Travels with Iggy, 10,549.6 Miles
Posted 11-14-2013 at 11:54 PM by Road Geezer
Pulling up to our home in San Jose last Friday night about 8:30, 10,549.6 miles was the reading on our trip odometer. It’s Sunday night, and we’re still not completely moved back in. Every once and a while, one of us remembers, “rats, it’s still in Iggy.”
This was a trip of a lifetime, an opportunity granted to few, and for which Bobbie and I are very grateful. Overall impressions? We have many. Here are some.
I was born and raised in California, and except for a few years in Connecticut, Bobbie and I have spent our married lives in the Golden State. So, there was an aspect of foreign travel adventure to our trip; not anticipated, but similar to the mild culture shock—pleasant—we experienced on visits overseas. We are a very, very large country, and our peoples are quite different, yet bound by our common language, our ability to communicate with very different fellow Americans easily because we can understand one another. Regional differences in language, not “Walmart, “The Walmart.” It’s not dinnertime, it’s suppertime. Cottage cheese as a side dish, coleslaw on a hot dog. These are charming nuances, not impediments to understanding.
In Silicon Valley, for instance, we celebrate change, even change for change’s sake sometimes. It’s common to shrug off the demise of a company or an entity as it’s replaced by something newer and better. A common joke, now a bit out of date though, was that if you turned in the wrong driveway on your way to work, go on in. You get a new employer and a raise … Job change, planned or not, is a way of life. And the pace. When things are normal, it’s frenetic, and things do seem to be getting back to normal around here.
Not so elsewhere, I observed that in many locales the pace was far slower, measured; drivers, not more courteous, but not so inclined to treat the road as an Indy Oval. I may be wrong, but my sense was that work played a less important role in many lives, for I saw intense loyalty to local sports teams, significant time devoted to church and its sponsored activities, participation in local festivals. How many Silicon Valleyites would take time to attend a strawberry festival? Many of the places we visited were not large metropolitan areas; that could have been a contributor. I don’t know.
The place of tradition. In the South we were acutely aware that long-held traditions were valued, in marked contrast to Silicon Valley’s creative destruction. The way things had been, or were done, was valued and protected. I don’t think this was out of fear of change; rather it may have arisen out of desire to preserve that which was familiar. There may be many contributing factors, I really think this may have something to do with the area’s employer industries. We saw many large manufacturing plants, from BMW assembly near Greenville to iron ore processing in Duluth, whose employees work at jobs where change is much slower than at, say, FaceBook. There is no long term tradition at Twitter, it hasn’t been around long enough. Conversely, Carnegie and the founders of BMW have been in the ground for at least a century. Life moves more slowly, more leisurely with time to reflect on what’s good about the past. I’m not sure that’s all bad.
So many ways to enjoy life. Living here in essentially a temperate Mediterranean climate, I tend to wonder how anyone can tolerate the climate elsewhere. Tee shirt weather in February. People live and prosper everywhere we travelled. Yes the humidity, and at times the heat, was oppressive, but … get over it and pass the grits. There’s a beautiful sunset, and the fried shrimp is delightful. Good times flourish in the company of friends… anywhere. Snowed in, roads not plowed till tomorrow. Light the fire, have a warm cup of chocolate and enjoy the dog. I know these are over simplifications; my point is that we all adapt and come to cherish our surrounding, regardless of seasonal severities.
So many with whom we spoke had migrated to the locale where we met them and had no desire to leave. From Los Angeles to the hills of Virginia, from Southern California to coastal Florida, to Pittsburgh, from Silicon Valley to South Carolina, from eastern Oregon, to Hood River. Uniquely, we are a nation on the move like no other people; maybe simply because we can. There’s so much open land. It’s easy to literally leave our problems and set out for a new chance, a new beginning. I was struck by how delightful many of these places were to live in, even though they didn’t possess the diversity, the life-changing dynamism of my hometown. I guess dynamism isn’t everything. Golly!
Obamacare? Thinking back over our trip, I realize we saw so many billboards advertising—I think, new or expanding—healthcare organizations as well as many brand new building complexes all over the country, particularly along the outskirts of cities and in rural areas. What caught my attention was that it seemed that many of the complexes were some sort of medical facilities. Overall it seemed as if there was a surge in healthcare provision. I’m wondering if it’s a result of passage of the Affordable Care Act; for it would seem that if millions of additional citizens are now going to have coverage, then there is probably going to be an increased demand for care provision facilities. I really don’t know if there’s a connection, but if there is, it looks to me that big businesses such as HMOs and insurance companies are moving in. Does the ubiquity of these complexes indicate an emerging “new medicine?” Like the family farm, is the solo medical practice to be subsumed by corporate-scale practices, the ones that built the complexes I saw everywhere?
The sheer size of it all. Thanks in part to the outcome of the Civil War, our union with its enormous land mass was preserved. Travelling at 60+ mph towing our Airstream was indeed a very slow, measured approach to seeing parts of the country. Even though we passed up an awful lot of interesting destinations, riding in our Suburban’s front seats we delighted in an ever changing, panoramic window on America’s beauty … most of the time. Got real tired of sagebrush in New Mexico, west Texas and eastern Montana, to say nothing of endless rice fields in northern California. But the uncountable lakes, all manner of forests, cities, beautiful bridges, mountain ranges, estuaries, rural towns wearing their histories, national parks (when open … thanks Boehner!) exceed my comprehension. There is simply so much of everything, so much to experience.
