Family Travel Friday

Visiting a dairy

Destination: Hit the U.S. Highways

Books: Kids Love Travel Guides by George Zavatsky and Michele Zavatsky

By Jennifer Close

When deciding which book to write about this month, I chose Kids Love I-75. Then I thought about sharing some information about Kids Love Florida. I was standing so close to my travel bookshelf that I couldn’t help but pull Kids Love I-95 off of the shelf. As I stared at these books, I decided to just share my love for the whole series by George and Michele Zavatsky.

My name is Jennifer and I am addicted to the Kids Love Travel books.

Jennifer Loves Kids Love Books

The Kids Love Travel Guides series has both Interstate Guides and State Guides. I particularly like the Interstate Guides because if you are going to spend some time driving I-75 and I-95, these are the books for you. Even in the age of smart phones and quick access to information, I love these Interstate Guides because they are filled with various stops at the many exits off of the Interstate. Both books include information about the different activities that can be found at each exit, hours, admission, whether they have food or restrooms, and more. The maps found throughout are my favorite parts of the book. Each map pictures the exits, what can be found at the exit like hotels, picnic areas and rest stops, and shows how far it is to the next exit.

Mayfield Dairy, Braselton, Georgia

Kids Love I-75 travels along the interstate from Michigan to Florida. We throw this book in the car anytime we will be on I-75. While traveling north on I-75 during one road trip, we were able to make family rest stops a little bit more exciting. When we were planning our trip, we referenced the book and realized that the Mayfield Dairy was right of the interstate. Instead of a quick bathroom stop where the kids ran around a grassy area, we were able to tour the Mayfield Dairy and treat ourselves to ice cream before the rest of the long trip.

The State Guides cover family friendly activities in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and DC, Michigan, Missouri, The Carolinas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and DC, Wisconsin and Tennessee. Kids Love Floridais broken up into the different regions of the state and includes activities for children. Each activity lists a brief description of what you and your family can do, admission prices, hours of operation, website address, phone number, location and any other pertinent information you might need before your visit. The best part about these books is that each activity has been kid-tested and kid-approved by Mrs. Zavatsky and her family.

The state guides are great for not only families who live in these states but also for families who are going to be visiting. We are planning a trip to Maryland and Virginia this summer so I am trying to decide whether or not I should get both state books or stick with the state in which we are going to spend the most time. I will probably just end up getting both books!

The Kids Love Travel Guides cost about fifteen dollars each and several are available for purchase via download from the Kids Love Travel website.  ( You can get some guides on sale for $12.95 right now at the Kids Love Travel website)

Note from Jennifer: I received  review copies of Kids Love I-95 and Kids Love I-75.  As always, my opinions are my own with no outside influences. Photographs belong to Jennifer. Please respect her copyright.

The giveaway books (plural) today are perfect for a road trip:  Kids’ Love I-95 (new edition) and Drive I -95 by Stan Posner and Sandra Phillips-Posner (2007 edition). Today’s prize  books go to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ before the deadline.  (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Monday, January 16, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete contest rules here.)

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Old Town San Diego

Destination: California

Book: California: On-the-Road-Histories by Victor Silverman and Laurie Glover

Interlink Books publishes hundreds of books that add depth to our travel.  I have raved here before about their Traveller’s History (eg. this one on Italy) series, which capsulize the entire history of a country. So I looked forward to taking a look at the On-the-Road-Histories, a series that will eventually cover all 50 states.  The publisher sent me a complementary copy of  California: On the Road Histories, their most current volume in this series, for review.

This brick of a book contains a very thorough history of the state that equals the size of many countries. I particularly like that it does not ignore the first people who inhabited California, because although the Spanish history provides a fascinating period and many interesting sites to visit, Europeans were latecomers to the varied landscape of the state. Kudos also for telling the bad along with the good.

It is rare to read a history that is as entertaining as it is informative. The writers refuse to take themselves–or their subject–too seriously.  Anyone who has driven through the desert community of Barstow, on the old Route 66, will chuckle at the following excerpt, although I’m sure the Chamber of Commerce is clamoring for an equal-time response. In a discussion of archaeological debates about the date of first residence in California, the book says:

” (Ruth) Simpson vigorously advocated the view that the stone chips were indeed tools created by people,  but most other anthropologists disagreed, rejecting the idea that people came to Barstow so long ago.  Why anyone would go there now is another story.”

Endless road

I have no doubt that historians everywhere are throwing their hats in the air, celebrating the freedom these writers have taken to express their unvarnished opinion. Because although history is always, in the long run, personal opinion, the serious historian must disguise her facts as neutral and uphold the myth that what they are writing is fact.

The book includes small featurettes, set aside in colored blocks, on interesting people who might not otherwise make it into the main narrative, contemporary quotations, song lyrics, and other snippets of information.  The authors have included fascinating historic pictures and reproductions of ads, articles, etc. to bring an immediacy to each of the periods they discuss.

Mural at Twenty-Nine Palms, CA of historic mining camp

What they do not include, however, are aids for someone who is actually ON the road, to put this knowledge of history to use.  One road map in the beginning of the book provides only an overview of the state–a fold out map indicating historic sites would have been nice. I wished for more of an indication of where one might travel to visit historic sites woven into the narrative, or closely associated with particular chapters, rather than a brief list of museums, Native American sites, fairs and festivals and history web sites. Why did they choose to list five pages of Native American sites, and none of Spanish missions and other sites from that and other periods? Why did they choose not to include some indication of how to find the sites they do mention? The book lists information by county rather than by nearby highway (Ahem, this is an on the ROAD book, after all.) In essence, the impression is that the series (I assume all the books follow the same format) simply points the traveler at the web rather than providing useful travel information in the book.

