I haven’t been around these parts much since the start of the year. The day job has in its own way been pretty busy, and while that’s a good thing on several different levels, it’s not so good for posting here on CC. I miss doing that.
Speaking of the day job, there’s something that I miss about that too, and in an effort to fight the old ennui, I figured I might share that with the CC readership…for whom I suspect this might resonate.
I hope.
A bit of background. For much of the past quarter century, I’ve worked as a sort of itinerant consultant. In my case that involves engaging in an ongoing portfolio of projects where my time has been spent visiting various far-flung work sites and then writing about them. These jobs largely relate to working with public school districts, colleges, and other educational organizations where I observe and evaluate their work related to various programs and initiatives. This work has taken me and my colleagues (I operate a small independent business that does this work) all over the U.S.. I’ve had projects in settings as varied as school districts in the greater NYC area, Indian reservations in Arizona and North Dakota, in schools virtually outdoors in the Caribbean, in learning spaces literally outdoors in Boston, and in secured NASA facilities in the deep south. To the present and most relevant point, nearly all of these projects involve some amount of driving. In many cases, a lot of driving in some really far-flung parts of the U.S.. As Johnny Cash said, I’ve Been Everywhere.
Until recently, that is. The past two, going on three, years I’ve pretty much been no where. For a variety of reasons, some obvious some not (and all wrapped up in the specific nature of this work and how it’s funded), I’ve spent just about all of the pandemic working from behind a computer at a desk. Fact is, this has been just about as gainful as when I was traveling to sites in-person; but of course it’s not the same. What I miss is seeing the places where I work as actual places and not just as faces of clients in windows on a screen.
Most of all, I miss the travel — mostly the driving — related to getting to all of those places.
Take for example a trip almost exactly five years ago to the place where Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee come together. This was a classic itinerary for me. Fly into Little Rock, rent a car, and spend four or five days driving around three states visiting schools. Return the car to Little Rock and fly home.
In this case, the car was a 2016 Mazda 3. Over the years I’ve come to love the randomness involved in never quite knowing what one is going to wind up with in terms of a rental car at the airport. Often there’s choice, and if so I’ll select something more interesting fron the live tank. This time, the rental lot (the big red one…it’s always that or the big yellow one) was lousy with Mazdas, and well I’ve always had a thing for their somewhat sporty small hatchbacks.
Yeah, “Forrest”…as in Gump. But not like in “National Forest Service”. And I wonder why spelling is a challenge for me.
What can I say? I love rental cars, in the same way that I love hotels. Both give you a perfectly legitimate opportunity to experience something different from your day to day life for a little bit of time without any of the real-world baggage of having to own the thing. As I’ve covered elsewhere on CC in my COAL series, I am solidly in love with my daily driver and am willing to spend endless knuckle-busting days keeping that heap of Bavarian steel resolutely on the road. But I equally love frequent three or four day stints throughout the year driving whatever sweet mysteries are dished up by the rental car lot.
I tend to feel that those two things are mutually reinforcing.
I am also well aware that many do not share my love of serendipity when it comes to cars and hotels. In fact, I seem to exist at the opposite end of a spectrum from those who hate travel precisely due to the need to drive and sleep in unfamiliar things. I get that.
No, actually, I don’t get that at all. But maybe that should be a different post in an altogether different place.
So there you go.
And so I went on that last most memorable trip back before nearly everything changed. Starting with…
It was my intention to head from the Ozarks into the upper reaches of the Mississippi Delta before looping back to Little Rock and the flight home. This itinerary would allow me to visit four different middle schools in Arkansas and Tennessee. All in all a very typical work trip for me.
As is often the case, my destinations require me to stray pretty far from the Interstate system. I’ve been blessed with work that generally requires travel to rural and small-city school districts. In this case, my first appointment was in Mountain Home, AR – a town that I’ve actually had more than one occasion to visit. Nevertheless, what’s Mountain Home, when signs point to an opportunity to visit…
Flippin! Surely there would be time to explore, and maybe make some connections at the
I might have chosen The Dolphins as a mascot. Fortunately, no one asked me.
Or perhaps to check out the
I’m sure they actually meant “Happy FLIPPIN Mother’s Day!”
As you might guess, I have a whole folder of Flippin sign pictures. Just about filled up my flippin USB drive. And so on.
Pressing on…with this trip as with most others, there’s always another back road.
Along which I will discover another national treasure such as the Trout Capital (presumably of the USA, although I suppose it would still be notable if it were “only” the Trout Capital of Arkansas). Big state with a lot of water. Kind of makes sense.
