Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

A buddy who also likes to take road trips recommended this book to me recently.

This is a great book, that really captures the fun and stresses of a road trip in the late 70s.

William Least Heat-Moon finds himself in a situation where his world is kind of coming apart. With things not going his way he decided to get in his van and take a little road trip- around America.

He sets up some rules which make the trip very interesting. he only takes the blue roads marked on the map and he visits mostly the small, barely known towns.

I started reading this book knowing very little about it. I did not realize until some way in that William was writing about the late 70s. He's picking up hitchhikers and having the occasional beer as he drives.

There was something very notable for me that dated the book. Heat-Moon talks about driving near Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. He doesn't mention Mount St. Helens eruption. If you ever visit the area, you know that something happened.

Then it hit me that he is visiting BEFORE the 1980 event!

Heat-Moon deals with race relations, gets hassled by the cops, and gets kicked out of a college dorm. He has a very interesting adventure.

I use the word "dated" to describe this book, and I mean that very affectionately.

I know very well what it is like to take a road trip now. I might take a moment to program some addresses in to my GPS device. I might update my Ipod play lists, adding some regional music.

10 years ago, I might make some mix CDs, and use mapquest for trip planning.

In the 80s, a map book of each state I planned to visit and some cassette tapes would be involved.

I like reading about road trips from eras that I can't visualize easily.