San Diego today

Granted, this is meant as background reading rather than a guide book. Then, please, do not call in “On-the-Road.”  I’m sorry that Interlink Books (whom I love dearly–and not just for contributing to Passports With Purpose) did not choose to include these books in their “Traveller’s History” series instead of implying there is something particularly suitable for road trips about the newer series.

Bottom line:  If you are taking a trip to one of the states covered by On-The-Road-Histories (listed below), by all means visit Interlink Books and add that state’s history to your travel library. It will enhance your understanding of the state and amuse you in the bargain. Just don’t expect it to help when you are actually on the road.

Other On-the-Road Histories:

• Alaska
• Hawaii
• Kentucky
• Minnesota
• Michigan
• Mississippi
• New Hampshire
• South Carolina
• Texas
• Wisconsin

Which of the Interlink On-the-Road Historiy states will be on your road-trip agenda for next year? We’re hoping for Alaska.

Note: All these pictures belong to me, some scanned from old print photos. If you would like to use any of these photos, please ask permission first.

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Destination: The American Road Trip

Book: Travels With Charley, In Search of America by John Steinbeck

By Edie Jarolim

John Steinbeck and Charley

Woe to the author who becomes a classic, especially one who has been awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature. The uninitiated reader — or the one who only knows the books assigned in high school — is likely to suspect that the author’s works are going to be Good For You, and therefore not much fun.

Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the delightful Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition) (Centennial Edition)by John Steinbeck, which I just read for the first time. Of course it helps that Charley is a French poodle. No book with a dog as a title character can take itself too seriously.

Steinbeck was famous for such novels as The Grapes of Wrath  and Cannery Row by 1960, when he set off on his journey from his home on Long Island, New York, to reconnect with America. He had spent a good part of the 1950s in France and England and was worried that he had become a stranger to the country that had inspired him to write.

I was a little concerned about the book’s potential for pretentiousness when I discovered that Steinbeck had named his custom-designed vehicle — part pickup truck, part RV — Rocinante, after the horse in Don Quixote. I needn’t have worried. Steinbeck not only chose the anti-hero who tilting at windmills to emulate, but he deflates his own literary conceit early on, writing: “I do not know how many people recognized the name [Rocinante], but surely no one ever asked about it.”

The real Rocinante, in The Steinbeck Center

That this memoir is neither heroic nor macho was one of the things that surprised me most about it. I’d imagined it was going to be a less druggy, more socially conscious version of On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Far from it. Along with having a dog along as a conversation opener — “A dog, particularly an exotic like Charley, is a bond between strangers” — Steinbeck observes that “the best way to attract attention, help, and conversation is to be lost.” Real men don’t ask for directions, and some of the funniest scenes in this book involve Steinbeck’s doing just that. When he inquires of a taciturn Maine state trooper where Deer Island is, the trooper only points, never speaks. And to the author’s annoyance, a cook at a roadside restaurant in the Twin Cities tells Steinbeck, who has been trying to find Sinclair Lewis’ birthplace, “Nobody can get lost in Minneapolis. I was born there and I know.”

He also talks quite often about his feelings of loneliness on the road. And he clearly misses the companionship of his wife. It has been said that this is the book of an old man (although Steinbeck was 58, which as we know is the new 40). If that’s so, viva maturity.

The other thing that surprised me was how contemporary this book felt. I’d expected a world preserved in amber, a quaint report from another era. Instead, this travelogue feels completely fresh, with Steinbeck complaining about the homogenization of the country, the increase of large highways, plastic wrapping, bland food…. Of a roadside restaurant he writes:

The food is oven-fresh, spotless and tasteless; untouched by human hands. I remembered with an ache certain dishes in France and Italy touched by innumerable human hands.

At the same time, Steinbeck is willing to be open minded about many of the changes in America. He visits people who live in a mobile home and, after listening to them extol the virtues of their life, muses: “Could it be that Americans are a restless people, a mobile people…the pioneers, the immigrants who people the continent, were the restless ones in Europe.”

Steinbeck’s reflections about the nature of his perceptions also struck me as being very modern — or post modern. There are many passages that give a vivid sense of place, but there are more that talk about the nature of the travel experience itself. Steinbeck readily admits his views of nature are based on his mood:

I discovered long ago in collecting and classifying marine animals that what I found was closely intermeshed with how I felt at the moment. External reality has a way of not being so external after all.

I could go on, but this is the first meeting of the Pet Travel Book Club and one of the key features of a book club is a discussion. I’m interested in knowing what you thought of the book, of course, but I’m also interested in some larger questions, spurred by an article by Charles McGrath published earlier this year in The New York Times: “A Reality Check for Steinbeck and Charley.” The gist of the article is that this memoir is really a work of fiction.

Travels With Charley Map at the Steinbeck Center

Does it matter? As a one-time literary scholar, it probably should to me but it doesn’t. I also suspect that Steinbeck might have ended up being berated by Oprah, as James Frey was, and I find that disturbing.