I love these trips not only because I’d never otherwise have stumbled into Trout Capital USA – not to mention the Trout Capital of Arkansas…I mean what are the chances of that? – but for the crazy variety of scenery and road conditions always waiting to be discovered just down the road.
New England has its share of interesting driving conditions, but I can pretty much drive the rest of my life here and be guaranteed not to run into a 10 mile long dust storm. So I can now check that experience off the list. This was when it had almost cleared and visibility seemed safe enough to take a picture without plowing into the suddenly appearing tail lights of an 18 wheeler dump truck carrying cotton or catfish (sure, why not?) or something like that.
Of course, that brings to mind the local cuisine.
Yeah, if you want soft serve and burgers, go see the Queen. Here at the King, we’re having steaks. And catfish. Dammit.
I wonder what they’re serving here.
On some trips, I focus pretty much entirely on capturing signs.
Old favorites.
Anything painted on a brick wall.
The nearly hidden and almost gone symbols of what was once commonplace.
The highly informative. (No, I didn’t. But now I’m a bit concerned as why I should be looking for SNAKE…PROOF….BUILDINGS!!….said in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice.)
The no-nonsense yet still somewhat mysterious.
The deeply historically significant.
This trip really did have it all. The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel was a surprise find once I got to Memphis.
I’m not sure how I feel about the 1959 Dodge (a Royal Lancer with lime green fins!) and 1968 Cadillac (with a kind of oddly puffy vinyl roof) that have been parked below the balcony where Dr. King died. I suppose the cars do good service evoking the exact scene captured in the famous news photo of that day in 1968 (when similar cars were parked in those same two spots). But I’m not sure the cars do much to amplify the gravity and significance of the spot. Plus, they’re not holding up that well just being parked out there in the weather.
I don’t remember where I stayed that last night, after the work and the museum-going and the barbeque dinner (there’s always that or something equally local) was done; but there’s a good chance it was along some strip that looked like this. Where Mr. Fast Lube shares a sign with God and the corporate trademarks are familiar to every American who’s ever been in a car.
The next day it was another long and winding drive back to Arkansas and soon enough back home before hitting the road again.
Until that stopped 2.5 years ago. Like dead in the water stopped. Which is quite the thing. A thing that I’m sure many of you have experienced.
Fortunately, I have a million (well, several hundred at least) of these to remember, and so if this is all there is, because change happens to us all, so be it.
Except…does anyone here know anything about Norfolk, NE? It seems about 70 miles from the nearest Interstate, and if things progress so that I actually get out there to visit those fine folks before the year is out, I can’t decide whether it makes sense to fly into Sioux City or Omaha…
Yeah, things might just be looking up.
Your post resonates with me, as at one time, my job required me to travel to/through a LOT of small towns and non interstate highways! There was also the mystery of what rental car I would get; I established a good rapport with the Enterprise agency near me, and subsequently often got upgraded, with the best one being a quick Mustang. The Hilton/Hampton Inn family became my hotel of choice; I will never FORGET the Holiday Inn in which the showerhead was beneath my chin; and also the Hampton Inn in which I had to look up (YES!) at the showerhead!! My biggest regret is that I often didn’t have much time to investigate a lot of the small towns through which I journeyed. 🙂
Ugh, I hate the drive from Memphis to Little Rock. That section of I-40 is a 137 mile long stretch of hell, filled with semi-trucks, jalopies and brodozers being rude in every way possible and one lane each way construction making them worse. There are no redeeming restaurants or scenery and you’ll pass a religious sign urging you to beat your kids. It’s far better to take US 64 to Searcy and then south on US 167. It’s 25 minutes longer unless there’s construction or a traffic jam due to a wreck on I-40, then it’s faster. Hwy 70 is more relaxed with light traffic, too.
I love the scenery here. Arkansas is a beautiful state filled with diverse flora and fauna ready to be gawked at and marveled over, just watch out for the suicide deer at night. It’s filled with tons of CCs, since we don’t have much of a winter to cause rust.
I definitely agree about Arkansas being a beautiful state. From the perspective of here in the Northeast, it seems to be a state that exists somewhat off the radar in terms of being somewhere that people (around here) know of. I would say that I’m going to Little Rock, and folks here would generally draw a blank. I’m pleased to have seen a lot of it from behind the wheel.
The “Sinclair” sign was my fav part of this read.
Sinclair stations are starting to pop up in So Cal. I have no historical reference for them, other than in photos, but the Green Dino is a very cool logo.
