How to really grasp America?

A possible answer is to drive through a good portion of it, like we did a few days ago, and realize how large, varied and almost infinite it appears to be (we drove close to 50 hours!) It's also a wonderful way to seize up its economic power and its non-stop activity.

In my nearly four decade of living in this country-continent, I had never seen so many trucks crisscrossing the highways in all directions, so many train lines, bridges and water ways of all kinds. Should I mention the airplane criss-crossing the skies? To me, these images conjure the strength and the power of the United States as the underscores an incredible infrastructure that is still working well in spite of its venerable age.

All that to attend to the needs of so many people and connect them together with a remarkable network of communications. But most importantly, what has the most impressed me was to see so many people united by the same language, the same standards of living and the same culture. This unity of sorts makes the place unique in the world, by its seamlessness and efficiency, and yet potentially able to do so much better!

The end of the road

The morning run alongside the Roanoke River was pretty cold but wonderful on the great bike path. We finally made it to Washington, DC or more precisely Arlington, VA! That's right just 2,743 miles and seven day later, we've arrived in one piece and without a notable incident...

We've been welcomed by our daughter in her beautiful little apartment, and after a most scenic drive through the state of Virginia, we gave her the keys to the car she had entrusted with.

Virginia, here we come!

We began our day quite early, well before our longest drive of the entire trip, and ran around the block where we stayed the night before to discover all the live Nashville entertainment we just missed that evening. An reason excellent to return to that town, I guess.

The drive that followed, between Tennessee and Virginia was nonetheless a pleasant experience.

Not quite a surprise though; I was expecting to see the rolling scenery that followed us from Nashville all the way to Roanoke. Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains, singing to our ears “take me home country roads” or something of the sort. We've almost reached our destination!

Action dream

Just as in the new James Bond movie, last night was my turn to have an action-filled dream, or should I say nightmare? Thank goodness, it ended rather well, just waking me up, totally unharmed! It happened as I was driving on some road reminiscent of a mix of the Colorado Rockies and Haute-Savoie, France.

I was following my brother's car when I saw a piece of lumber tumbling down the steep slope over us, on the road, followed by another one... I honked; fortunately, my brother heard my warning and stopped in the nick of time. As we resumed driving, I saw two free skiers coming down on that same slope (there was no snow, mind you) and they managed to barely clear the roof of my car.

All this commotion woke me up. It was 5:45 am!

Where's the music?

Our morning run was near the Bill Clinton Presidential Library along the banks of the Arkansas river. We pushed it as far as we could and managed to exceed 5 miles.

The rest of the day was driving, driving, driving, in a pretty decent landscape and with some stunning views of the City of Memphis as we crossed the Mississippi River. Our final stage city for the night was Nashville where we wanted to go the Bluebird Cafe, but hit such a bad rush-hour traffic that we never could make the show.

Nashville without the music, what's that? I guess we'll do better next time if there's indeed a next time for us in Tennessee!

Getting our kicks next to Route 66!

Interstate 40 more or less follows the fabled (?) Route 66. I don't quite get what makes that piece of highway so famous, except perhaps because it was the original U.S. Highway ever established and made famous during the Dust Bowl, but suffice to say that between New Mexico and Arkansas, there's not much going on that celebrated roadway.

Today's run took us to the south bank of the Canadian River and we had a wonderful jog with the few Okla City skyscrapers in sight. The rest of the day took us through the Ozark and we left the freeway to drive through Clarksville, Arkansas, which is one of these American rural towns set 40-50 years into the past.

The best moment of the day happened when we squeezed into the Bill Clinton's Presidential Library in Little Rock, our final stop for the day. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and I particularly liked the correspondence between the Clintons and some people famous, not-so-well-known, very rich and very poor.

I wish I were an American President to leave such a legacy! The rest of the evening was spend having a great little dinner by the Arkansas River...

Reflecting on the elections...

Last night, we watched the final throws of the 2012 election and remained glued to our TV screen through Romney's concession and Obama's acceptance speeches, and were gratified to see that the least worst candidate won.

Frankly, I was glad that Romney didn't accomplished what he was convinced he would. First, I thought he wasn't as good as Obama and second, I couldn't believe that Utah had put 75% of its vote behind the Mormon candidate, which makes me think that the Mormon Church must have mandated that all of its flock to vote for their now famous member, and also suggests that it must also have funneled millions of dollars through the new, anonymous, 501c election financing rule, to make sure that their obscure and absurd belief would go “national.” 

This said, today began with a run through the streets of that small town of 5,600, crossing the fable Route 66, and after another skimpy breakfast we were off on a quick and easy six hour drive between Tucumcari, New Mexico and Oklahoma City, with a quick coffee stop in Amarillo, Texas.

Nothing really scenic except for maybe a thousand or so windmill in that flat expense of terrain and ninety-percent of vehicles on I-40 being trucks. Not many animals in sight except for some cattle and a large, stinking and dusty feed lot just before Amarillo in Texas.