After a year of leave in Australia (well, someone has to act as a counterweight to all those Aussie backpackers), I just arrived back in the U.S. Three observations:
After spending the next few days recovering from jetlag, I’m going to drive from South Carolina to Arizona, probably along I-40. (I have to do this, for various reasons.) Any advice? Apart from “Book a flight instead”, I mean.
i had a friend who was a pilot for HootersAir. he quit in order to take a more lucrative job flying charters out of Saudi Arabia. lunacy.
I think you should see the Voting Rights Museum, one of the many plantation houses in MS or LA, and White Sands National Monument; all should be more or less on your way. Liendo’s in Hempstead, TX (about an hour west of Houston) and the Elite Restaurant in Jackson, MS are both worthwhile places to stop for a meal.
I haven’t seen the massive art installations in Marfa, TX, but they’re supposed to be pretty amazing, and driving between the East Coast and the Southwest is about the only reason you’d be in the area.
Go see some canyons. Especially Bryce in Utah. Not on I40, but not too far.
Re: Hooters you’re obviously not keeping abreast of developments in the U.S.
Sorry.
Max(Speak)
I-40? If you want lots of interesting conversations along the way, get a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker.
On I-40, to create interesting encounters with the natives, I recommend a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker.
Welcome back!
When I once drove from Tucson to Princeton (no, really, I did that once!) I started out on I-10. It was great, because I accidentally (read: not at all planned) bumped into the Chiricahua National Monument. I realize by the time you’d get there you’ll just want to get home so this is not such a helpful recommendation.. but if not on this trip, I highly recommend visiting it at some point. It’s not that far from where you live. And it’s absolutely breathtaking.
But regarding the route, it worked well to drive east on I-10 and then link into I-20. In Dallas, we switched to I-30 and then to I-40 in Little Rock. Depending on where you are in SC, you could just take I-20 across, but maybe that’s a really crazy idea this time of year. My drive was exactly this time of year as well, four years ago. As long as you have air conditioning it should be okay, and really, it’s not like Tennessee will be that much less painful. If you take I-20 all the way, I guess you’ll likely pass by more places that you’ll otherwise probably never visit. (I don’t know if that’s a pro or a con comment thought.;)
Regardless, I would definitely start heading a bit South once you get to Arkansas. There is a bit of a dip too South near El Paso, but otherwise you’re going unnecessarily North, it seems, if you take I-40 all the way across (assuming I was reading your note correctly).
In Albuquerque you can visit the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, or National Atomic Museum. Oh yeah, New Mexican food is not like Mexican food. And, Green is usually hotter than red.
You should stop for a FREE 72oz steak in Amarillo, TX!
[small print: you have to eat the whole steak, plus an appetizer, salad, and baked potato in one hour, otherwise it’s $50]
[slightly larger print: No I don’t know this first hand. I have, however, seen billboards for it as far away as eastern Oklahoma and the website.
Go to Sandia Crest, elevation 10,678’. The turnoff is North Hwy. 14 (Tijeras), about fifteen miles East of Albuquerque. Follow the signs; the road to the Crest itself is 536.
Detour is about 1/2 hour one way (helluva lot closer than White Sands). The view is magnificent, and the air is 20 degrees cooler than on the prairie.
Since j. ellenberg brought up Marfa, I feel compelled to mention the hilarious John Waters poster, “Visit Marfa” that is currently featured on the cover of Artforum. “The Jonestown of Mimimalism” is my favorite bit. Go to http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=6937 and click on the image at left.
I’m going to drive from South Carolina to Arizona, probably along I-40. (I have to do this, for various reasons.) Any advice?
It might be worth dropping ten bucks on Next Exit: The Most Complete Interstate Highway Guide Ever Printed - it’s basically a list of every exit on every Interstate in the US with the nearby gas stations and restaurants.
I’m going to drive from South Carolina to Arizona, probably along I-40. (I have to do this, for various reasons.) Any advice?
It might be worth dropping ten bucks on Next Exit: The Most Complete Interstate Highway Guide Ever Printed - it’s basically a list of every exit on every Interstate in the US with the nearby gas stations and restaurants.
I’ve never driven that route, but having done a similarly long drive from Minnesota to San Francisco, I would recommend staying off the freeway as much as possible. We drove freeway in part of Nebraska and between Sacramento and SF. Other than that it was 2-lane the whole way. All freeways are the same; see America from the backroads.
Make sure you don’t fall asleep at the wheel - it is possible on those straight roads to get hypnotised into sleep - who knows where you will end up.
Yeah. LAX is possibly the worst airport in the US. I don’t think it needs a Martian to discern this. After a while, I refused to fly in or out of it. If I was going to the area, I’d go via Long Beach, John Wayne or Burbank. Next time you have to fly back from Australia, try going through SFO instead.
Having taken both I-20 and I-40 across the country, I would highly recommend I-20. On I-40 you have both potholes and truckers to deal with.
For long car trips by yourself, books on tape are great, especially old poems. Nothing better than hearing classics of the oral tradition read out loud. You can find the Iliad read by Derek Jacobi, the Odyssey by Ian McKellen, and Beowulf by Seamus Heaney.
http://roadfood.com/ and the related books.
Second Ben Hyde’s recommendation of the Jane and Michael Stern books; when we drove across, Eat your Way Across the USA was our main guidebook. Road Trip USA is also first-rate if you’re willing to venture off the interstate.
By the way, I didn’t read carefully and didn’t notice you were taking I-40; so sorry about my first set of recommendations, which contemplated a more southern route.
I-40? Stop in Asheville. Or at least visit the Biltmore Estate. Asheville is an oasis of artsy Volvo-driving, yoga-stretching liberalism in… well, in the South. And it’s Bele Chere this weekend, so you get to see it in its full glory.
If you do the I-40 route, I’d second the recommendations for the Big Texan and Sandia Crest.
The food at the Big Texan is good, and they do a remarkable job of getting it to you in a timely manner, considering how large the restaurant and kitchen are. (Plus, you can stay the night there at the relatively inexpensive motel and partake of the cheap beer.)
Sandia Crest would be a great break between the boredom of eastern NM and the boredom of western NM. If you’re looking for a meal in ABQ, I’d recommend Flying Star for lunch and/or desert (4 locations, scattered around the city) and Sadie’s (West on Osuna from I-25, North on N 4th from I-40) for a great New Mexican dinner.
If you like very large arrays, I’d recommend leaving I-40 and heading through western NM and AZ on US 60 and visiting the Very Large Array radio telescope, west of Magdalena, NM. US 60 is also a nice way to get from Albuquerque to Phoenix without the truck traffic.
If you go on I-40 through AZ, I’d recommend stopping off in Flagstaff - it’s just about the highest (and therefore coolest) place along the way and the downtown has an amazing group of stores and microbreweries for a city its size.
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review