We must return to the road … stay tuned.
Paul
This was a trip of a lifetime, an opportunity granted to few, and for which Bobbie and I are very grateful. Overall impressions? We have many. Here are some.
I was born and raised in California, and except for a few years in Connecticut, Bobbie and I have spent our married lives in the Golden State. So, there was an aspect of foreign travel adventure to our trip; not anticipated, but similar to the mild culture shock—pleasant—we experienced on visits overseas. We are a very, very large country, and our peoples are quite different, yet bound by our common language, our ability to communicate with very different fellow Americans easily because we can understand one another. Regional differences in language, not “Walmart, “The Walmart.” It’s not dinnertime, it’s suppertime. Cottage cheese as a side dish, coleslaw on a hot dog. These are charming nuances, not impediments to understanding.
In Silicon Valley, for instance, we celebrate change, even change for change’s sake sometimes. It’s common to shrug off the demise of a company or an entity as it’s replaced by something newer and better. A common joke, now a bit out of date though, was that if you turned in the wrong driveway on your way to work, go on in. You get a new employer and a raise … Job change, planned or not, is a way of life. And the pace. When things are normal, it’s frenetic, and things do seem to be getting back to normal around here.
Not so elsewhere, I observed that in many locales the pace was far slower, measured; drivers, not more courteous, but not so inclined to treat the road as an Indy Oval. I may be wrong, but my sense was that work played a less important role in many lives, for I saw intense loyalty to local sports teams, significant time devoted to church and its sponsored activities, participation in local festivals. How many Silicon Valleyites would take time to attend a strawberry festival? Many of the places we visited were not large metropolitan areas; that could have been a contributor. I don’t know.
The place of tradition. In the South we were acutely aware that long-held traditions were valued, in marked contrast to Silicon Valley’s creative destruction. The way things had been, or were done, was valued and protected. I don’t think this was out of fear of change; rather it may have arisen out of desire to preserve that which was familiar. There may be many contributing factors, I really think this may have something to do with the area’s employer industries. We saw many large manufacturing plants, from BMW assembly near Greenville to iron ore processing in Duluth, whose employees work at jobs where change is much slower than at, say, FaceBook. There is no long term tradition at Twitter, it hasn’t been around long enough. Conversely, Carnegie and the founders of BMW have been in the ground for at least a century. Life moves more slowly, more leisurely with time to reflect on what’s good about the past. I’m not sure that’s all bad.
So many ways to enjoy life. Living here in essentially a temperate Mediterranean climate, I tend to wonder how anyone can tolerate the climate elsewhere. Tee shirt weather in February. People live and prosper everywhere we travelled. Yes the humidity, and at times the heat, was oppressive, but … get over it and pass the grits. There’s a beautiful sunset, and the fried shrimp is delightful. Good times flourish in the company of friends… anywhere. Snowed in, roads not plowed till tomorrow. Light the fire, have a warm cup of chocolate and enjoy the dog. I know these are over simplifications; my point is that we all adapt and come to cherish our surrounding, regardless of seasonal severities.
So many with whom we spoke had migrated to the locale where we met them and had no desire to leave. From Los Angeles to the hills of Virginia, from Southern California to coastal Florida, to Pittsburgh, from Silicon Valley to South Carolina, from eastern Oregon, to Hood River. Uniquely, we are a nation on the move like no other people; maybe simply because we can. There’s so much open land. It’s easy to literally leave our problems and set out for a new chance, a new beginning. I was struck by how delightful many of these places were to live in, even though they didn’t possess the diversity, the life-changing dynamism of my hometown. I guess dynamism isn’t everything. Golly!
Obamacare? Thinking back over our trip, I realize we saw so many billboards advertising—I think, new or expanding—healthcare organizations as well as many brand new building complexes all over the country, particularly along the outskirts of cities and in rural areas. What caught my attention was that it seemed that many of the complexes were some sort of medical facilities. Overall it seemed as if there was a surge in healthcare provision. I’m wondering if it’s a result of passage of the Affordable Care Act; for it would seem that if millions of additional citizens are now going to have coverage, then there is probably going to be an increased demand for care provision facilities. I really don’t know if there’s a connection, but if there is, it looks to me that big businesses such as HMOs and insurance companies are moving in. Does the ubiquity of these complexes indicate an emerging “new medicine?” Like the family farm, is the solo medical practice to be subsumed by corporate-scale practices, the ones that built the complexes I saw everywhere?
The sheer size of it all. Thanks in part to the outcome of the Civil War, our union with its enormous land mass was preserved. Travelling at 60+ mph towing our Airstream was indeed a very slow, measured approach to seeing parts of the country. Even though we passed up an awful lot of interesting destinations, riding in our Suburban’s front seats we delighted in an ever changing, panoramic window on America’s beauty … most of the time. Got real tired of sagebrush in New Mexico, west Texas and eastern Montana, to say nothing of endless rice fields in northern California. But the uncountable lakes, all manner of forests, cities, beautiful bridges, mountain ranges, estuaries, rural towns wearing their histories, national parks (when open … thanks Boehner!) exceed my comprehension. There is simply so much of everything, so much to experience.
We must return to the road … stay tuned.
Paul
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Comments
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Truly outstanding and insightful commentary. My wife and I are embarking on a 4-5 month trek in January and your experience is inspiring. Thank you very much for sharing.
PoppyPosted 11-16-2013 at 08:28 PM by John&Vicki 
