Travel USA & Eastern Canada (iPad version)
Well if you ever plan to motor west
Just take my way that’s the highway that’s the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than 2000 miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it goes from St Louis, Joplin, Missouri
Oklahoma City looks ooh so pretty
You’ll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona don’t forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino
Would you get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
We were travelling from West to East and joined Route 66 at Barstow where we enjoyed delicious burgers and beer. Then on through Kingman to Flagstaff where we spent the night.
I’ve driven Route 66 a few times before but always visited the Grand Canyon North and Sedona South from Flagstaff. This time we went straight on to Gallup then Amarillo where we witnessd a nice lady destroying the hotel waffle iron at breakfast.
Some of the old Route 66 has been used for the modern highway. On other sections, it runs alongside the highway. In some places you can drive off the highway into deserted settlements complete with deserted shops and filling stations. It seems a shame that these gems of history have not been valued enough to preserve more of these places. The US of A is mostly a car country with little public transport compared to Europe. Route 66 is a historic step towards the long distance use of the motor car and is therefore a very important relic of history. Here’s Billy Connolly fulfilling his dream.
After Oklahoma City, we leave Route 66 and continue East, stopping at Fort Smith for the night, then swiftly onwards to Atlanta where we feast in a gigantic diner with a friend. The we go south to Tallahasse where we stop for the night before continuing on next day to our destination Sarasota.
The country on the route is beautiful but it is very noticeable that the Indian reservations are particularly attractive and well cared for. We have stopped at various places where battles have taken place and noted that the Confederate flag is still flying in many places on the way. It is difficult for foreigners to really understand the Civil War. However, the information centres are very helpful about the battles.
Sarasota is a dream land. The beaches of the Keys must be the best in the world, just perfect for walks with feet in the water. The inner city is tiny but has a Whole Foods and bus services to all the beaches.
I know the Atlantic coast of Florida and I have spent too long in the amusement centres of Orlando. We decide to explore the coast to the South and North of Sarasota. We even spend time on Fort Myers Beach where I have spent some holiday time some years ago.
Sarasota is ideal in Winter but rather too humid and hot during the Summer months. The “snowbirds” who inhabit Sarasota during the Winter left for their Boston nests some time ago. We also decide to head north.
Our first stop is Savannah on the Atlantic coast. It’s a historic town with beautiful old buildings. Being summer, there are too many tourists around for comfort. So next day we head across country in a NNW direction first to Nashville which has even more history to which we can more easily relate to. Then onwards through beautiful West Virginia eventually reaching Niagara Falls, a place I have never visited before.
We stay on the Canadian side of the falls but we do not take any of the trips on the water or walk under the falls. We just gaze at that marvellous spectacle. So much water going over the falls!! I don’t believe in “bucket lists” but, if I did, Niagara Falls would have been on it!
From Niagara, we drive around Lake Ontario on the Canadian side. We would probably have been better off driving East along the Southern side of the lake. The traffic through Toronto is fairly horrific but we finally reach the end of the lake and drive East past Ottawa then North to a hotel which has been advertising specials. The hotel calls itself a “chateau” so we expect something really special.
The hotel is awful!!! We complain and are told that we have our awful room because we have come on their reduced price special. After spending some hours arguing with the management, we do get a different room which is not much better. We decide to make the best of the situation.
There is a golf course attached to the hotel and I have promised my friend that I will make my first attempt at golf if we stop here. So, keeping my promise, we drive down the track to the club house and I prepare to hit my first ball on the first golf course I have ever been faced with.
We walk from the club house to the first tee and I recoil with astonishment. The first hole is across a wide raging torrent! I immediately decide that I will walk across the bridge and drop my ball on the other side. It’s the only sensible thing to do if I am a complete beginner.
The pro sees what is going on and emerges from his shop with a ball with a maple leaf printed on it. He says, “Hit this into the river for me” and hands me the colourful ball.
What can I do? I reluctantly place the beautiful ball on a tee and make my first drive on my very first golf course. Realising that I must satisfy the wish of the pro, I give the ball the biggest ‘wack’ I can muster. It flies high in the air over the raging torrent and lands on the green in the far distance. All that practice on the driving range has been worthwhile!!! Or was it that maple leave pained on the ball? So I completed my very first round of golf but later nowhere near the excellence of my very first drive!!
We soon escape from the “chateau” and make our way to Quebec. Quebec is an important part British history and it is difficult to find any evidence of this in the city. We eventually do find a statue of General James Wolfe which has evidently destroyed a number of times and trace the paths the British took before capturing Quebec city. People I speak to assure me that they would prefer to be part of France rather than part of Canada. They feel French and some even refuse to speak English to us.
We continue our journey even more West until we meet the Atlantic at Sydney on Cape Brenton Island. We make some trips around the area and enjoy the spectacular scenery and the bridges which cross some of the rivers and valleys.