Do you think that the dialogue is stilted, as McGrath contends?

Do you think this is a dark book, as McGrath says?

This is an unusual book club. It is also meeting on Will My Dog Hate Me , where we will discussing the book as it relates to Steinbeck’s relationship with/depiction of Charley. I hope you’ll join us there too.

Next month we’ll be reading Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship

Note from VMB: What a great choice to kick off the pet travel book club! I’ve been a real Steinbeck fan, and I’ll reply in the comment section to the latest attack on him. But for now, if you want to see more at A Traveler’s Library, these posts were popular: Cannery Row , Steinbeck and McMurtry (with my own review of Travels With Charley), and a guest post by Jessie Vogts about an interview with the author of Steinbeck’s California, a terrific guide for travelers to Steinbeck’s homeland.

All photos here were taken by Vera Marie Badertscher at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. Please do not reuse without permission.  The title links to Amazon allow you to conveniently shop for Steinbeck books or anything else that strikes your fancy and at the same time earns a few pennies for Edie Jarolim. She thanks you. 

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Cape Breton Island

Destination: Nova Scotia

Book: My Famous Evening (2004) by Howard Norman

Howard Norman, American writer,  focuses on Nova Scotia  in this eclectic book. Like one of those patchwork quilts made of individual squares that tell facets of a story, My Famous Evening reflects Norton’s view of the essentials of Nova Scotia in an introduction and five essays/stories that “tell it slant” as Emily Dickinson advises.

He makes it perfectly clear in his introduction that he is “from away” as Nova Scotians refer to anyone not native to the province. (Donnie Campbell, musician at the ceilidh we attended at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, made a joke of it. He asked how many in the audience were “from away”– south of the channel that separates Cape Breton Island from the mainland of Nova Scotia.)

I enjoyed all of My Famous Evening, but the introduction in particular would have lured me to Nova Scotia, if I had not already been there. Norman talks about Leo Tolstoy and the house of Victor Hugo’s daughter in Halifax, places to go birdwatching, cemeteries where Titanic victims rest, ghosts and lighthouses–many reasons to plan travel to Nova Scotia.

Here’s an  excerpt from the introduction as Norman explains the book’s structure, “intersecting facets of reminiscence”.

Chapter One, “My Famous Evening,” has to do with the life and letters of Marlais Quire, a young woman who in 1923 left her home in Nova Scotia and traveled down to New York, in the decidedly ill-fated attempt to see the famous writer Joseph Conrad read from his works.

I did not get around to opening the Kindle app until late in the trip. My sister, Paula, and I were in the beautiful Des Barres Manor in the tiny town of Guysborough, on the northeastern coast of mainland Nova Scotia, when I finished the introduction and opened the first chapter.

Paula at the parlour bar at DesBarres Manor

I discovered that the story concerned a woman from Guysborough who wrote letters to her sister about her extraordinary experience. Eerie coincidence. I was very glad that I continued to read. Norman masterfully presents other people’s stories without undue interference, and he pretty much lets the rebellious woman’s letters speak for themselves, enhanced by  pithy comments from her sister, who was upwards of eighty when he interviewed her. What starts out sounding only mildly out of the ordinary, becomes a study in psychology and relationships and along the way sheds light on the provincialism of Nova Scotia in the early 20th century.

In Chapter Two, he is gathering people’s stories of  ”forerunners”–events that foretell the future, or spells to influence other people. The folk beliefs of any people shed great light on the region, and I found this chapter to be eye-opening.

Norman says, “Chapter Three, ‘A Birder’s Notebook,’ is an homage to the Bay of Fundy and the Mi’kmaq hero-giant, Glooskap, and provides a few Mi’kmaq folktales about Glooskap.” Norman is a devout birdwatcher, and some of the watching got a bit tedious for me, but still painted a picture of what to expect in this landscape.

Glooscap Statue, Glooscap Heritage Center (That tiny person is me.)

Since one of my own objectives was to learn about the native people of Nova Scotia, we had visited the Glooskap Cultural Center and bought some books of legends to add to the knowledge we picked up from the exhibits there. It was great fun to read the tales of the Mi’kmaq, that like all good folk tales explain the “why” behind natural happenings. Glooscap, like the Greek’s Hercules, or America’s Paul Bunyan, is a giant with a lot of work to do to help beings of normal size.

This book struck me as a conversation with a friend who has been to the place and knows it well–so much more rewarding than the sterility of a go-here-do-this guidebook. The final chapter of My Famous Evening, a memoir of a famous poet  and the epilogue, about a photographer who focuses on “the mood engendered by the landscape, bleak weather, and light in October, November, and into early December in Cape Breton..,” continue the charming conversation.

The whole book, original and seemingly random in its approach, sheds essential light on Nova Scotia, and the American author’s love of the area shines through every page. I highly recommend My Famous Evening for the traveler’s library and if you are going to travel to Nova Scotia, it is essential reading. (I’m not the only one who thinks so, this walking tour site recommends it, too. Click on their “Itinerary at a Glance” to see some of the places Paula and I visited.)

My trip to Nova Scotia was partly sponsored by Nova Scotia Tourism and participating hotels. I purchased the book for the Kindle app on my Netbook, but you can click on the link of the title and purchase your own hard cover, Kindle or otherwise at Amazon, and I’ll benefit by a few cents. Photos used here are my own, and I retain all rights.

