My wife and I drove 3,500 miles across America last week – from New Hampshire to Southern California – and the states we traveled through left some distinct impressions upon me.
We drove through all or parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
We were blessed to have good weather most of the way … an anomaly for the first part of December!
Here are some random thoughts on our trip:
*Best roads: New Hampshire (good road surfaces, wide lines, often light traffic)
*Worst roads: Oklahoma (especially in Oklahoma City, where the lines on the interstate disappear unexpectedly)
*Best interstate: I-40 in New Mexico
*Worst interstate: I-95 in Connecticut … hands down (I almost had to be committed)
*Best large city for driving: Cincinnati (has a large ring around the city)
*Worst city for driving: Hartford, CT (like riding on Space Mountain at times)
*Best road stops: Missouri (gas stations, stores, and places to eat everywhere)
*Worst road stops: Oklahoma (virtually nothing from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, a total of 106 miles … but there is this exit)
*Best tourist spot: Gettysburg, PA (visiting the battlefields by car is free and totally absorbing)
*Worst tourist spot: Ohio (there is nothing to see but farmland from West Virginia to Cincinnati)
*Best driving: from Cincinnati to St. Louis (great roads, little traffic)
*Scariest driving: following Highway 30 west from Chambersburg, PA toward Pittsburgh … went through four mountain passes in the Allegheny Mountains in total darkness … large trucks were advised not to take that route
A few other thoughts:
*Las Vegas award: Amarillo, Texas (lit up like a Christmas tree at night with steakhouses everywhere)
*Creepy award: Gallup, New Mexico (felt so uneasy there that after considering three places to eat, we left and ate in Arizona instead)
*Grand Prix award: Pittsburgh, PA (I wanted to stop and see the Pirates’ ballpark … would have died just trying to get off the freeway)
*Maybe I could live there award: Cincinnati, OH (where my cousin and her family lives); Springfield, MO (30 miles from Branson)
*Waste of space award: Oklahoma (No sites, no facilities, no scenery … just Oral Roberts University in Tulsa)
*Uh oh award: realizing our hotel reservation was in Breezewood, PA … just after we got on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (16 miles to the next town, then 16 miles back … and no way of turning around)
*Best motel award: Days Inn in Tucumcari, NM (spacious, clean, well-equipped room)
*If I had one wish while driving: that I wouldn’t have to deal with any 16-wheelers!
*Best music along the route: Johnny Cash’s American Recordings albums
*Favorite place to eat: Cracker Barrel in Sullivan, MO (or anywhere else, for that matter)
*Coolest tunnel: through the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania
*Best view: from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO
Most moving sight: visiting the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA, at dusk … and stumbling upon the spot where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address
There were a lot of sights I wanted to see but didn’t … like the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA, and the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland … but I’m grateful that we were able to take the trip … and that our 1998 Honda Accord did great …. loaded with stuff … and with more than 250,000 miles on it.
Four days after returning home, it still feels like I’m on the road … and I can sing with Johnny Cash:
I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Across the deserts bare, man
I’ve breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhere
glad you can sing Johnny Cash and that you’re safe in Calif…but did you try the 5-alarm chilI in CINCY? My radio show 25 yrs ago was very big in Cincy and I ate a lot of chili near WVXU Xavier University…could you send me 20 Cali degrees F..continues COLD here 45-48 average!
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Hi Don,
It’s been snowing in New Hampshire … I kind of miss that … but it’s been almost 80 degrees here, and doesn’t feel like Christmas at all!
I visited downtown Cincinnati 22 years ago, but haven’t visited since. My cousin lives in Milford, northeast of the city, in a gorgeous community.
Hope you’re doing well up there … never got to Franconia Notch, but we did visit many other beautiful spots.
Merry Christmas, my friend!
Jim
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Love your descriptions! We’ve been on quite a few of these same roads. Nothing compares to driving cross-country. There’s just no other way to get a sense for the vastness of our nation, or of the local peculiarities. I totally agree with your assessments of Hartford, I-95 in CT, Breezewood/PA Turnpike…thanks for the insights and chuckles. Next road trip we’ll have to try Johnny Cash.
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Tricia,
Breezewood was lit up like a Christmas tree. When I asked our hotel clerk why, she said it was a place that wanted to attract truckers, which they did.
The best Johnny Cash stuff … in my humble opinion … are the American Recordings stuff he did with Rick Rubin, as well as the Unearthed album. Just Johnny and his guitar singing everything under the sun, including many gospel songs and hymns. The music fit perfectly with the surroundings in New Mexico and Arizona.
Enjoy your Christmas!