I have seen a couple of new ones too! Apparently there’s always been some amount of Sinclair infrastructure, and in recent years it’s been bought up by another energy company and new stations are being launched. The new company trades on the NYSE as “DINO” 🙂
Sinclair has always been popular in the Intermountain West. One of the few oil company credit cards I still carry due to the $0.20/gal discount you get if you pay with the Sinclair app with billing to the Sinclair credit card.
Also carry a Phillips 66 card and have the app for the same reason. They have a $0.25/gal discount. They say it is temporary, but it keep renewing.
BTW, the Phillips 66 app & card get the same discount at Union 76 & Conoco. Even though these branded stations are usually a few cents higher than the cheap stations, the discount makes their gas a better buy. Given gas prices, I’m surprised more people don’t use the oil company apps.
I love to play rental car roulette.
It has taught me that, generally, Japanese and Korean cars are very, very good. Fords can be all over the map. Mopars try hard, and often turn out to be very competent. GM will give you a suboptimal ride, and, darn it, you will enjoy it whether you like it or not, plebe.
I’ve driven in Nebraska few times but never through Norfolk. I looked at a map and saw that it’s on Highway 20. I suggest flying to Oregon, Portland or even Eugene, and take 20 back to Nebraska. Some beautiful scenery, and you’ll drive through another Mountain Home, in Idaho. Plus Sweet Home, Oregon. Rent a nice car and post up a trip report/rental car review, with lots of Curbside Outtakes taken along the way.
Good suggestion. I had to look that up, and learned that 20 is the longest transcontinental route, and goes right through Yellowstone. Definitely a great drive.
Hummmm. I can pick up Rt. 20 about 10 miles from my house. And that’s about 30 miles from its eastern terminus in Boston. In Kenmore Square. Kenmore Square being famous for another petroliana artifact…which even non-MA folks might recognize if they’ve ever been to a Red Sox game or watched one on TV.
And there’s even a highway sign saying how far it is to Newport! (I’ve been there too for work.)
Norfolk Nebraska was the boyhood home of Johnny Carson..
I sort of feel your pain. I can relate to the sense of discovery of flying to some new place and renting a car I hadn’t driven before to a new location. And we used to enjoy discovering those semi-lost little towns in Iowa on our trips back.
But that’s in the more distant path for us. And the pandemic had very little impact on us in terms of getting out, as our van allowed us to go wherever we wanted to and be essentially self-contained.
I may well never find myself east of the Rockies again; there’s still so much more to see out here. But I have some fond memories, including Nebraska.
I love traveling on unknown roads, and haven’t ventured very far for a while. Thanks for a great read. I had a good chuckle at the ‘cut tree’ sign, we have some very rudimentary sign writing attempts round here too. I often think if that’s what your sign looks like, what is your service like?
Love your photos, Jeff, and I hope your business travel picks back up. I’ve always enjoyed business travel and the chances to drive many different rental cars. I try to explore the area, the hiking trails, the local restaurants, etc., which is why I prefer to travel alone. At least in the US so many of my colleagues were content to just go to Texas Roadhouse every night…
2012-2015 were my main travel years in the US, so that meant a lot of Malibus, Impalas, Altimas, Chargers, and Sonatas. Of those the Sonatas were my favorite. Cadillac ATS was the most fun car I rented. The worst was a Chevy C(r)aptiva. In that time I spent a lot of time in eastern Oregon, so the Tri Cities of eastern Washington became like a second home. I found some of the best Thai food I ever had in Hermiston, OR, and some fantastic driving roads in the Palouse region of Washington. After a while the amount of travel got tiresome, but I look back on those days fondly.
Yup, I can totally relate Jeff. As Johnny Cash didn’t sing, lately I’ve been nowhere too.
I even had a project where the the location LITERALLY WAS THE DUSTY WINNEMUCCA ROAD and I couldn’t go.
It’s not just the pandemic, my job sure has changed in the past 20 years. I used to go to far flung minesites and aluminum smelters all over the world. Tannum Sands, Australia… Puerto Madryn Argentina… Sept-Îles, Quebec. What I didn’t realize at the time was that global trade was changing and I would never return to these places for another visit. I kick myself now for not taking more time to explore.
Well, you’ve got me beat. One of the few places in the song where I haven’t been is Winnemucca. Although I have had several projects in Chicopee (one of the oddest call outs in the song, because WHY would Johnny or Hank have ever gone to Chicopee, MA? Must have been for the Kielbasa.)
https://www.masslive.com/entertainment/2014/04/kielbasa_festival_returning_to.html
But yes, I never know when I’ll be back anywhere, so even if it’s only an hour driving around after work, I always take time to explore.
