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If you ever hit the road, which book best captures your experience?

I haven't ever really hit the road, really ; except for once, in 1970, when I hitch-hiked from Miami to new York city, and from there to Pittsburgh, and then back down to Miami ; whole trip about a week. interesting. but then, it was sort of safe. besides I had a buddy w/ me who was a pretty tough cookie. I think I'd hate it as a life. but I can see a point to it in the case of the hobos ; especially during the Great Depression. they are today's homeless. but nobody gives a red-penny for the homeless, regardless of their plight, pain or history. the hobos came on at a time when this land still had some dignity and sympathy for the other. we've grown very selfish gold- worhippers and quite smug. our democratic foundations are crumbling. did you see ' Emperor of the North ' a movie w/ Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine ? Very well done. Guess that was so then...
joe

I read Kerouacs ' on the road ', but it - then - seemed a mumbo-jumbo of amphetamines and other additives inspiring the ' muses ' ( if there were any / anyone can scribble / and anyone can have an audience ) so, I just want to recheck. Someone whom I thought - and this is a personal idea - was a drifter was Mark Twain, but that dude was wise, and one whooping heck of a writer...so...that's it

one last comment : I think the road can be alright IF for a brief interlude, your Destiny crosses it. But as a way of life, no - not even nomads skipped ( or skip, 'coz there still are, like the Gyspsies ) around so much and so root and aimlessly.

Hi Joe . . .you're right, today it is a very different road than it was in Twain's day, or Jack London's, or Kerouac's . . .or when I was traveling it forty years ago. I think we tend to isolate ourselves more these days, so we are less accustomed to seeing those passing through, and more threatened by them as a result. Yet in a broader sense isn't "The Road" just a representation of the unique paths we all follow through our lives, whether we travel, or wander, or stay close to home? Seems to me that we've all got a road story to tell.

yes, I agree. I, though Christian, often call my way the Tao, and the Tao is simply that, ' the Way.' wonderful and ineffable, the Tao, though mystically united with the All, is personal. I like it when Robert Frost says ' two roads diverged from a wood, I took the less traveled one - and that has made all the difference.
but, aside from the symbolism, being truly on the road as a way of life must be rather harsh, raw, and leading often to unexpected, difficult situations. I am rather a less nomadic type, though for the first 33 years of my life I traveled far and wide internationally. then I said to myself - I must grow roots. but we - mankind - are not trees, and like it or not must move, in time in space, if you wish.
I also remember something Blaise Pascal said : " Man is the only creature ever in movement, who'd like nothing better than a solid place to rest. When he thinks he has found it, the earth opens up beneath him and he is plunged irremissibly into the abyss." Sound too morbid, tragic ? I don't think so. There's life and there's death, there's sickness an health, there's truth and there's lies; and we must subsist in the midst of it. the thing is to choose sides, and stick to it.