That's why I haven't done it.

Sundae Girl, you might want to get a copy of William Least Heat-Moon's

Blue-Highways-Journey-into-America.

This is one of my favorite books and I usually have a few thrifted copies around for people who haven't read it yet.

Blue Highways are the old US routes before the interstates went in. They still criss cross the country but are forgotten America in many ways. Route 66 is a blue highway.

OK, I'm gonna beat our regular song-quoters to the punch:

Oh you know we're gonna ride
On a blue highway
Walk with the legs you're blind
On a blue highway
Wave hellow to pride
on my highway
Yes I almost died
On a blue highway

SG, traveling across America is the same as London to Moscow....twice. That's without the side trips and detours that are damn near mandatory. There are long stretches of it that are repetitious(boring) and should be traversed quickly for time and energy conservation. There are other sections that should be seen at a snails pace.

Only with a little more sauerkraut.

PM me if you have one knocking about and you're willing to take a chance on a virtual unknown :)

Bruce - I know it wouldn't be non-stop pleasure, but it's a dream and if I had the money then I know I could schedule it so I could enjoy it.

SG -- you have a lot of imaginary American Cellar friends. I think that you should plan a trip to visit some of them (I mean us, if I may make that assumption), which would save you a lot of money and provide you with local guides through out the country.

I love the idea that I could do that HLJ - I'd like to at least have a beer with many Dwellars, although I'm so much more comfortable being the one imposed on than imposing.

I keep promising myself that with the great exchange rate (for the UK I mean) I'll buy at least $10 a week before the dollar gets any stronger. Something always comes up though!

I'll get my finances in order once I move. I promise I'll start working on a plan then.

Just a couple minutes too slow to catch them on the ground today...

one more

I concur. This is a riveting, excellent, next best thing to being there read, and also one of my favorite tomes. When this book was at the height of its popularity in the 80's, I heard the author on the Larry King Show when it was still on radio. It was a nationally syndicated call in show back then, so I called in, and got on. My question of Least Heat Moon was simply, "Where did you get all the information for the stories you tell about the places you stopped? All the little historical asides, people's names and such?" His answer?

"You know all those roadside markers you usually drive past? I stopped at *all* of them."

Brilliant.

Commute route B. 10 minutes longer, unless 422 is seriously hosed. Usta be the same distance as commute A, but the fuckers closed a critical road I needed.

http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b1.jpg
mill grove, historical home of john audubon
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b2.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b3.jpg
what "st gabe's curve" is named after
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b4.jpg
422 hosed again, as we pass over it
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b5.jpg
over the schuylkill river
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b7.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b8.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b9.jpg
the country club
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b13.jpg
over valley forge "mountain"
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b14.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b15.jpg
invisible driveways to the homes of the rich.
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b16.jpg
trees so dense and lush they interrupt mah satellite radio
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b17.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b18.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b19.jpg
horse farms
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b21.jpg
one lane bridges
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b22.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b23.jpg
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b24.jpg
and into officeland.
http://cellar.org/2007/commute/b25.jpg

That beats the first commute for me, UT (but then I'm greenery fan!). Looks far more inviting and interesting - and much less stressful with so little traffic to contend with.

I didn't know they called that "Saint Gabe's Curve."

I see the place and it just makes me get irritable.

(Saint Gabe's is a school for exceptionally bad children, most of them from Philadelphia, all of them miserable, manipulative, little criminal bastards. Well, mostly bastards. I think that one or two have come from intact two-parent families.)

i jumped off the schuylkill today and went down East River Drive....thought of this thread and wished I'd had my camera....I'll get it one day...