My first love (with whom I lost touch decades ago) was from Fort Smith, Arkansas. I imagine she’d enjoy the photos.
I’m curious–if I were a superintendent of schools, what sort of issues would prompt me to hire your company?
We’re program evaluators and evaluate the impact of educational programming/pedagogy on student outcomes. We work in all curricular areas but specialize in instructional technology and STEM.
Flippin rings a bell as either a place or a family because I lived in Joplin Missouri in 93-94. That’s the 4 state area where Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas intersect and close to Thomas Hart Benton’s hometown Neosho and the infamous Branson. Coming from the NYC suburbs it was a very different place although somewhat reminiscent of SW New York along the Pennsylvania line. It says something about the slow spread of some culture that my nearest Indian restaurant and brew pub were in Tulsa.
Now I live in Central Oregon and my travels take me through numerous small towns and not even towns and I find my self wondering what the people who live there do for employment.
Terrific post, and pictures.
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, I worked for a consulting firm (in a related field to yours) and did quite a bit of traveling, often to out-of-the way places. Since I never traveled much as a kid or a young adult, I loved it. I’d enjoy taking back roads whenever I could. Often that would be at night, since that was the only free time I’d have, but to me it was wonderful.
Eventually, the travel started to wear on me, and after I got married, I switched jobs to one that had no travel obligations. But I still miss the simple joys of flying to a (seemingly) random place and getting to choose a rental car that was as anonymous as the last one, but still different enough to be interesting.
I rarely took photos on those trips, though now of course I wish I had — of the simple slices of Americana like you’ve preserved here.
And regarding the high school photo, my favorite high school name that I’ve come across is the one below — in Hooker, Oklahoma… named after Civil War Gen. Fighting Joe Hooker, but it sure makes an amusing high school name.
Hope you make it to Nebraska this year — I’ve only been to 31 of Nebraska’s 93 counties, but have never been in the vicinity of Norfolk.
Jeff – I’ve driven 30 across Nebraska and 20 across Iowa but not 20 in Nebraska.
Sioux City is fascinating. The downtown has wonderful brick buildings; I want to say “deco” style. I’d say worth staying there just to see the city center. It’s a very agricultural community with that as a heritage. And Dutch/German too. The airport (SUX) is the site of the infamous United DC-10 emergency landing/crash when the pilots did such a heroic job of handling an uncontrollable airplane.
Omaha, which I’ve been to many times in many decades, is not so unique.
If I’m lucky, I’ll go more than once (it’s a multi-year project), so one way or the other I’ll wind up seeing Sioux City! I love finding cities that still have a strong deco or early 20th century influence. Thanks for the recommendation.
I loved ground travel across America most of my life, now my son is taking his family to Fla. by a long route to give them more to look at .
-Nate
Enjoyed the article and pictures…it’s good that you’ve taken the time to document your travels!
I too have traveled the U.S. extensively during my 35-year career in retail real estate and it sometimes feels as though I’ve been everywhere, too. New places for me tend to be smaller cities and towns and some are truly beautiful.
Anyway, I have indeed been to Norfolk, NE, once, more than 20 years ago. Though Sioux City is closer to Norfolk, I flew in and out of Omaha simply trying to avoid a connecting flight by using a larger airport. I remember getting a brand new W-body Chevy Impala, the first I had ever rented, so this was probably around 1999 or 2000. The Impala was a good choice for this trip, as it turned out to be a great highway cruiser; I’d recommend something big, comfortable, and powerful for your trip.
I traveled in a long loop in the eastern part of the state, taking in Fremont, Columbus, Norfolk, Grand Island, York, and Lincoln over three days. I enjoyed pleasant June weather, free-flowing roads, and some good scenery highlighting the long vistas and broad skies of a part of the Great Plains far enough east to be green. The only downside was driving past some huge commercial feedlots, whose odors announced their presence miles in advance.
Good luck with your travels!
I didn’t think Norfolk was that far from an interstate, but sure enough, it’s 66 miles from the I-29 exit at Onawa due west to downtown Norfolk–“Nor-fork” in local pronunciation, as it was established on the north fork of the Elkhorn River.
I wouldn’t have guessed “Nor-fork”, but it makes sense. Thanks…now I’ll earn points from the locals for properly pronouncing their city name!
