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Why I Wander America

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When I retired, the last thing I wanted to do was go to an airport, let alone think about getting on an airplane. And for five years, I was successful.

Instead, I have spent those years wandering the back roads and small towns of America. Many times I have been driving slowly down a two-lane asphalt road on a sunny morning, to a place I have never been, awed by the world around me, and so grateful that I get to do this. On the back roads of America there is a peace I have not found any other place (except maybe this little cottage on the Molokai channel). I have experienced people, places and things most of you will never know.

Along the way, there have been experiences! I hunkered down on the Oregon Coast for a week-long “Pineapple Express”, then ran southbound ahead of a major snow storm; camped for two weeks on the Padre Island National Seashore until waves were breaking under the Airstream; explored most major Civil War Battlefields and was overwhelmed by Andersonville; drove old Route 66 from the lake to the ocean and one afternoon found myself “standin’ on the corner in Winslow Arizona”; followed the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails from Kansas City to their ends; walked on the ocean floor in the Bay of Fundy; sat on the lonely rocks of the Swiss Air 111 Memorial at Peggy’s Cove looking out at the crash site; had the illegal alien experience of wading the Rio Grande from Mexico to Texas without a passport; camped in the Bakken Oilfield; looked eastward from the easternmost point of the US; spent 2 weeks in the most isolated part of the continental US (Presidio Texas); and camped as a guest of several American farmers who literally feed the world. …and then there was this rainbow in Death Valley…

So I should explain why I spend half my time wandering around America.

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The Cute College Girl – A Fairy Tale

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Once upon a time, when I was in college there was this freshman girl, really cute, bubbly, smiling, attractive. She had a personality that drew people to her. Everyone seemed to like her. One Saturday night at a party I had opportunity to talk to her, just the two of us. Boy howdy, I thought, I was one lucky country boy!

We talked for a while. She laughed a lot. But her thinking was… different. She made non sequitur comments, that seemed deeply philosophical. She would say things like,

“Do you know a horse?”
“Well, My body is mine.”
“I just love long sleeve vests!”
“My past is not a burden.”
“I work at McDonald’s”

What? All the time she talked nearly nonstop, with conviction and the confidence that she knew exactly what she meant.

Was I too dumb or uneducated to understand her deep meanings? After all, I was just an unsophisticated kid. It did not take long before I was confused and intimidated. My confidence was shot. She was too smart for me! So dejected, I politely excused myself and moved on.

We shared a couple of classes early on. Her class comments received admiration from her friends but confused looks from professors who did not bother to question her remarks. I occasionally saw her over the years until graduation, always surrounded by “friends”, intent on everything she said. I became more educated and got a bit smarter during those four years, and finally came to understand that although she had great rote memory, she was not deeply intuitive or even intelligent. Her random language revealed her random thinking — her language was confused because her thoughts were confused. She simply could not think coherently. So why did so many people believe she made so much sense? It dawned on me one day that it was because of her winning personality and her ability to weave those nonsense statements into plausible sounding stories that appealed to what Kahneman called Thought System One. Her stories were simple and emotional, and people could easily follow those stories and believe her without questioning. That in turn made her feel invincible. People who thought analytically (Thought System Two) went away confused.

I lost track of her for many years and one day discovered she had become a lawyer, moved through many jobs, and acquired a national reputation and importance. She still told believable stories comprised of weird comments and frequent untruths. She was still surrounded by “friends” – even more than in college – many of them rich and powerful. I wondered how someone with a head full of cottage cheese had accomplished so much, when a line from a Beatles’ song came to mind…

“I get by with a little help from my friends…”

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Critical “Race” Theory

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It is Memorial Day Again.

Last Memorial Day I was on a boat in Charleston Harbor headed to Fort Sumter for a much-too-short visit. But today I saw a TV blurb about the delayed Indy 500, something I have not thought about for many years.

