Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon ~ March Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome.

March Book Club Online ~ Starting  March 3

Blue Highways - a Journey into America
by William Least Heat-Moon

This should be FUN!  Whether you decide to read and discuss William Least Heat-Moon's classic 1978 travel account  or share your own memories of the "blue highways" of America, you will probably leave winter doldrums behind -  in your driveway. Heat-Moon coined the term to refer to small, forgotten, out-of-the-way roads connecting rural America (which were drawn in blue on the old style Rand McNally road atlas). The book chronicles the author's 13,000-mile journey and the people he meets along the way, as he steers clear of cities and interstates, avoiding fast food and exploring local American culture. His book was on the NY Times’ best seller list for 42 weeks in 1982-83, and its title became a cultural code word for a journey of introspection and discovery.     Some questions we'll explore:      *  What's left of the country stores and cafes on the old blue highways?    *  Do you have photographs?

Discussion Schedule:    Part One ~ March 3-7  (Eastward)      Part Two ~ March 8-11  (East by Southeast~The Carolinas)   Relevant Links:    Read Blue Highways Online (opening chapters) ;    Least Heat Moon's route map (interactive) Interview with Least Heat-Moon "Be a Traveller, not a Tourist" QUOTES noted from Blue Highways

Some Topics for Discussion
March 8-11 Part Two East by Southeast

Let's bring in our own experiences and observations whenever possible.
Also, let's continue to  keep a list of  Least Heat-Moon's  philosophical observations, which make this so much more than a travel journal.
 (Just post your favorites and we'll add them to a list.)
 

 1. When he reached North Carolina,  Heat Moon  "realizes he has been retracing the migration of his white-blooded clan from North Carolina to Missouri."  Does this suggest his choice of this route to you?

2. Have you ever set out to trace your ancestry? Were you successful?  Do you think this was  William Least Heat-Moon's intent?  He did carry that photo of a tombstone in his pocket?  Did he learn anything at all about his ancestral grandfather who migrated to Missouri?

3. Do you find his vocabulary usage, visual pictures, character depiction, becoming more colorful as he moves further into North Carolina? Can you share any examples?

4.  Were you aware of the extent of Dickens' travels in the US?  Why would he stop in Manteo?  What was the significance of Fort Raleigh on Manteo? Do you know of the Croatan mystery?  

5. North Carolina Highway 264 - stands of loblolly (?), fishing towns, Bath, New Bern - and into the Deep South.
Nothing open on a Friday night. Do you think those teenagers will stay in Wallace or migrate to a bigger town?

6.  South Carolina 34 - Are there any signs of Reconstruction along this roadway besides Heath-Moon's description of the remnants of the reconstructed south - sharecroppers cabins, artesian wells.  And fields of kudzu?

7. Do you think the "Old Ninety Six,"  astride the  Cherokee Path and its trove of relics,  can survive in federal hands? - What was the significance of this trail? Is Least Half-Moon finding what he has been seeking?

8.  Rt. 72 "Land of Coke Cola" to North Georgia  - (Did you stop at Swamp Guinea's Fish Lodge?  Did you learn the meaning of the name?)
 Would Heat Moon have stopped at the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit  if not for the cross  on the water tower he spotted from the road in Conyers GA on Rte. 2?     Can you imagine Least Heat-Moon a monk?

Contact:   JoanP  

[maryz]

My husband is of the other kind - he hates to be bound by a schedule.  Even when we have a finite amount of time to get from point A to point B, we rarely reserve ahead.  We have dear friends that we never travel with.  He's one who not only wants to know where he's going to stay that night, he plans where he's going to eat dinner.  Definitely not our kind of traveling. 

[CallieOK]

Me, again.

I have just read - and printed out - the interview between Phil Caputo and Least-Moon.  Interesting observations.  I plan to see if "The Longest Road" is available at my library.
Another book I think would make a good "companion read" to this discussion is "Roads" by Larry McMurtry.  He explored the Interstates in 1999 by flying to the "outmost point" of a particular Interstate, renting a car and driving back to his (then) home in Archer City, Texas.  Interesting to compare his observations with Least-Moons; some of them are similar.

 I need to amend my comments about chatting up people in rural diners, stores, etc.  Those of you who have commented on conversations with waitresses are correct - and I think individuals such as Least-Moon wrote about are more willing to visit about themselves than, say, a table of "locals" who are engrossed in their own conversation.

[JoanP]

Maryz - can you hear Annie and me - fighting to swap husbands with you!

"- Heat-Moon/Trogdon seems to be focusing on a certain type (maybe stereotype) of places and people for his longer stories."Callie
b]Callie[/b], when I read some of these longer observations I wonder how he remembers all the details...right down to the local slang and accent.  Then I remember some of the things he packed for the trip...
1 satchel of notebooks, pens, road atlas, and a microcassette recorder; 2 Nikon F2 35mm cameras and five lenses;
Do you think he had a book in mind when he began this trip?

Now that you mention it, it seems that he is chatting with individuals, rather than entering into conversations with a table full of locals.
What type interests him?  You may have put your finger on it when you suggested that he's looking for stereotypes of each region.  (I like the way he's including the birds and the trees in each area too. What's a catalpa?)

[JoanP]

"I see no signs, though, that he actively was seeking out Native American sites on his travels." Fry

He did say at the onset that he's looking for his roots.  Annie asks if you'd   drive down that road and walk to his great, great grandfather's gravesite? So, if not his Native American roots, then maybe he's looking to learn more about the Trogdon side of the family?  
 Do you think he grew up among the Osage in MO?  If so, he might know very little about the Trogdon side of his family.(Fry, I didn't mean to say that the author ever revealed the name of the Cherokee wife...was just wondering what her name would be if married to William Least Heat Moon Trogdon...)

