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Thursday, January 12. 2012

Take It Easy

The new season of Ghost Hunters has started, the first location being King’s Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. The second location was shot in New Hampshire, almost in time for the primaries.

The amusement park had the voice of a little girl in several locations, mostly in the International Restaurant. Anyway, ghosts and the paranormal aside, it was impossible to ignore the great roller coasters in the park, the most epic being The Beast, the longest wooden roller coaster in the world.

You know, I’ve never considered Cincinnati a place to visit (sorry Dave), but after seeing King’s Island, maybe there’s a reason to go. Not only is there an amusement park, it houses the Cincinnati Zoo and an aquarium.

That’s the thing about America, we have many, maybe hundreds, of places that don’t get mentioned much, if at all, in anyone’s list of vacation destinations.

Years ago I was traveling cross country by Greyhound Bus and happened to land on the historic old U.S. Highway 66. As the bus stopped at every crossroads that called itself a town, I couldn’t help notice the scenery and architecture that was straight out of the 1950’s, before the Interstate System made the Mother Road a relic. And in spite of the fact that preservation groups were doing everything in their power to preserve the historic nature of the highway, U.S. Highway 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985.

The point is if you want to take a road trip with interesting sites that don’t appear on any popular travel web sites, Historic Route 66 would be a good trip, especially from Amarillo, Texas to Santa Monica, California. Or you could do the entire route, from Chicago to Santa Monica, although it’s hard to follow in some spots. In every state though, you’ll find stretches that have been designated National Historic Sites.
 I’ve actually done the entire trip, from right around Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA. My suggestion: take a full five says at least to do it.

Interesting places like old time gas stations or the stretch of highway in Arizona between Kingman and Oatman, two lanes, one in each direction, in the desert. Drive that once and travel back in time when Oklahomans left their homes in the Dust Bowl for greener pastures in the Salinas Valley of California.

In Arizona, the highway cuts through the Painted Desert and just off the highway you can travel to one of the greatest natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon. Or take a short detour to that corner in Winslow, Arizona that the Eagles sing about in their song, “Take It Easy.”
 “Well, I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, Such a fine sight to see, there’s a girl my lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me ...”
 There’s A Park that now commemorates the corner and a festival is held every year. Probably the center of the Universe for flatbed Fords during the festival.

Or picture the movie Easy Rider, when Captain America (Peter Fonda as Wyatt) and his friend Billy (Dennis Hopper) went to New Orleans in search of freedom. As it turns out, “Freedom’s just another word.”

Such is the historic nature of America’s Main Street.

Another road trip I’ve taken on several occasions is the ride up the coast of California, from Malibu to San Francisco. There is awesome scenery with places of interest that spark little of that slick commercialized appeal found at more conventional tourist destinations. So much in fact you feel like stopping every ten minutes just to take pictures. It’s one long post card or maybe a coffee table book worth of pictures. Imagine sunset over the Pacific Ocean from a vantage point in Big Sur.

Big Sur … on one of these trips up the coast my brother Carl and I stayed in a cabin in Big Sur, off-season when the price was right and the beach, a 15-minute walk from the lodge, was all but deserted. Sadly, all the photos from that trip have been lost.

We once made the trip when Clint Eastwood was mayor of Carmel. Unfortunately we never did meet the mayor.

Most recently, about a year ago, my brother Tony and I drove from Parker, Colorado up through Estes Park to Rocky Mountain National Park to Trail Ridge Rd, the highest paved road in the world. We made the trip a year ago when the mountains were full of snow and the road was closed.

Back when Tony married his lovely wife Judy members of the family, with the beautiful Lainey driving, took the trip in June when the road was open. Yes, Young Dan pooped all over everything and everyone thought it was funny, even Grandma.

You know what makes the trip, more than the travel and various destinations? The company you keep while on that trip. You need patience and serenity, especially when traveling through barren stretches. And you need to be comfortable enough for those times when there is no conversation for hours as you pass one cactus after another.

Carl and I made the trip from San Diego to Denver a couple times, passing through areas so uninhabited the signs warn you there are no services for 110 miles and do not get out of your vehicle at night because there are bandits on the road. That’s on I-70 in Utah.

Once we stopped in Green River, Utah for the night at a motel we had stayed at before. Carl smoked so we always got a smoking room. Well, as usual the place had few guests — we were there off-season again — and figured there would be no problem getting a room at a great price. The woman at the check-in insisted there were no smoking rooms available and we should try another motel. So we did, across the street. Such is the character of Small Town, Middle America.

One of the trips we made was for Thanksgiving. That was the time I so famously forgot to bring shoes or boots. You know, Southern California! Shoes? We don’t need no stinking shoes in Southern California! We wear sandals!

So, walking out the door I was trying to remember what I was forgetting. The camera! Back into the condo I went, but there was still something niggling at my thoughts. Off we went in my very nice Lincoln Mark VIII up I-15. As we approached the border of Nevada we began seeing more signs for the casinos and then one for the Las Vegas Outlet Center, featuring Payless Shoe Source. That’s when it hit me: I didn’t have any shoes or boots.

Sheepishly I called the Parker Clan to see if they had any spare shoes or boots and spoke to the lovely Judy who seemed incredulous. How could anyone forget shoes? She didn’t really know and probably thought I was pulling her leg.

On we traveled, through Nevada, stopping at Mesquite and then on to Utah where we saw a sign for a survivalist store in a little town, the name of which escapes me. I got some hiking boots and a bag of socks for less than forty bucks and off we went to Colorado. A trip that will live in notoriety, but we enjoyed it — until we got to Grand Junction, CO and saw the signs saying chains were required to get over the Vail Pass on I-70.

Panic set in until we found out chains were only required for large vehicles, we didn’t need them. But the ride up over the pass was treacherous enough, with only one lane open in each direction. We stopped in Vail at some rest stop that was packed several feet deep with snow, just to calm my nerves.

My advice: save that trip for the summer months and even then you might get snow.

Where were we going with this all those hours ago? Oh yeah, the new season of Ghost Hunters started. You know, I don’t take LSD anymore and my mind still wanders off into these little tangents. What are you gonna do?

Anyway, it was a nice start to the new season, certainly not among their best episodes although the EVP’s were pretty eerie. Maybe next week I’ll actually write about Ghost Hunters — or not. I wonder though, how many haunted locations there might be on or near Highway 66. Someone other than me ought to ask. I’ll just get lost in some tangent.

Posted by Tim Forkes in Life at 12:13 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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