Jim
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Jim, I completely agree with you regarding Oklahoma. I went there decades ago to visit my then boyfriend who was attending Oral Roberts University. While I was there we were driving one night looking for a place to eat, and we found a 7-Eleven in the middle of nowhere. My boyfriend backed into a parking space and backed up too far, and the car (a Pinto, mind you) wound up halfway in a ditch. That is what that area of Oklahoma is like-dry, dusty, with roads that lead to nowhere, with nothing to see, with ditches running along them. Ugh!
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There are four good things about Oklahoma:
First, Kim’s dad grew up there … but left as soon as he could.
Second, they have always been known for having great college football teams … and now a great NBA team as well.
Third, there’s a pretty good musical called “Oklahoma” which my daughter likes.
Finally, the best view I got of Oklahoma was in my rearview mirror when I entered Texas.
Jim
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You must have enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks for taking me through some of the parts of USA. Wow! the roads, buildings and monuments are very advanced and exciting! It is only around the Capital City of Kenya that we have a little ‘taste’ of all that.
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Hi Elijah,
I did enjoy much of the drive, but not all of it. The West – along the old Route 66 – is very boring, mostly desert without much to see. The East, however, is very exciting, with quite a lot to see.
I pray that God will allow me to come to Nairobi someday and enjoy a little “taste” of your capital.
Jim
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Welcome. I believe God will certainly make a way for you. I will say the Capital City is developed – it is in such a way that you may not notice that you are out of USA. Visit our reserves/up-country or even the slums at the out-skirts of the City and you may think you are now in a different planet. When we visit our families with the little we can afford they take it like a white person has visited (Americans are known in this country for their generosity and advancement). Visit them and it is like an Arch angel in the midst of human beings. Your sincere explanations are very healthy in shaping our picture of your land that many still imagines as paradise – you know, full of gold, money, money, money and the highest comfort possible.
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Well, Brother Elijah, just know that America has a lot of poverty as well … it’s just covered up well. Much of America … mostly in the West … is just miles and miles of barren desert … dirt as far as the eye can see.
Americans are blessed because we do have more money than much of the world, but we need to thank God for it and be generous with it rather than act like we did something to deserve it.
Someday, my friend, I hope to see Nairobi through your eyes … and I hope you can be my tour guide!
Blessings upon you, Elijah!
Jim
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Hey Jim and Kim — I drove across country in May (all along I-40) from California to North Carolina. What a drive! What scenery!! Amazing what you see as you drive. California-Arizona-New Mexico-Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas-Tennessee-North Carolina …. every state unique and offering its own beauty.
Best overpasses??? OKLAHOMA AND NEW MEXICO. No graffitti.
Best road: NEW MEXICO
Best Forests? TENNESSEE AND NORTH CAROLINA. Absolutely beautiful. Winding to be sure…but beautiful.
Thanks for the article — it brought back good memories of my drive!~
~~Chuck
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Chuck,
I’m glad you enjoyed your drive across the country. I wish we’d been able to drive through Tennessee and North Carolina as well … they are beautiful, as you say. Of all the states we drove through, New Hampshire and Vermont were probably the best as far as scenery goes. So much of the East Coast is carved out of the Appalachin Mountains.
I may have another assignment soon. We’ll have to talk and compare notes!
May God richly bless you in your new assignment, my friend.
Jim
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Hi Servant of God, I laughed after reading that you would like me to be your tour guide. May God bring it to pass. I will be very good taking you to ordinary places – you may visit my family, our small congregation, check around our residential area, the slums around the City, have audience with any local leader within the constituency, visit our universities, our national monuments, the magnificent buildings around the city, our museums, the National Archives and anything else that may be of interest to you. These would give you lasting lessons that would serve a great purpose in helping you appreciate the African culture, way of life and of doing things, see what is highly valued here, the challenges people face here and above all the common things we share as humans simply because of our unique relation to the creator whether redeemed or still in our sins. There are many other exciting places we could visit but I can only make arrangements of how to get there and look forward to tour too – due to costs have never visited places that are costly to visit. Thank you. Elijah.
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Elijah, you write so well … have you thought of writing for publication? I’m serious. You write very well … and my guess is that you’d make an EXCELLENT tour guide. Lord willing, I’ll be there soon, my friend.
Jim
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Thank you for the suggested idea and the confidence you have in me that I can make a good tour guide. I will say – so be it and may the will of God be done. God will make it possible for you to come and quicken it.
Yes, I have thought of writing for publication. At present the idea that I have is to write on certain topics for different groups and departments in churches and to preach sermons handling different topics and have them taped for sale. I am also working on a book covering my life history, challenges and successes from my childhood to date. The only biggest challenge like it is with all people with big visions is resources, and this includes money. But I know somehow anytime God will provide enough to do everything He wants me to do before I am gathered to my forefathers. Thank you for your responses.
Elijah.
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