**I would just like to add that I would also be happy if you bought this book and others about Nova Scotia from my friends at Longitude Books or your local Indie bookseller.

Had you heard of Howard Norman? Which of the excuses to travel that he talks about would be most alluring to you?

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Book: A Volume of Friendship: The Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabella Greenway 1904-1953, Edited by Kristie Miller and Robert H. McGinnis

Roosevelt Cottage at Campobello

“It has been such lovely weather that just to be alive was all one wanted….”  Eleanor Roosevelt in letter to Isabella Greenway in August, 1906. Isabella Greenway was the first female member of Congress form Arizona and built The Arizona Inn in Tucson which is still going strong.

When my sister and I decided to travel on a road trip in Nova Scotia, we looked at the map for our route, and noticed that Campobello Island sits on the Maine/Canada border. Canada and the U.S. have created an International Park at the old Roosevelt compound. I have long been entranced with Campobello, so glowingly mentioned in Eleanor Roosevelt’s letters, and we are both interested in politics and former Presidents, so we decided to make a slight detour to Campobello on our way to Nova Scotia. I had met Kristie Miller, the editor of the book, A Volume of Friendship, and have read three of her books. I went back to this one to remind me of Eleanor’s exact words.

In 1916, Isabella writes to Eleanor: “I picture you on your enchanted island.”

Dining Room of cottage near Roosevelts

My sister Paula and I knew that this trip was too short to do justice to the island. After all, the Roosevelts uprooted their household and moved all their children (eventually five), along with servants and all they needed to exist nearly every summer. My sister and I were only going to spend the night.

I was growing accustomed to managing quite a small army on moves from Washington to Hyde Park and to Campobello and back.  Eleanor Roosevelt in This is My Story, her autobiography.

At first they were staying with Franklin’s mother in her long-time summer home (purchased in 1883 when Franklin was one year old).

Eventually, “Mama” bought a 34-room “cottage” on 5 acres for Eleanor and Franklin and their “chicks.” Eleanor was delighted.

Franklin and I love our house. The view is too lovely, the sailing glorious, the weather deliciously cool, but of course, people, there simply are none.  Eleanor to Isabella, 1909

View from back of Roosevelt Cottage

The “no people” is a slight exaggeration, since the extensive Roosevelt family and friends tended to come and stay for weeks. But still, the isolation must have been a relief from their otherwise busy political life in Albany New York, New York City, and later Washington D.C.

The letters to Isabella Greenway in this book unveil a different Eleanor Roosevelt than the famous dynamo of later days. When Isabella and Eleanor wrote, they were young girls, and Eleanor was very shy and not at all interested in public life. Isabella Greenway was an enthusiastic, energetic young woman, who was soon to marry and have two children. However, her husband, Bob contracted tuberculosis and they settled on a ranch on the Arizona/New Mexico border.  After her first husband died, Isabella married John Greenway. Both her husbands had served in Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.  Tragically, Greenway died after only two years of marriage.

Isabella went on to become a politician–the first female member of Congress from Arizona–and Eleanor and Isabella shared their political interests as avidly as they once had shared gossip about friends and news about their young children.

After 1921, when FDR was diagnosed with polio after a swim in the cold Bay of Fundy left him feeling sick, the Roosevelts spent less time on the island. Instead, they went to Warm Springs, Georgia. FDR was elected Governor of New York State and then President of the United States and after he became President, he spent brief periods on the island according to this FDR web site

The Roosevelt home on Campobello Island is now an International Park.

Kristie Miller is a whiz at biography. I first read a book about her female relative, Ruth Hanna McCormick and her latest is Ellen and Edith, Woodrow Wilson’s First Ladies

There is no charge to visit the International Park, which is open most days from 10 am to 6 pm. We found that an hour and a half were adequate to see the Roosevelt cottage, the Hubbard cottage next door and the small museum, plus watch a short film in the visitors center. In nicer weather, we would have walked down to the beach behind the house. Mama Roosevelt’s home, where FDR grew up, is no longer there and most of the mansions and grand hotels have gone. However you can hike in parks and take sea cruises to whale watch. Change to Canadian money before you arrive on the island. There is no bank and the day we were there the sole ATM that took American cards was out of cash.

You should know: these photos are my property. If you are interested in reusing one, do get in touch.  My stay on Campobello Island was partially underwritten by the New Brunswick Tourism office. The book title is linked to Amazon for your convenience. If you click through to Amazon and purchase anything at all, I get a few cents which helps support A Traveler’s Library. Thanks.

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Transylvania

Destination: Eastern Europe

Book: On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe (2004, newly out in paperback) by Andrzej Stasiuk

So few of the place names in On the Road to Babadag were familiar, that I began to wonder if I had ever left the farm.

Satoraljaujhely, Hungary, near the Slovakia border

Actually, Andrzej Stasiuk, a Pole, wrote this for a Polish audience, who might have more of a clue than many geographically-challenged Americans about such places as Hidasnémeti, Sátoraljaújhely, Gönc, Chisnau (which my Word Press editing panel doesn’t even provide the proper accent marks for), or Baia Mare. But maybe not.

Of course I am reading about this unconventional road trip in an English translation of the original Polish (it was first published in French), but I still had that feeling you have when you can remember just a wee bit of the foreign language you studied in college, and you’re trying to read a newspaper. Lost. And getting lost in a new terrain is part of what On the Road to Babadag is about.

