{"id":931,"date":"2015-07-14T14:24:27","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T14:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=931"},"modified":"2015-07-31T15:40:01","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T15:40:01","slug":"a-mid-summer-travelog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=931","title":{"rendered":"A Mid-summer Travelog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OWO-Skyline-2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The One World Observatory<\/a>, a highlight of my recent road trip<\/span><\/a> …<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Assiduous readers will notice that I hadn’t done a blog-post since last June 20.\u00a0 The reason:\u00a0 I took a two-week-long road trip, to points north including Atlantic City and New York City. \u00a0(Also known as the Big Apple<\/span><\/a>.) \u00a0 As always, such a pilgrimage<\/a>\u00a0can be both instructive and<\/em> enlightening – not to mention just plain fun. \u00a0There’s more on that below, but:<\/p>\n

In the meantime:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

One of my favorite books is John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0It’s about pilgrimages<\/a> in general\u00a0and driving<\/em> pilgrimages especially.\u00a0 (See also 12 miles offshore<\/a>.)\u00a0 So the\u00a0theme of this post is to treat my recent road trip as a kind of Reader’s Digest<\/a> condensed version – slash microcosm<\/a><\/em>\u00a0– of\u00a0Steinbeck’s book and\/or his travels.<\/p>\n

In doing so I’ll note some drastic differences between highway travel in 1960 and 2015.<\/p>\n

For one thing, for the price you pay to camp these days – as Steinbeck did – you can get a nice Motel 6 with AC.\u00a0 (And that’s tent<\/em> camping.\u00a0 For what you pay for an RV or travel trailer, you can stay at a lot<\/em> of Motel 6’s.)<\/p>\n

For another thing, I didn’t pack hunting or fishing gear for my travels, as Steinbeck did.<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/16\/Delaware_Memorial_Bridge.png\"I did<\/em><\/strong> pack – in my spandy-new 2015 Ford Escape – an 8-foot kayak, along with a stair-stepping stand and a 22-pound weight vest.\u00a0 (To earn my aerobic points<\/a> along the way.)\u00a0 In that kayak – for one – I\u00a0paddled across the Delaware River just below Wilmington. \u00a0(As seen at right, from the New Jersey side.)<\/p>\n

I also paddled (some) up the\u00a0Shenandoah River in Virginia, and through\u00a0some backwater “meadows” southwest of Atlantic City. \u00a0Last but not least, I paddled for two hours on a little hideaway, Carvins Cove Reservoir<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 (In Virginia, just outside Roanoke.)<\/p>\n

A third difference:\u00a0 I didn’t get lost as much or as easily as Steinbeck.\u00a0 (Or as he\u00a0said<\/em> he did.)\u00a0 Thanks mostly to my figuring out how to use the “map app” on my cell phone.<\/p>\n

And I didn’t have to stop at a\u00a0payphone<\/a>. (Remember those?<\/em>)\u00a0 Steinbeck had to stop at a phone booth every third or fourth day, to have a three or four-minute conversation and re-establish contact with the family “back home.”\u00a0 I had no need of that.\u00a0 The three branches of the family meeting at the Swedesboro (NJ) cemetery on July 2 – the main reason for the get-together in the first place – could maintain constant contact via cell phone, including “instant texting.”<\/p>\n

\"\"I did<\/em>\u00a0need to stop at local libraries, to use their computers. But only if I needed a secure connection, to check my bank accounts or – with the Ford being new – to make the first payment a few days into the trip.\u00a0 (At the\u00a0Hoboken Library<\/a>. \u00a0Hoboken – across the Hudson – was the family base for visiting Manhattan, seen at left.)<\/p>\n

And I wonder what John would have thought of cruise control<\/a>?\u00a0 (In either sense of the term…<\/em>)<\/p>\n

So , to set the stage: \u00a0Earlier this year my Utah brother sent an email saying he and his wife were visiting the Northeast<\/a>\u00a0in July, and would I like to join them?\u00a0 Naturally I said yes, especially when another reason was added:\u00a0 Laying our father’s ashes to rest in the family plot in Swedesboro, alongside those of his first wife – our mother – and our maternal grandmother and grandfather.\u00a0 (And other of their offspring.)<\/p>\n

The ashes had been left in the care of Dad’s second<\/em> wife.\u00a0 She in turn had died just last November 2014.\u00a0 So in the months leading up to the road trip, discussion was had via email about the interment, along with getting headstones honoring their service in World War II.\u00a0 (He was a navigator in the Army Air Corps.\u00a0 She was an Army nurse in Memphis, where they met.)\u00a0 And the memorial lent a certain gravitas<\/a><\/em> to the whole “joint venture.”<\/p>\n

Which makes this a good place to end the first installment.\u00a0 Except to note that one<\/em> place I wanted to visit – on the way home – was Reading PA, known in literary circles as “Brewer.” \u00a0This fictional Brewer<\/em><\/strong> is the setting of John Updike’s five books about “Rabbit” Angstrom, constituting an homage<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to each decade from 1960 to 2000. \u00a0See\u00a0On RABBIT \u2013 and \u201c60 is the new 30\u2033 \u2013 (Part I)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thus my trip emulated Steinbeck’s visit to Sauk Centre, Minnesota<\/a>, “metaphoric setting of [Sinclair] Lewis\u2019 satirical novel, Main Street<\/a>.” (See\u00a0On Oscar Wilde and \u201cgross indecencies\u201d<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

And one of Reading-Brewer’s notable landmarks is “the Pagoda,” seen below. \u00a0There’ll be more on that visit and others in the next installment. \u00a0(Like hiking 17 miles on the hard concrete sidewalks of lower Manhattan in our first day-and-a-half there.)<\/p>\n

\"Panorama<\/p>\n

The Pagoda<\/strong>, on top of Mount Penn, with Reading PA (aka “Brewer”) in the background…<\/em><\/p>\n

Notes:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

* \u00a0Not to be confused with\u00a0A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/a>, the comedy by William Shakespeare. \u00a0Written between 1590 and 1597, it’s one of Shakespeare’s most popular works, “widely performed across the world.” See\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>, and also\u00a0Travelogue | Definition\u00a0… by Merriam-Webster<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The upper image is courtesy of \u00a0One World Observatory: Curbed NY<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0It’s part of the article, \u00a0It’s Official: One World Observatory Will Open May 29<\/a>. \u00a0On July 13, 2015, that was five articles down from\u00a0Don’t Eat at One World Trade Center’s Sky-High Restaurants<\/a>. \u00a0And it was true that the place was crowded, prices were high and seating was at a minimum.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 Earning aerobic points along the way.\u00a0 The term “aerobics” – along with the need for cardio-vascular exercise in general – didn’t enter into popular use until 1968, some eight years after Steinbeck’s road trip.\u00a0 That was with the publication of Cooper’s ground-breaking Aerobics<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 See also Kenneth H. Cooper – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Delaware Bridge image is courtesy of https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Delaware_Memorial_Bridge<\/a>, which is apparently the German-language edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

The view-of-lower-Manhattan-and-Observatory is courtesy of oneworldobservatory.com\/experience<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The bottom image is courtesy of\u00a0Pagoda (Reading, Pennsylvania) – Wikipedia<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0See also\u00a0The Pagoda Reading, PA Home<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The One World Observatory, a highlight of my recent road trip …   Assiduous readers will notice that I hadn’t done a blog-post since last June 20.\u00a0 The reason:\u00a0 I took a two-week-long road trip, to points north including Atlantic City and New York City. \u00a0(Also known as the Big Apple.) \u00a0 As always, such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":95,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}