Dr. Z beat me to the NorFORK thing! I can vouch for it being true though, and I took the route he described the one time I went there 20 years ago (I recall there being a bridge toll at the river/border, something ridiculously cheap like 25 or 50 cents, but it looks like the tollbooth might be gone now). The one other fun fact I would make sure you know is that Norfolk is the hometown of Johnny Carson. For extra bonus points, also Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger and the songs in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Kind of a fond recollection of a pretty frequent road trip we used to make (though it has been 11 years since our last one) back east to visit relatives.
I had a fair amount of vacation time, and my parents were retired, so we used to drive rather than fly back east to visit our relatives. I was born in Massachusetts, but most of my relatives live in eastern PA, and my parents and I live in Texas. We’d take our time, wake up really early and drive maybe 300 miles, so the 1700 mile trip took us 5+ days (each way). One of our regular stops was in eastern Arkansas, the mileage worked out for us, have stayed in Forrest City, Blytheville, West Memphis, and other towns in the area on different trips. We started doing this about the time my Dad retired, in 1990, and did it for most of 21 years (the last trip being in 2011, the last year before he got ill with the ailment that eventually claimed his life.
Of course we did travel a lot on interstates, but diverted a bit from the truck routes, which I didn’t enjoy, as primary driver. I’d rotate with my father (on rare occasions my mother), but in the later years I ended up doing all the driving…not that I minded. We’d get off I40 in Memphis, take rt 51 and drive up the “spine” of Kentucky…many fewer trucks and a much more pleasant stretch to travel than I40 or other truck routes.
Its been 25 years, but in 1997 I took a road trip from my home in Central Texas, up to South Dakota (Rapid City)…I think it was about 3000 mile round trip (went some other places on way back) but I don’t think I was on the interstate for more than 100 miles on the trip. It helps that though there are quite a few east-west interstates in the central part of the country, there aren’t many north-south ones (I live less than a mile from I35 but it goes up to Minnesota, which is a bit too east from Rapid City).
The thing that kind of surprises me is some places I’ve not been (or don’t remember having visited). Don’t think I’ve ever been to St. Louis, either by car nor by airplane, which seems odd to me since it is very central, and I’ve been all around it…southern and western Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, by car. The other place I “should” have been to was Rhode Island..I was born in New England, used to work for Hertz as a driver and covered all the New England and some Atlantic states and into Quebec, but…don’t think I ever was in Rhode Island. Don’t know how I missed it.
I’m also a big hatchback fan, have a 2000 Golf, and haven’t owned anything but hatchbacks since 1981 (all of them VW). I’m trying to figure out what my next car will be, and the lack of cars and specifically hatchbacks has me in a bit of a quandary…seems the market wants me to buy a crossover or small SUV, but I don’t have need of anything other than a car, and as I get older I appreciate how they ride. They no longer sell Golfs new here (they sell GTi, which I’ve owned previously, but as I get older I find myself “out” of the target market for them). A 323 hatch is on my short list, which used to include the Hyundai Elantra GT and Kia Forte 5, which they no longer sell here either, the Ford Focus hatch and Chevy Cruze hatch. Just finding the “equivalent” to what I own is getting pretty problematic.
” but…don’t think I ever was in Rhode Island. Don’t know how I missed it.”
You probably blinked .
-Nate
Well, if you blink, you might miss what I consider to be the defining landmark of the Ocean State (RI). That would be the Giant Blue Bug on I95 right outside of Providence.
He (It?) has a fairly detailed Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Blue_Bug
Zwep, great recollection! I’d imagine that someone who worked for Hertz as a driver must have stories to tell. I’m sure the CC readership would love to hear them.
I’m just sayin’.
St. Louis is in my opinion a wonderful place. I’ve been many times. Perhaps my fondness is rooted in the fact that it was the first family trip I recall. Traveling by train (sleeper car and movies and white-coated porters no less) in 1965 to see the Gateway Arch topped off. And often since. It’s a great place for photography with a nice mix of old and new.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sgip/45024113294/in/album-72157703149873694/
You would like this blog about brick houses in St. Louis:
https://www.stlrez.com
Another blog on St. Louis architecture:
http://www.builtstlouis.net
COALer Retrojerry is from St. Louis. As I said in a comment on one of his COALs, I went to college there. I grew up in a rural setting, and St. Louis was the first major city I lived in. Before college, my family and I had visited other major cities on vacation, but never lived there. I also wasn’t an architecture buff, so when I got to St. Louis, there was no sense of, “Wow, there are a lot of brick houses here!” But there are! It inspired me to start a Flickr album of brick houses in Seattle:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12119356@N00/albums/72157716998550021
Thanks Staxman! Those are great links. I actually took my own pictures of the house and houses in that 5th and 6th pictures in the stlrez.com site. Love that stuff!