While Hungary teeters on the edge of the known world (in traveler’s terms), other Eastern European countries that obsess Stasiuk have been at war or closed by dictatorial leaders for long periods of time–Romania, Macedonia,  Croatia, Transylvania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia. And where does Moldavia fall on your must-see list of countries? (Just saying.) Since I have been addicted to Greece forever, I come with built-in prejudice against Albania, but I’ll be talking more about that poor benighted country in a future post about a terrific book I’m currently reading by an Albanian writer. Besides, Stasiuk says:

Yes, everyone should come here.  At least those who make use of the name Europe.  It should be an initiation ceremony, because Albania is the unconscious of the continent…Albania is the dark well into which those who believe that everything has been settled once and for all should peer.

On the Road to Babobab spills out lists of city names, snippets of scenes, a jumble of odd characters in stream-of-consciousness fashion. The book mesmerizes with its jumps through time and space and its lack of coherent narrative.  True, from time to time, Stasiuk fastens on one subject for a few pages–like the differences in money, or the way that people react to a certain event. And he always hones in on details that paint an indelible picture.

I finally took his chapter on maps as a hint, and sat with the Atlas open to the Balkans on my lap underneath his impressionistic book of travel memories. Aha! He was not just making up those places I had never heard of. They exist. Not only that, they must be pretty significant sized cities, or they would not be showing up on my Atlas. And as he says,

It is good to come to a country you know practically nothing about.  Your thoughts grow still, useless.  Everything must be rebuilt.

If you go with the flow– let the unknown names wash over you– before long you will be rewarded by one of his pithy insights. He likes to discuss place as metaphor.

We had gone to Nagykálló because, according to our guidebook, “at the end of a long and creepily empty square,” stood a psychiatric hospital. Which might be some kind of physically manifested metaphor, I thought, a metaphor for Eastern Europe.

On the Road to Babadag takes some getting used to for those accustomed to conventional travel memoirs that center on the experiences of the writer, because this one concentrates on the impressions rather than actions. He does not set the scene and tell us how many countries, what area, what population. He does not introduce himself. Although we learn some things obliquely, later in the book. He does talk about his own uneasiness with trying to capture something useful and on the uncertainty of memory.

Romania

He is not traveling to a popular destination and extolling its art, landscape, gourmet food, or opportunities for extreme sports. Instead he describes The Other Europe as a land that endures rather than achieves. He likes decay. He seeks out the Gypsies, people without a country. Me with my love of disintegration, my sentimental fondness for whatever doesn’t look the way it should, he says of himself.

Because these are disintegrating societies, he feels compelled to visit and record what he observes before time erases all trace.

This is not an easy book to write about. It was not an easy book to read. And yet it introduces an unknown half of a very well-known continent.  When I polled readers not long ago about what places A Traveler’s Library should talk about, someone suggested Eastern Europe. If you have an interest in Eastern Europe, and a taste for expressionistic writing, tackle On the Road to Babadag, a  literary travel memoir that deserves a place in a traveler’s library.

Disclaimers: The publisher provided an advance uncorrected proof. If you buy the book (using one of my Amazon links-hint!) it is possible that words I quote may have changed. The pictures all come from Flickr, and once more I am amazed at the arcane subject matter that can be found there. Please click on the pictures to learn more about the generous photographers who share.

For more on Andrzej Stasiuk, if you read Polish look at his web site. http://www.stasiuk.pl/

If you are stuck with English, then go to his Facebook Page.

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Notable Novelists

Notable Novelists. Isn’t it nice to have a truly portable game along that nearly everyone can enjoy? Of coures e a plain ol’ deck of cards always comes in handy, but here’s a card game for all the book lovers who read A Traveler’s Library. I hung on to this until I was going to a Payson cabin with my brother and sister-in-law, both of whom teach literature, because I thought they would particularly enjoy it. However, we discovered that you really don’t have to know anything about literature to play.

There are three “suits”, consisting of Author card, Bio card and and Library card (a list of works by the author). 18 authors like Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, T.S. Eliot are represented in clever drawings. Like “Go Fish” you ask another player for a card you need to make a set.

Most of the authors in Notable Novelists of the 20th Century are familiar, but one stumped all three of us.  Because we are all book worms, the game led to lively conversation, as we tried to gather up our own favorite, and my brother asked if he HAD to play a set of an author he despised. Younger folks (the game is recommended for 12 +) could play just for the matching fun without knowing any of the names–and who knows–maybe they’ll remember something afterwards. ($10.95) RATING: Winner for Travelers Who Read

Packing the EnviroSax travel pack

EnviroSax

Going from the strictly fun to the seriously useful, these three lightway, reusable, polyester bags fold up to practically nothing and unfold to hold a whole lot of stuff.  Their colorful designs include a travel pack of three cities: New York, Paris and Sydney. The bags are rated to 44 lb (20 kg), but the seams did not look all that sturdy to me, and I didn’t risk carrying something heavy like books. I used them on our cabin outing and one is presently stuffed with picnic things, ready to go on a moment’s notice.

EniroSax (Sydney) Packed for picnic

Since they are water resistant and washable, EnviroSax would be great for carrying things to the beach, holding wet items, stuffing full of your laundry on a car trip. Good for grocery shopping and a carryon for excess stuff coming home.  As a matter of fact, I’ll be taking them with me on my car trip to Nova Scotia in August. (24.95 for the set of 3) ( RATING: Winner (And cute to boot).

