifts, don’t you think?)

    So how does one pick the very best travel books of all time?

    By relying on a panel of experts, naturally. Condé Nast Traveler asked 45 of the magazine’s “favorite authors for their favorite nonfiction travel titles–the ones that changed the way they considered a certain culture or place or people, that inspired them both to write and to get out into the world themselves.”

    The result is a rather exhaustive list that has been sorted alphabetically, leaving no room for the “very best travel book of all time.” The list does, however, mention which author has recommended a book and provides a few lines about the reason why.

    The following is just a small smattering of what to expect:

    Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger (nominated by Paul Theroux)
    Great Plains by Ian Frazier (nominated by John McPhee)
    In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (nominated by Adrienne Miller)
    The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz (nominated by Sebastian Junger)
    Siren Land by Norman Douglas (nominated by Gore Vidal)
    A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor (nominated by Colin Thubron)