The post was originally published on my other blog Every Page is Page One. The series our our Grand Tour will continue here. Sunday, April 29, 2018 Chicago to Bloomington. This is the beginning of the diary of the Grand Tour that my wife and I took in the spring of 2018. The tour consisted …
This post originally appeared on my other blog, Every Page is Page One. The series on our Grand Tour will continue here. Monday, April 30, 2018, Bloomington to Springfield, Il. The second day of our Grand Tour, Monday, April 30, 2018, covered only 100 km from Bloomington to Springfield Illinois. The day was really about …
Grand Tour 2: The Lincoln Museum as Shrine and Reliquary Read More »
Monday, April 30, 2018 Springfield to St Louis I resume the long-delayed transcribing of my Grand Tour travel diary in the midst of a pandemic which has meant, among other inconveniences, that I am at home on my laptop instead of somewhere in Utah, as originally planned for this October. Some say that the purpose …
Grand Tour 3: The Road as a Museum to Ordinary Eccentricity Read More »
May 2, 2018. St. Louis to Springfield MO We head out of St. Louis toward Springfield, Missouri on a route that takes us through the Ozarks. Themes for the day: thousands of tiny attractions, bridges that memorialize corporals rather than generals, and wonky navigation units. The Garmin, which served us so well in Chicago, decides …
Grand Tour 4: Memorializing Corporals, not Generals Read More »
May 3, 2018. Springfield Missouri to Tulsa Oklahoma Themes of the day are ugly English tourists, underwhelming attractions, and decent ice cream. A storm system passes overnight and it continues raining for most of the morning. The day’s planned route is not terribly long so we make a leisurely morning and hope for the weather …
May 4, 2018, Tulsa to Oklahoma City Today we continue westward through Oklahoma. The themes are not so different from yesterday in Missouri: pride in service, helpful locals, and frustrating navigation units. Also, a small transgression and some disappointing trees.
May 5, 2018 Oklahoma City to Amarillo Themes for the day: into the West, barbed wire, weak beer, parking meters, and killer slip roads. The landscape changes quickly west of Oklahoma City. Now you feel like you are in the West. Now you can imagine a dustbowl happening. (Later we see a map of the …
Grand Tour 7: The Best Museum on Route 66 is About Barbed Wire Read More »
Sunday, May 6, 2018, Amarillo Today is a rest day. I go to Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle church and find the building not to my liking. It is a typical modern auditorium-style church with padded pews. The floor slopes down to the altar like the floor of a movie theatre. It is all …
Grand Tour 8: A Church Should Look Like a Church Read More »
Sunday, May 7, 2018, Amarillo to Las Vegas, New Mexico Today’s theme ranges from the tackiness of a deliberate art installation to the truly enchanting highway overpasses of New Mexico. In New Mexico, it seems, it matters what things look like. In Texas, not so much.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018, Las Vegas NM to Santa Fe NM Today our Grand Tour takes us to the Pecos National Historical Park where we notice the stunning similarities between the ruins here and the stone circles, Roman, and Medieval ruins of Britain. We also note just how much it matters what things look like …
Grand Tour 10: The Stunning Similarities of Ancient Sites Read More »