Grill Daddy Pro Grill Cleaning Tool

Not really something you’re going to put in your luggage, but this steam-cleaner for your grill might take up residence in a summer cabin, or ride along in the trunk (boot) of your car for emergency use when camping.  The brush on the Grill Daddy Pro is large and rather ungainly to look at, but the design makes it easy to manipulate. The theory here is that you fill the hollow handle with water, which comes out through the brush and creates steam, cleaning the grill more efficiently than a dry brush. It does that job. However, you can only use it right after you use the grill, because the grill has to be hot for it to be effective, an if you use it on glowing goals before you grill, they will be soaked instead of glowing. ($24.95–less on Amazon) RATING: CLOSE to Good,  But No Cigar

Smart for Life Green Tea protein bar

Smart for Life Green Tea Protein Bar – I’m always on the prowl for a good snack bar. Good to me means something that is high protein, no high fructose corn syrup, and actually doesn’t taste like cardboard. These Smart for Life bars have 18 grams of protein per bar with 190 calories, taste delicious, and have a minimum of suspect ingredients. Problem is, these are marketed as part of a weight loss program and cost $3.04 when you buy them in bulk at the site. $1.53 per bar for a dozen elsewhere. RATING: Good but expensive.

 
Supersmile Quikee - A little tube of tooth whitener/cleanser that you apply by rubbing it around with your tongue seems like a good thing to carry when you travel.  I tried it out, and it has a nice, mild taste, froths on the teeth like it is doing something, but obviously is a short term solution, as it does not clean the biting surfaces. I supplemented with a use of floss, since some of the Supersmile Quikee showed between my teeth. To be fair, its main claim to fame is whitening and I need to use it more to find out if that works.  ($16.00 at site; $10.99 at Amazon) RATING: Jury is out.

BONUS REVIEW

Sony Pocket E-reader

Kindle E-Reader

I won this Personal Pocket E-Reader in a contest, and certainly am under no obligation to review it, but some people have asked what I thought, so I’ll share my thoughts.

1. The Sony is, as advertised, extremely thin and lightweight, making it great for travel.  Of course in order to have it safe for travel, you should shroud it in a case, and the ones Sony sells go for $35-$50, more than I feel like spending at the moment on a reader that was free.

2. The touch technology works fine, and the screen with the newest technology of e-ink looks just like the screen on the newest Kindles. I have trouble remembering that I have to have an external light source, and don’t particularly like the gray of the screen. Even though it is adjustable, I can’t get it fine tuned to suit me.

3. I like the fact that I can connect through the Sony store to my public library and download e-books. I like that I can read e-books and PDFs as well as the formatted books the Sony Store sells.

4. The instruction book that comes installed on the device, and downloaded to your computer are well written and easy to follow.

5. HOWEVER, everything that happens away from the reader itself is awkward. What do I mean?

You can’t order books with WIFI as you can with a Sony or Nook. Instead you have to plug in to the computer, and it has to be a computer where you have downloaded your Sony store software. So forget it if you’re on the road and don’t have your own laptop along.

Somebody tried to buy me a book as a gift from the Sony store and they couldn’t even do that without downloading the store software to their own computer.

The Sony store needs to study Amazon.  Their search function doesn’t (function, that is).

You have to register your device, then you have to go through another registration process for the store. What is this? Don’t the divisions of Sony even talk to each other?

The gift Sony came with a gift card which I had a devil of a time using. Glitches happen, but I was particularly appalled when the screen kept saying “the server is down try later”—for three days.  Then when I called support, the unhelpful desk person said, “Yes, the server is down and they are working to fix it.” That was totally false, I later learned. I asked the marketing person to intervene and immediately got a helpful techie who set me up with the credit I was entitled to. But if I had not everyone can rely on the marketing department to solve their problems. It was distressing to say the least.

So I’d have to say that while the technology is whiz bang on this tiny little reading device (whose screen, by the way is the same size as other standard readers), I’m not impressed with the company behind it.

So what do you think? Any of the above products you would add to your summer travel list?

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Photography Website: Walking to Mexico by Jordan Bower

A GUEST POST by Dr. Jessie Voights

(Note: When I saw Jessie’s article about Jordan Bower on her web site, I asked her if she would share his wonderful adventure with the readers of A Traveler’s Library. No, it is not a book, but perhaps it will become one.)

Jessie says:

Recently at Wandering Educators, we featured a personal journey that resonates with me. Walking to Mexico is foremost a journey of connection. World traveler Jordan Bower has chosen to walk from Vancouver, British Columbia, all the way down the coast to Mexico.  I am so impressed with Jordan’s walk that I am constantly heading to his website, to see more photos and learn who he is meeting and learning from.  It’s all about sharing ideas and stories, faces and places.

Sharing Photos on the walk, Harbin Hot Springs, CA

I  love Walking to Mexico for several reasons: First, the photos that Jordan takes – and shares. He takes photos of everyone he talks with and the landscapes he sees.  Then, he prints the photos and shares them with the next people he talks with. It’s a circle of giving, of humanity meeting each other.

Jordan gets that travel – and life – is disconnected, due to distance, the internet, and our increasingly insular lives.  Or, as he notes, “our disconnection with the humanity in each other and in ourselves has left us bereft of the type of synergy that can develop into inspiration, creativity, and love.”