Then we head for Prince Edward Island. The bridge over to this island is 13 kilometres long. Many tourists are drawn to PEI to visit the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote “Anne of Green Gables” in Cavandish on the North coast. Of course, we follow the crowds and drive past the small house and gaze at the resort which has developed because of the influx of tourists who love this book which has sold 50 million copies. We also visit a wind farm on the Western end of the island and come across some Welsh immigrants who are growing organic vegetables near the Wind farm.
The most noticeable feature of the island is the fact that potatoes are growing everywhere. It must be the potato capital of the world. There is even a Potato Museum!!
Prince Edward Island is also the only place where I have seen potatoes on sale properly presented hidden under a cover to prevent light reaching them.
From PEI we head down to Fredericton where we stay in a new Casino hotel with a lovely swimming pool. Fredericton is an Acadian town and the whole history of the Acadians is sad. Many Acadians were deported from Prince Edward Island and other parts of Eastern Canada in the eighteenth century and some ended up in Louisiana where they formed the Cajun culture. Some retuned later and still maintain their Acadian character.
Next we head south to Bangor in Maine, USA. We stay here then head to Bar Harbour where we eat lobsters, freshly cooked outside in huge boilers and served in a huge can. I can’t say that I am impressed by this primitive approach but I am told it is “quaint” and everybody loves it.
We move on to Stonington, a charming village which has a tiny ‘opera house’. The coast here is beautiful but the sea temperature is very cold. We stay in a nearby hotel and are shown into a room whose floor has a slope of over ten degrees. The manager is surprised when we do not appreciate the room. “It is SO quaint!” she says but does find us another room with a fairly horizontal floor.
We enjoy a picturesque run along the coast of Maine and stop for a while in Portland. Then we head south again to Boston and enjoy a look around this great city. We even pass the Berklee School of Music which was started as Schillinger House named after Joseph Schillinger by one of his students Lawrence Berk then later named the Berklee School after Berk’s son Lee Berk. Graduates of Berklee have won almost 300 grammys in recent years.
Our next objective is DC. Here we make our biggest mistake. We set our SatNav to avoid roadworks in progress. Normally this would be a sensible idea but, in a state where almost all of whose roads seem to be under repair, it is a very bad idea. Our SatNav did indeed avoid the road works but directed us into the suburbs of New York and even through Harlem. Then we had to line up and wait two hours to cross a bridge held up by two cherry pickers!! Thankfully, we managed to get across to Newark where we reset the SatNav to take the most direct route.
After DC we charge down the I95 with an escort of “snowbirds”. These are people who leave their comfortable houses in New York and Boston and use their exquisite residences in Florida for the duration of the Winter. Sensible people!!! We reach Jacksonville then branch West to Sarasota where we stay again for a while to enjoy the beaches. The opera, ballet, concert and recital season is just beginning and the weather is again beginning to be perfect.
Sarasota has a young but usually well-rehearsed orchestra. They have an enthusiasm which is quite infectious.
When Julian Schwartz plays a ‘cello concerto in the first part of a concert, he joins them on the second ‘cello desk for the second part. Hed’s a “team player” and that speaks well for him and the orchestra. Members of the orchestra also arrange chamber music concerts when they are not otherwise engaged with concerts, operas or ballets.
I enjoy ‘Madama Butterfly’ and other music in the small Sarasota Opera House,
but I am extremely pleased by the Sarasota Ballet performing some of Balanchine’s ‘Jewels’ and ‘Les Deux Pigeons’. The performances are superb and they have a fine group of male dancers, some of whom come from Australia. Recently they have even evoked the spirit of the fabulous Sarasota Ringling Art Museum and Circus in one of their new ballets.
After a while, we decide that it is time to return to Seattle. (We miss the rain!!!) The route will be different from before so we head first to New Orleans, still suffering a little from the hurricane tragedy. We are surprised to find people who are smiling everywhere. We take the usual horse carriage trip around the French Quarter and it sounds as though they have already forgotten those terrible times.
We’re taking the most southerly route so our next stop is San Antonio where we pay homage to the heroes of the Alamo who include Jim Bowie and David Crockett.
Here’s the Davy Crockett song we all knew when we were kids. In this video, they sing the penultimate verse which many performers leave out.
greenest state in the land of the free
raised in the woods so he knew ev’ry tree
kilt him a b’ar when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
In eighteen thirteen the Creeks uprose
addin’ redskin arrows to the country’s woes
Now, Injun fightin’ is somethin’ he knows,
so he shoulders his rifle an’ off he goes
Davy, Davy Crockett, the man who don’t know fear!
Off through the woods he’s a marchin’ along
makin’ up yarns an’ a singin’ a song
itchin’ fer fightin’ an’ rightin’ a wrong
he’s ringy as a b’ar an’ twict as strong
Davy, Davy Crockett, the buckskin buccaneer!