That took me back 65 years to 1959. Memorial Day was “Decoration Day”1 back then, and always on May 30, a Saturday, that year. I was mowing the grass with a gasoline lawnmower that you had to push. I was running with the mower so I could finish before the start of the Indianapolis 500 on the radio.2 Sid Collins, the “voice of the Indianapolis 500” until1977 would say, “and now, to start the greatest spectacle in racing, here is the President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony Hulman.” Then you would hear Hulman say loudly, slowly and emphatically, “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.”3 And even on the radio, the cacophony was overwhelming. I don’t remember much about the race, and only by looking on Wikipedia do I know that Roger Ward won in a Watson-Offenhauser, and Jim Rathman was second, also in a Watson-Offenhauser. But I listened to the entire race.

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Battles at Bull Run

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Two battles were fought at Manassas. The first in July, 1861, and the second thirteen months later in August of 1862.

I spent three days at Bull Run, walking the battlefields, researching the events and talking with park rangers and volunteers. Manassas is about the best curated of all the battlefields I visited. The National Park Service is trying to return the battlefields to the way they were when the battle occurred. That means removing trees and structures as well as planting trees and restoring or recreating structures. Manassas staff has made the most progress on these projects.

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Disruptive Civil War Technology

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If you manage any type of business, you likely have heard the term, “disruptive technology.” The term was first defined by Clayton Christensen in a 1995 Harvard Business Review article1 as having the following qualities.

  • A disruptive technology supersedes an older process, product, or habit.
  • It usually has superior attributes that are immediately obvious, at least to early adopters.
  • Upstarts rather than established companies are the usual source of disruptive technologies.
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Geekemeritus 2023 Review

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Note: This report was prepared in January, 2024, but due to a “Biden moment” (actually more than one), I thought I had posted it, but alas, had not. I only now discovered that.
So a little late, but here it is.

Well, it is the end of another year, one in which several long-time friends and family have died, and life has changed greatly for others. The reality of life’s brevity is finally coming to rest on me. Although I am not a fan of reliving the past, I think it is important to look at my year and revisit some of the events and savor those that were special in some way.

I covered a lot of ground in 2023 — About 10,000 miles, mostly on America’s byways. Only in the early 2000’s when I was flying between the US and UK have I traveled more. In the past 12 months, I…

  • Lived in the Airstream for 7 months
  • Spent time in 18 states and 4 Canadian provinces
  • Visited 11 Civil War battlefields
  • Camped in a World Heritage Site
  • Followed and explored the old Santa Fe Trail
  • Walked on the ocean floor
  • Climbed the Kill Devil hills
  • Camped on several American Indian reservations
  • Explored the original Manhattan Project site
  • Met many interesting people

Of all the places I visited, here is a severely limited list of stand outs.

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The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum

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2021-10-27

Evergreen International Aviation has a curious history. It was long considered a CIA front, but the founder, Delford Smith would not “confirm or deny” this. However, the fact is several of the company’s senior executives either worked for the agency or had close ties to it. Smith founded the company as Evergreen Helicopters in 1960. Over 50 years the company expanded to operate in 168 countries as both a private and government contractor. Evergreen has been associated with numerous high-profile activities from movies to forest fire water delivery. Beginning in 2013 the $1 billion company began chapter 7 bankruptcy and the assets were sold. The last fleet aircraft were several 747 cargo carriers, one of which (N479EV) was converted to an aerial firefighting tanker which flew numerous firefighting missions, until 2017 when it was destroyed for salvage. The final aircraft of the fleet, the Global Supertanker, ceased operations in 2021 and was converted to a freighter.

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Artist in Residence

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The little airport in the town where I grew up built a new terminal (even though it has no air service). It houses administrative offices, and a large cafe. But the thing that makes it unique – or so they claim – it is the only airport terminal in the US that has a built-in brewery.

Anyway, I recently came across a brewery that has an “Artist-in-residence.” The Hook Hand Brewery & Taproom in Williamston, NC is such a place.

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Some Memorial Day Thoughts

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Spending Memorial Day at Fort Sumter where the Civil War began reminded me that the first celebrations of Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day occurred shortly after at the end of the War, and one of the most remarkable was here in Charleston.

Late in the war Union prisoners were held on the infield of the race track at the Charleston Jockey Club. Over 200 died during the time and were buried in a mass grave behind the grandstands.

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