Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road-4 of 4: Are We There Yet?

by Jamie Rhein on

When on a road trip with family–i.e., spouse, kids and possibly in-laws or parents, a travel book that delves into similar situations is a welcome companion. There is an uplifting quality to being able to recognize aspects of the life you are living to what you are reading.

If any of you with children wonder if your best traveling days are over, pick up the 4th travel book I read on my road trip to Montana from Ohio and back. According to this one, your best days are at hand, but only if you grab your family and head out to points beyond the familiar.

#4 Are We There Yet? Perfect Family Vacations and Other Fantasies–Scott Haas

Laura and I knew if we got out and saw the countryside, everything would be fine. The mountains are filled with sanitariums and spas where for at least two centuries the wealthiest, most miserable, worried, and confused people in the world have come to look at the snow-capped Alps and listen to doctors and therapists tell them everything will be fine. Everything will be just fine. I would have liked to hear a doctor say those words to me. But how could we get into the mountains? We couldn’t even see them through the rain and fog.
Scott Haas, the author of this book is a writer commentator for NPR, public radio who I have heard on “The Splendid Table.” He also covers food and restaurants in “Here and Now.” Besides knowing great food and the people who make it, Haas knows how to capture the essence of family vacations in a way that makes you think you are with him where he is, like the Swiss Alps as described in the excerpt.

Of the four books I read, his is one that fits an any one person’s experience. I don’t mean that the book is mundane, but what Haas does is show how people can incorporate lovely travel experiences into their lives with a family. It’s the having a family in the experiences that actually make them grand.

The book starts off with his first vacation with his wife right after their daughter was born. The goal was to head off to Switzerland to stay in a cottage in order to enjoy their new family group. It ends with the children at ages 15 and 12 and the knowledge that life is shifting. The 12-year-old is a son.

Throughout the book, Haas makes observations about himself and his wife, children and the people who periodically join them –and of course the food they eat. This is not a how-to book, but more of a memoir that is engaging and funny. There are travel successes and travel nightmares, such as the time the fog set in in the alps and they had to crawl.

Instead of trotting between many places, the Haas family tends to go to one country and stay put. They stay several nights at once place in order to soak up the scene and blend in. Although, they take in sites, the notion is to not be tourists.

They also repeat places that they’ve been before–not all the time, but the places they like the best. Italy and Switzerland are the most favorite. Greece was not a hit because the food was so bad.

One aspect I really liked about this book is that squabbles are part of the deal when traveling with family, but the Haas family doesn’t let that stop them from heading out. Haas shares his experiences so it feels as if you’re sitting in the room watching and thinking, yep–I’ve been there.

He also illustrates how everyone does not have to be on the same page going at the same speed. One advantage of staying in a place for a length of time is that people can go at their own pace according to their own pattern.

Because Haas also is a psychologist, he has a certain way of making observations that are engaging. As I mentioned, he puts himself into the mix. As a person with a six-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, I could relate to much of this book, although spending more than $400 at The French Laundry, is not in my realm of travel jaunts. That’s where being a writer for “The Splendid Table” comes in handy.

I read this one through Iowa and Indiana.

Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road-3 of 4: So Many Enemies, so Little Time

by Jamie Rhein on

#3. So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places–Elinor Burkett

When I chose this book as one of my road trip to Montana books, the title caught my attention. As an American woman, also hooked on travel, I wanted to delve into someone else’s experiences. What I found is a book that taught me much–always a delight when on the road.

Excerpt:

But as I trudged to school each day and ambled through the markets, I couldn’t find the face of hatred. I saw worry that a flood of Afghan refugees might flee north, washing extremists across the border. I heard fear that homegrown fundamentalists might be emboldened by the fires lighting Manhattan’s night. Mostly, I sensed the same resignation that had engulfed everyone I knew, all across the plane, that we were captives to forces we had not yet begun to dissect.

Elinor Burkett is a woman who is not afraid to take chances when she travels, but is not fool-hardy. As a journalist, she knows how to make and use her connections to help her access people and places.

When she and her husband Dennis traveled to Kyrgyzstan to live after she received a Fulbright to teach journalism at a college there, their purpose was to shake up their lives a bit so that they didn’t settle into complacency. They wanted some more adventures under their belt. After September 11, there was worry across the globe for what exactly that might mean, but the two of them decided to stay put.