This journey is a tale of love, connection, of finding oneself and sharing that process with others. “What we really want, I believe, is a sense of home, a sense that our lives can be meaningful, a sense of being able to make a difference.”

Roosevelt Forest, CA

And his journey raises the ultimate change in narration we need to make, in today’s society:  “Which is to say that what we really need is a new type of story.  We are, after all, just the stories that we tell ourselves, and it’s clear that the pace of technological and ecological change has outpaced the development of even our brightest storytellers.”

Brookings Oregon, immigrant story

Jordan has encapsulated what the digital disconnect is doing to our society – and is trying to reach out and make a new sort of connection, using the Internet but also talking, listening, and learning. I’m listening and learning, myself – focusing more on slow travel for our family, and disconnecting to truly connect, again. If you’d like to read more of Jordan’s story, please head to Wandering Educators.

Jessie Voigts

Dr. Jessie Voigts is the Publisher of WanderingEducators.com and contributes each month to A Traveler’s Library. She has a doctorate in International Education, and is passionate about intercultural learning. She and her husband are Worldschooling their daughter, and enjoying every minute of it. She is also a nature photographer and lives on a lake.

The photos with this post all come from Jordan’s photo-filled website. You can click on each one to learn some more about the story behind it.

We have featured some other long-distance walks, but this one is certainly unique.  If you were going to walk across the continent, what would you personally wish to accomplish?

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Running on the Map

The Great American Road Trip: A directory

Are you planning a Road Trip? Here’s a state-by-state directory of the travel literature and travel movies we have recommended in the past 14 months, as we crossed the country on the Great American Road Trip. Find each one by plugging info into the search box on the far right.

Road Trip Across America from West to East

Hawaii: Shark Dialogues (novel) by Kiana Davenport, guest post by Kris Bordessa

♥Southern California: Farewell My Lovely (classic mystery) by Raymond Chandler

Northern California: Cannery Row (classic novel) by John Steinbeck

Nevada: Charlie Varrick (Movie) (bank heist movie)

Oregon: The Heart of the Beast (novel) by Joyce Weatherford

Alaska: Insomnia (movie thriller)

Washington: The Baker Brothers (comedy movie)Guest post by Beth Whitman

Idaho: Five Skies (novel) by Ron Carlson

Montana: The Way West (classic historic novel) by A. B. (Bud) Guthrie

Wyoming: Come Again No More (novel) by Jack Todd

Colorado: Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid (western movie)

Utah: The Mountain Between Us (novel) by Charles Martin

Arizona: Going Back to Bisbee (memoir) by Robert Shelton

New Mexico: The Guardians (novel) by Ana Castillo, My Town (novel) by Margaret Randall and Po’pay (history) ed. by Joe S. Sando and Herman Agoyo

Texas: The Last Picture Show (novel), Lonesome Dove (western novel, TV series)by Larry McMurtry. Guest post by Ruth Pennebaker

Oklahoma: Mountain Windsong (mystery novel) by Robert J. Conley

Kansas: In Cold Blood (classic non-fiction crime novel and movie) by Truman Capote

♥Nebraska: My Antonia (classic historic fiction)by Willa Cather

South Dakota: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (children’s book) by L. Frank Baum , a guest post by Kristen Gough

*North Dakota: Movie: Fargo (detective movie ), a guest post by Sam Lowe

Iowa: Movie: Field of Dreams (movie)

Minnesota: Vermillion Drift (mystery novel) by William Kent Krueger

Wisconsin: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (novel) by David Wroblewski

Michigan: Thank You, Mr. Falker (children’s book) by Patricia Polacco and Weird Michigan (humor, guidebook) by Linda S. Godfrey, a guest post by Kristen Gough

♥Ohio: The Thurber Carnival (classic humor collection) by James Thurber

The Great Lakes region: The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters, and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the GREAT LAKES (non-fiction travelogue) by Ted McClelland

Indiana: Movie – Hoosiers (Movie drama)

Illinois: The Book of Ruth (novel) by Jane Hamilton

Missouri: Puddin’head Wilson (clasic novel) by Mark Twain

Arkansas: Farther Along (novel)by Donald Harington

Louisiana: A Free Man of Color (historic mystery novel) by Barbara Hambly

Mississippi: The author William Faulkner (classic American novelist), guest post by Paul Kaser

Alabama: Gods in Alabama (humor, novel) by Joshilyn Jackson

*Florida: Nature Girl (mystery novel) by Carl Hiaasen

Georgia: A Man in Full (novel) by Tom Wolfe

South Carolina: Bull’s Island (mystery novel) by Dorothea  Benton Frank, a guest post by Margo Millure

*North Carolina: The Last Child (thriller novel)by John Hart

Tennessee: Movie – Nashville (classic movie)

Kentucky: No Heroes (novel) by Chris Offutt

*West Virginia: Movie – October Sky (drama)

Virginia: Sister Jane’s Foxhunting Books by Rita Mae Brown and Mrs. Murphy Mysteries by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown, (all mystery novels) a guest post by Paula Price

Maryland: Chesapeake Blue (romance novel) by Nora Roberts

Delaware: The Du Ponts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine 1900-1951 (non-fiction) by Maggie Lidz

