Jean Harkin's Blog - Posts Tagged "rocinante"
On the Road Again--with Harry and John
Escaping from the cloister of pandemic, I enjoyed two more road trips through books (two in previous blog.) Recently I traveled with President Harry Truman and his wife Bess in his 1953 Chrysler from Independence, Missouri to Washington DC, New York, and Philadelphia.
Next, I rode in a souped-up camper/pickup with John Steinbeck and his French poodle, Charley, from New York across the northern half of the USA, then down to California before following a route through Texas and the South, back to their New York home.
“Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip” by Matthew Algeo tails the Trumans on their road trip back to DC three years after Harry left the White House. He loved to travel, loved cars, and he and Bess wanted to travel like private citizens on a road trip with Harry driving his new car. He was the last ex-president to try such a stunt, and probably the first and only. Indeed, it was an adventure, well explored, researched, and written with down home humor by Algeo.
John Steinbeck wrote “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” in 1960, only seven years after the Trumans’ round trip. John’s purposes for his solo trip included 1) to prove he could after several troubling health issues—he was 58 years old, and 2) to explore the landscapes and gain new perspectives on the character of the American populace.
Charley was a companionable, reassuring presence for John, who could read the dog’s body language. They traveled well together, encountering a cross section of Americana and finding a diversity of unique individuals and some humorous adventures. It was interesting to read that in 1960, on the eve of a presidential election, the political chatter was subdued and discreet in contrast to 2020. The travelers found little discord in society until they were gobsmacked by “the naked face of racism” in the South.
If John had encountered Harry coming or going across the USA, he would have enjoyed a conversation full of political opinions and wry humor. And Harry would have found John to be a good listener, non-judgmental observer, concerned citizen, and an equal with a sense of humor.
Harry would have expounded on the upcoming Nixon-Kennedy presidential election. Harry was known to hate Nixon, so would have favored Kennedy despite antipathy for Kennedy’s overbearing father. And, loving cars, Harry would have been fascinated by John’s rigged-up conveniences in his specially designed camper topper “Rocinante.” Being an avid reader, Harry would have appreciated the camper bearing the name of Don Quixote’s horse in Cervantes’s picaresque adventure tale.
The two men could have settled comfortably in Rocinante and visited over a cup of coffee with a dash of whiskey while Charley napped and Bess went off to have her hair done in the next town. If Charley had words, he could have topped the conversation by snarling his opinion about bears in Yellowstone.
That makes four road trip/book adventures for me since last fall (all reviewed here on Goodreads.) I am open to suggestions for further road trips. Something in a foreign land, perhaps?
And once we all return to actually traveling again, you might like to take along an audiobook of a road trip. A Goodreads reader recommended Gary Sinise’s audiobook of “Travels with Charley,” noting that Sinise’s voice was a perfect fit for John Steinbeck.
From my November road trip, an audiobook is available of “The Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road” by Finn Murphy.
Next, I rode in a souped-up camper/pickup with John Steinbeck and his French poodle, Charley, from New York across the northern half of the USA, then down to California before following a route through Texas and the South, back to their New York home.
“Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip” by Matthew Algeo tails the Trumans on their road trip back to DC three years after Harry left the White House. He loved to travel, loved cars, and he and Bess wanted to travel like private citizens on a road trip with Harry driving his new car. He was the last ex-president to try such a stunt, and probably the first and only. Indeed, it was an adventure, well explored, researched, and written with down home humor by Algeo.
John Steinbeck wrote “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” in 1960, only seven years after the Trumans’ round trip. John’s purposes for his solo trip included 1) to prove he could after several troubling health issues—he was 58 years old, and 2) to explore the landscapes and gain new perspectives on the character of the American populace.
Charley was a companionable, reassuring presence for John, who could read the dog’s body language. They traveled well together, encountering a cross section of Americana and finding a diversity of unique individuals and some humorous adventures. It was interesting to read that in 1960, on the eve of a presidential election, the political chatter was subdued and discreet in contrast to 2020. The travelers found little discord in society until they were gobsmacked by “the naked face of racism” in the South.
If John had encountered Harry coming or going across the USA, he would have enjoyed a conversation full of political opinions and wry humor. And Harry would have found John to be a good listener, non-judgmental observer, concerned citizen, and an equal with a sense of humor.
Harry would have expounded on the upcoming Nixon-Kennedy presidential election. Harry was known to hate Nixon, so would have favored Kennedy despite antipathy for Kennedy’s overbearing father. And, loving cars, Harry would have been fascinated by John’s rigged-up conveniences in his specially designed camper topper “Rocinante.” Being an avid reader, Harry would have appreciated the camper bearing the name of Don Quixote’s horse in Cervantes’s picaresque adventure tale.
The two men could have settled comfortably in Rocinante and visited over a cup of coffee with a dash of whiskey while Charley napped and Bess went off to have her hair done in the next town. If Charley had words, he could have topped the conversation by snarling his opinion about bears in Yellowstone.
That makes four road trip/book adventures for me since last fall (all reviewed here on Goodreads.) I am open to suggestions for further road trips. Something in a foreign land, perhaps?
And once we all return to actually traveling again, you might like to take along an audiobook of a road trip. A Goodreads reader recommended Gary Sinise’s audiobook of “Travels with Charley,” noting that Sinise’s voice was a perfect fit for John Steinbeck.
From my November road trip, an audiobook is available of “The Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road” by Finn Murphy.