Since I was pregnant living in India at the same time, wondering what my family and I should do when faced with a few of the same questions of safety, reading Burkett’s take on her decisions and what was happening in her world added depth to my own experiences.

Burkett’s book has several storyline threads. One of them is what it’s like to teach journalism in Kyrgyzstan when students do not have questioning authority is also part of their make-up. This also reminded me of my own working in another country experiences. I felt better about my own reactions after Burkett’s account.

Burkett tidily weaves together details about Kyrgyzstan’s history, politics and topography with her musings and observations about the people and her experiences about what it’s like to set up house there.

Along with her time in Kyrgyzstan, Burkett and her husband traveled to Afghanistan after 9/11 where she interviewed several women about the effects of living in Afghanistan. She also spent time in Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, China, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. As an aside, which really isn’t an aside, but one that Burkett doesn’t rest on too often is she is Jewish.

One of the things I really, really, really liked about this book is how much I learned and came to see the places Burkett traveled as those filled with engaging people who are nuanced and, for the most part, good. Burkett is has an authoritative voice that I trust. I believe that her impressions are not histrionic and ones developed to make a sale. This is one smart, on the ball woman who is not all full of herself.

I was also touched by how close she became with several of her students and they with her.

Burkett also doesn’t sugar coat how complicated it can be to be from one culture with different values trying to understand other cultures. She also sticks to her own convictions throughout, although this does not mean she changes her perceptions. It means she knows who she is and stays true.

For book 1 of 4, click here.

Book 2 of 4, click here.

Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road. 2 of 4: Honeymoon with my Brother

by Jamie Rhein on

When I was picking out books to read on my road trip to Montana from Ohio and back, I wanted a mix of types so that each book would be distinct from each other. The titles also grabbed me. The premise of the second one I read is unusual. That also led me to check it out from one of the branches of the Columbus Public Library.

#2. Honeymoon With My Brother: a memoir — Franz Wisner.

Excerpt: Latin America during our winter, its summer, was the obvious next segment. But that was too far in advance. What if one of us fell in love with a tour guide from Thailand? What if we wanted to make some money teaching English in Indonesia?

What if Kurt and I want to strangle each other?

Franz Wisner, the author of this gem, was dumped by the love of his life right before his wedding day. It’s a long story. Wisner gives you the gist of the fiasco that broke his heart, along with his job shifts as a high-powered political lobbyist and fundraiser that led to his decision to pull up stakes and make major changes.

In the process of the storytelling, you find out specific details about how Wisner and his brother Kurt turned into world travelers. His brother, recently divorced, agreed to take an extended trip with Wisner in order to regain his own footing. This trip turned into two years.

One reason I liked this read is because Wisner doesn’t hide. Part of travel is the personality you bring to it. Wisner seems like a likable guy who falls in love with aspects of the 53 countries he and his brother visited. In the process of their journey, he is willing to let go of his notions about himself and others.

This book truly points out how travel not only connects you with the world, it connects you to yourself. The details about the countries they spent extended amounts of time are carefully observed. It’s one that made me want to hit the road immediately, even though I was already on the road in Montana and South Dakota when I was reading it.

Wisner’s story also elucidates just how terrific travel is for people who are in need of time to transition from one time of life to another, and shows just how easy it can be to get up and go once the wheels are in motion.

Yes, you can sell your house for example. It is possible to get rid of your car. It’s also possible to transition back to the U.S., or wherever you call home, when you need to. Having friends in various places helps and so does chucking guide books. Somewhere in the middle of their trip, they chucked guide books and traveled to places based on instinct and recommendations.

Because this book has a story line that continues throughout, this is one to read if you have time to read every day or so. It’s engaging, though, so I found it hard to put down.

According to the book’s jacket, Wisner is continuing with his writing and traveling.

For book 1 of 4, click here

Great American Road Trip: Travel books for the road. 1 of 4: Sun After Dark

by Jamie Rhein on

I’m one of those people who haul books when I travel. I am ambitious, imagining hours of page turning. Usually, though, I barely crack a book. One advantage of riding in a car across a good portion of the United States, as I have recently experienced on my family’s road trip to Montana, is the hours for reading.

There are miles and miles and miles between Ohio and Montana, particularly if you head north to take in North Dakota.

