Today was a good day. Though I suggested early on that politics would not have much of a place in this series, it is hard to visit the Franklin Delano Roosevelt home and library and not have something to say about them — especially when the key exhibit was about the passage of the Social Security Act. Saratoga Springs is my kind of town, built around horse racing, mineral baths, relaxation, forests, trees, outdoors, and eating and drinking.

READ MORE
Posted at 30 August 10 at 22.08 in Travel

The only thing I actually did today was go to Cooperstown, which was awesome but not inspiring in terms of creative writing, and drive from western New York to eastern New York. As a result, what follows is mostly another day’s worth of observations summed up and shared. Tomorrow we get back on track.

READ MORE
Posted at 30 August 10 at 00.08 in Travel

What is most interesting about Niagara Falls is that everyone talks about how the Canadian side is more impressive than the American side, and the reason why is because the falls that collapse from American soil into the lake are the most bad ass, but they can only be seen effectively from the Canadian side. So there we are with the perfect metaphor for American power: no matter how much strength we have (and no matter how irrationally), the only way to truly appreciate ourselves is to view it from another land.

READ MORE
Posted at 28 August 10 at 23.08 in Travel

If today’s schedule looks even more sparse than yesterday’s, that’s because I’m getting good at these days that deviate from plan but turn out to be something I’m quite happy with just the same. And if Detroit is the real fucking deal, Toronto is fucking hot. A commenter noted that one of the funny things about these essays is that they’re not really about travel at all.

READ MORE
Posted at 27 August 10 at 23.08 in Travel

From one point of view, today was another day of missed opportunities. However, from another point of view, today was exactly what it needed to be. For better or for worse, Detroit is the real fucking deal.

READ MORE | 3 COMMENTS
Posted at 26 August 10 at 23.08 in Travel

This will be brief, for I am tired. The second Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video ends with the boast, “at least we’re not Detroit!” After my first visit to Detroit (tomorrow will be a fuller day, and I am saving my full judgment until then), my conclusion is that it is an errant boast. It is remarkable that 7,102 more people were in attendance for a 1:05 game between Detroit and Kansas City than for two 7:05 games between Pittsburgh and St. Louis and Cleveland and Oakland.

READ MORE
Posted at 25 August 10 at 20.08 in Travel

People said Kent State would just be a school, just a town in the middle of nowhere, just a grassy field where something happened 40 years ago, and in many ways, it is — which, like the area outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, is exactly what makes it so thought-provoking and full of emotion. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is the biggest monument of corporate sell-out marketing trash I have ever seen, bar none. Jacobs Field — I mean Progressive Field — is overrated.

READ MORE
Posted at 24 August 10 at 23.08 in Travel