Andy Jackson is our gen’ral’s name
his reg’lar soldiers we’ll put to shame
Them redskin varmints us Volunteers’ll tame
’cause we got the guns with the sure-fire aim
Davy, Davy Crockett, the champion of us all!~
Headed back to war from the ol’ home place
but Red Stick was leadin’ a merry chase
fightin’ an’ burnin’ at a devil’s pace
south to the swamps on the Florida Trace
Davy, Davy Crockett, trackin’ the redskins down!
Fought single-handed through the Injun War
till the Creeks was whipped an’ peace was in store
An’ while he was handlin’ this risky chore
made hisself a legend for evermore
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
He give his word an’ he give his hand
that his Injun friends could keep their land
An’ the rest of his life he took the stand
that justice was due every redskin band
Davy, Davy Crockett, holdin’ his promise dear!
Home fer the winter with his family
happy as squirrels in the ol’ gum tree
bein’ the father he wanted to be
close to his boys as the pod an’ the pea
Davy, Davy Crockett, holdin’ his young’uns dear!
But the ice went out an’ the warm winds came
an’ the meltin’ snow showed tracks of game
An’ the flowers of Spring filled the woods with flame
an’ all of a sudden life got too tame
Davy, Davy Crockett, headin’ on West again!
Off through the woods we’re ridin’ along
makin’ up yarns an’ singin’ a song
He’s ringy as a b’ar an’ twict as strong
an’ knows he’s right ’cause he ain’ often wrong
Davy, Davy Crockett, the man who don’t know fear!
Lookin’ fer a place where the air smells clean
where the trees is tall an’ the grass is green
where the fish is fat in an untouched stream
an’ the teemin’ woods is a hunter’s dream
Davy, Davy Crockett, lookin’ fer Paradise!
Now he’s lost his love an’ his grief was gall
in his heart he wanted to leave it all
an’ lose himself in the forests tall
but he answered instead his country’s call
Davy, Davy Crockett, beginnin’ his campaign!
Needin’ his help they didn’t vote blind
They put in Davy ’cause he was their kind
sent up to Nashville the best they could find
a fightin’ spirit an’ a thinkin’ mind
Davy, Davy Crockett, choice of the whole frontier!
The votes were counted an’ he won hands down
so they sent him off to Washin’ton town
with his best dress suit still his buckskins brown
a livin’ legend of growin’ renown
Davy, Davy Crockett, the Canebrake Congressman!
He went off to Congress an’ served a spell
fixin’ up the Govern’ments an’ laws as well
took over Washin’ton so we heered tell
an’ patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell
Davy, Davy Crockett, seein’ his duty clear!
Him an’ his jokes travelled all through the land
an’ his speeches made him friends to beat the band
His politickin’ was their favorite brand
an’ everyone wanted to shake his hand
Davy, Davy Crockett, helpin’ his legend grow!
He knew when he spoke he sounded the knell
of his hopes for White House an’ fame as well
But he spoke out strong so hist’ry books tell
an’ patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell
Davy, Davy Crockett, seein’ his duty clear!
When he come home his politickin’ done
the western march had just begun
So he packed his gear an’ his trusty gun
an’ lit out grinnin’ to follow the sun
Davy, Davy Crockett, leadin’ the pioneer!
He heard of Houston an’ Austin so
to the Texas plains he jest had to go
Where freedom was fightin’ another foe
an’ they needed him at the Alamo
Davy, Davy Crockett, the man who don’t know fear!
His land is biggest an’ his land is best
from grassy plains to the mountain crest
He’s ahead of us all meetin’ the test
followin’ his legend into the West
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
Our next port of call is El Paso. Just over the border is considered the murder capital of the world while the drug wars continue. Even hospitals are not safe as gang members chase their victims into ER departments. We have heard that some hospitals have been reluctant to treat gunshot victims for this reason. (I have actually read that they refuse to treat gunshot wounds).
We manage to drive alongside the Rio Grande for a little distance where it forms the border between Texas and Mexico. After all I have heard about this great river, what I see now is a big disappointment. I can hardly see any flow of water. I only see part of North American history.
But we now drive through an area even more important historically; the place where the nuclear age branched irrevocably into weaponry. The great Leó Szilárd and Enrico Fermi had achieved the first chain reaction in the middle of Chicago in 1942 but, thanks to a letter written by Szilárd and Einstein to the President in 1939, the Manhattan Project was set up based in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The first nuclear explosion took place in Alamogordo, White Sands Proving grounds on 16 July 1945.
Subsequently the USA dropped two different kinds of nuclear bomb on Japan. Whatever people think now, this saved an estimated 180,000 wounded and up to 46,000 deaths of USA soldiers.
Leaving New Mexico we pass through Tucson and Phoenix on our way to Palm Springs. Then we drive North to Oakland where we again spend the night. From there we head up into Oregon passing the heights where we had previously encountered snow and ice the previous May. Surprisingly the road is perfectly clear even though it is now early November.
We now retrace our drive six months ago through Medford, Eugene and Portland before entering the state of Washington. We reach Seattle and finally Mill Creek in the county of Snohomish. We are home again!!!
Keith of Ninewells 