On the way back, Iowa can feel endless. Indiana–dreadful. (Not to put down those lovely states, but at the end of a trip, even with stops, they seem bigger than they are.) As wonderful as scenery is, a book helps move the pavement along, particularly if the book is written by a person who is also on a journey. I brought four such books on my cross-country jaunt and recommend each of them. In the next three days, I’ll be posting on each one.

Here is the first one. I read this one through Minnesota and North Dakota.

Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign—Pico Iyer

An excerpt: “We travel most, I mean to say, when we stumble, and we stumble most when we come to a place of poverty and need (like Haiti, perhaps, or Cambodia): and what we find in such confounding places, often, is that it is the sadness that makes the sunshine more involving or, as often, that it is the spirit and optimism of the place that make the difficulties more haunting.”

Pico Iyer is one of my favorite travel writers and this book of essays does not disappoint. As he explains in the first essay, “The Place Across the Mountains,” the book is a result of his desire to travel to some of the poorest corners in the world in order to shed light on their importance and as well as add to the understanding about what poverty means.

Lest you think that this is a depressing missive that will leave you weeping over your backpack or pull-behind suitcase, chastising yourself for the delight you feel about your own travels when parts of the world have such problems, this is not the case. Iyer’s lyric quality is luminous in its prose and if nothing else, gives the awareness to the reader that hope prevails.

Sun After Dark makes a worthy book for the road because each essay is a stand alone piece. This means that if you put it down for a few days, you won’t feel lost when you pick it up again. The culmination of the essays as a group offers a variety of Iyer’s experiences that range from the fantastic to the simple.

It’s also a good book to share. Once on our trip, my husband didn’t have the books he was reading with him. I handed him this one because he could read an essay or two and it wouldn’t interrupt the flow of the other books he wanted to finish before embarking on another one.

One of the sections that hit a high mark on the unusual travel experiences spectrum is Iyer’s account of his visit to a Bolivian prison. Since Iyer had seen all that he had set out to see, more or less, the prison was at the tail end of his trip. This was one of those ideas that after wards makes one think, “What was I thinking?”

Also enjoyable are Iyer’s in depth accounts of his visit with the Dalai Lama and his time at the same Zen retreat center as Leonard Cohen. Along with the descriptions of the settings are insights into the workings of these men and Iyer’s own musings about how he fits into the scheme of existence.

As usual, no matter where Iyer goes, he sees the wonder and the beauty of humanity, even in those places that are troubling. This is a book to read if you like to think about where you are traveling, as well as, the mysteries and nuances of life.

Without Baggage: A traveler’s online magazine with brains and heart

by Jamie Rhein on

Sarah, a Gadling reader, recommended to us another traveler’s online publication she recently discovered. I headed to Without Baggage to see what was there. Hank Leukart’s Without Baggage is an online magazine that delves into the world’s interesting places with a sense of purpose. The essays posted every so often evoke emotions and intellectual pursuits that aim to explore the depth and meaning of travel experiences whether one heads to Laos or Alaska.

Leukart’s latest essay, “stalking the solitary leopard” is the last installation of his three part series chronicling his trip through Botswana and South Africa. The series has the flavor of part travelogue and part critique of human existence. Hank’s writes thematically. There is a deeper meaning within the the mix of writing and lush photographs. Woven together are the specifics of place and his impressions of it. South Africa is not only a place to go, but a place to study the effects of years of apartheid. Enjoying an animal safari has to do with the willingness to be open to any experience, no matter if your original purpose is met or not.

One of my favorite essays, “i’m never leaving thailand. ever” starts:

“UM PHANG, Thailand — I’m never leaving Thailand. Ever.

Just testing. I wanted to see what how I would feel if I decided never to leave. I just finished reading Spiritland by Nava Renek, a novel about a young backpacker and her rollercoaster vacation in Thailand. . .”

Leukart continues with a discussion of Renek’s book and his own desires, plus other people’s fantasies of living in Thailand for the rest of their lives. I have had my own. My daughter would also move to Thailand tomorrow if there was a way and she could take her high school buddies with her.

Leukart has been around the world travel writing for some time now with an enviable list of print magazine and newspaper credits that attest to his passion. Like Sarah said, Without Baggage is a place to return to in case Leukart has more of the world he wants to share. In the meantime, there are plenty of essays for a leisurely approach.