♥New Jersey: Independence Day (novel, also movie) by Richard Ford

♥Pennsylvania: An American Childhood (memoir) by Annie Dillard

*Northern New York (Buffalo): City on the Edge (non fiction)by Mark Goldman

New York City: Charming Billy (novel) by Alice McDermott

Rhode Island: We’re There Rhode Island (children’s book) by Elizabeth S. Grumbach

New Hampshire: The Good, Good Pig (memoir)by Sy Montgomery

*Maine: The Lobster Chronicles (memoir)by Linda Greenlaw

Vermont: South of the N.E. Kingdom (memoir) by David Mamet

Connecticut: Ice Storm (Movie drama)

♥Massachusetts: Dogtown (non-fiction) by Elyssa East

♥*Kickoff of Road Trip: Blue Highways (road trip memoir) by William Least Heat-Moon

*The asterisk indicates the most popular posts from the Great American Road Trip. (An imperfect measure, since the ones at the bottom of the list have been around longer and have therefore had more opportunity to gain readers.)

♥Indicates my personal favorites

Don’t forget that for each stop on our road trip, Music Road supplied musical background. Take a jaunt over there and check out some of her great suggestions. Kerry has a beautifully written and useful blog, and I encourage you to check it out.

If you have a friend who could use this list, please let them know about it with the easy share buttons below. THANKS!

What was your favorite Road Trip post? Your own state or someone else’s? Where should A Traveler’s Library go next? I’m always open to suggestions.

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Hawaii Path, Kalopa State Park

Destination: Hawaii

Book: The Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport

A GUEST POST BY Kris Bordessa

Try as you might, when you plug a mainland address into Mapquest with an address ending on any of the Hawaiian Islands, you’ll get a message saying that they can’t find a suitable vehicular route. Very true. And yet, how can America’s 50^th state be left out of the road trip fun here at A Traveler’s Library?

♦NOTE: As with every state we have visited, Music Road provides the musical accompaniment. This time Kerry had a little help from Kris Bordessa’s son, a  musician in Hawaii. ♦

Hawaii’s the only place in the good old U S of A where you can catch views of red-hot lava flows and snow-capped peaks all in the same day. Suffice it to say that once you’ve made it to the islands, there’s plenty of road trippin’ to be had.

Hawaii is really two different places. For visitors, it’s very often a place to get away from it all. It’s hammocks and beaches and pink umbrella drinks. Hawaii is a fabulous vacation destination, but the nuances of the island are often lost on travelers with a limited time to spend here. They’ll get a kick out of the big Hawaiian guy flashing a shaka and chattering in Pidgin, usually incomprehensible to the uninitiated.

Hawaii Sunrise by Kris Bordessa

They’ll ooh and ahh over glorious sunsets

and run their toes through the sand,

Kaunaoa Beach at Mauna Kea

and they’ll be charmed by Hawaiian tunes plucked out on the ‘ukulele.

But beneath these visible elements of the islands runs a deep rhythm, a rhythm that often goes unheard by visitors intent on not missing a thing. The other Hawaii, the true Hawaii, has a rich cultural history. From the first human inhabitants of the island through an embarrassing overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States of America and the modernization of the most remote islands in the world, Hawaiian mythology has been a constant.

In Shark Dialogues, author Kiana Davenport offers readers a chance to discover the low drumbeat of rhythm that is Hawaii. While fictional, the novel depicts Hawaii’s history from the first missionaries to the modern era while presenting the stories of several generations of powerful Hawaiian women. Pono, family matriarch, kahuna, and central character in the book, laments the fact that her offspring have left tradition behind, marrying non-Hawaiians and scattering across the globe. When her four granddaughters converge on the Big Island, they discover family ties and a compelling connection with their island home.

Finally, she sat down with them, shoveling food between her great nicotine-stained teeth. Only then did Pono visibly relax. And in that magisterial repose, a signal: the other four relaxed, looked round the place, its windswept lanai. Only then did they glimpse the orchards, fields of “Kona snow” billowing out toward cliffs and far below the sea. Only then did they feel the ocean in water-haunted sunlight that lay across each room, making objects shiver. And only then did each woman feel impervious to the outside world, as the house closed round them.

With interwoven story lines, this saga explores the passion and heartbreak of relationships from the leper colony at Kalaupapa to the Yazuka, an organized crime ring in Japan, all the while paying homage to the mysticism of Hawaii. The book’s honest portrayal of the culture and diversity of the islands is an invitation to discover the heart of Hawaii.

If you’re planning a trip to Hawaii – or just dreaming of one – Shark Dialogues is a must-read. Peppered with Hawaiian language (a helpful glossary at the back of the book) and place names, the book wraps readers in an island breeze and submerges them in the blue Pacific. Listen closely and you might even hear that oft-missed rhythmic drumbeat of the islands.

Kris Bordessa

Kris Bordessa, an author and features writer, lives on the Big Island of Hawaii where she is working – day by day –  toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

THANKS, KRIS! Sounds like a great book!

Ken and I once took a road trip through Kauai  in a bright red convertible. It was so appropriate for that colorful and fun place. AND, we stayed in the hotel where Elvis filmed Blue Hawaii. (No longer in operation, I’m sorry to say). But for now, I’ll just watch the new Hawaii Five-O. The opening credits scenery is worth watching!

Next Wednesday, I’ll say a proper farewell to The Great American Road Trip, but for now, let’s concentrate on Hawaii. What’s your favorite island? Been there? Or just dreaming?

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