Morristown - and don't skip Jonesborough, before we leave TN.  That town has an interesting history.  Then we'll catch up with Sally in the Carolinas tomorrow.  Have you been to Jonesborough, Maryz?   Looks like what I imagine many little towns in TN to look like?

ps Do we have a clue yet as to what made him choose to travel around the perimeter of the country, avoiding the interior?

[maryz]

JoanP - sorry, not interesting in trading.  I've had him for about 57+ years, and I'd hate to have to break in another one.   

Click here to read about a catalpa tree.  They're really messy trees to have in your yard, with big leaves and long seed pods to have to deal with. 

I'm sorry to say we've not been to Jonesborough, TN.  They have a long history of story-telling, and a story-telling convention every year.  Click here for more about that town.

We have, however, been to Rugby, TN.  Click here.  It was a long time ago, though.  Fascinating story about its founding.

[maryz]

JoanP - sorry, not interesting in trading.  I've had him for about 57+ years, and I'd hate to have to break in another one.   

Click here to read about a catalpa tree.  They're really messy trees to have in your yard, with big leaves and long seed pods to have to deal with. 

I'm sorry to say we've not been to Jonesborough, TN.  They have a long history of story-telling, and a story-telling convention every year.  Click here for more about that town.

We have, however, been to Rugby, TN.  Click here.  It was a long time ago, though.  Fascinating story about its founding.

Least Heat-Moon didn't stop there.

[CallieOK]

From a Wikipedia biography of William Least-Moon:  "born of English-Irish-Osage ancestry in Kansas City MO.  Earned a BA, MA, and Doctorate in English at the University of Missouri, as well as a Bachelor's in photojournalism.  Member of  Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
Lives in Rocheport MO, on the Missouri river 10 miles west of Columbia (location of Univ. of MO)

 Here's a link to the Osage tribal history http://www.osagetribe.com/historicpreservation/info_sub_page.aspx?subpage_id=14  Scroll through to see their migration history.
.

Maryz asked, do you think he had a book in mind when he began this trip?  With this background, I suspect he always travels with equipment for taking notes and pictures that could lead to a book.

Annie asked if we would travel down a country road to locate a grave.  Absolutely!!!!  Even though my husband was generally a "Point A to Point B" traveler, he was also interested in genealogy and we took several trips that concentrated on searching for ancestral graves.  Had he lived into retirement years, I feel sure we would have continued to do that.

How would you describe the type of people he has written about so far?  Hicks?  Dumb?  Uncultured?  Or do you see wisdom and an understanding of the human condition?

[JoanK]

JoanP posted the quote I was going to post. But I carried it on:

"A man becomes his attentions. His observations and curiosity, they make and remake him." Do you think that's true?

Here's another "New ways of seeing can disclose new things....Do new things make for new ways of seeing?"

Here is a paradox: Heat-Moon is all about seeing new things, finding new ways of seeing. And yet he celebrates to old couple who have happily lived in the same place, running the same grocery store, their whole lives. (Of course, he also celebrates the man who is building a boat to satisfy his dream of sailing away).

[JoanK]

"What type interests him?" I'd bet he chose which interviews he included and which he didn't. I feel he shows us people who are content with their lives sharply contrasted with those that aren't. The ones that are content so far consist in people who are like the blue highways, living in an older culture. The discontented are those in the modern culture (the engineer) or who wish they were (the bored teenagers with nothing to do).

[ANNIE]

Since I read the book covers, I was pretty sure that he was going to see something different using the blue highways, instead of the freeways, but with his background,  an English professor w/doctorate plus a degree in Photo Journalism, I just took it for granted that he was going to collect whatever came up, even using the tape recorder.  I believe he mentions that it took him 3 months to make the trip and four years in a library, to write the book.  I wonder if he was still living in his Ghost ?.   A homeless man with a bed of his own available every night.   Maybe he parked in the library parking lot??  Hahahaha

It sounds like he was very respectful toward the people he interviewed and I think he chose what he thought would interest the readers and that they might become fans of his writing.  I think any author would does the same thing.   

I thought I asked if you would travel down a road to see your gggrandtfather's grave, meaning,  "Would you(as a single woman) travel at dusk down that road which was a loooong walk in the woods, knowing that you would be walking back in the dark? In a territory that you knew little to nothing about??"  Not me, don't think so!

I have been working on genealogy for about 30 years and I take a good look around before I investigate any unknown cemetery.

[CallieOK]

AdoAnnie,  I probably misread your question.  No, I wouldn't walk into any woods alone at dusk for any reason. 

I suspect there are a lot of tales that he didn't use in this book.  I like the way he picks one for the story focus.

 

[ANNIE]

Don't miss MaryZ's link to Rugby!!

I think we need to make plans to go to MaryZ's hometown and make a day trip or better yet, stay in one or two of the B&B's for a night or two in Rugby..  Anyone else getting their traveling genes up and ready to leave today?  Don't miss Rugby.  And afterward, we will see the towns that MaryZ does know about and she will be our leader!  We must wait for Rugby to open its historical village after March 10, I think.  

[maryz]

Come on down!

[nlhome]

Pedlin, I think we must have passed close to Elsah, if not through it, on our way south last summer. I'll have to put it in our itinerary for our next trip.

My cousin, a woman my age, and I were in North Dakota a few years ago, looking for our great grandmother's grave and for our grandmother's childhood home. It was dusk, and we certainly would have taken the opportunity to walk out to the grave - but it was the year of much much rain (2008) and a tree blocked our way on the country road, so we weren't able to get to the grave or the homestead. Don't know if we'll ever get the chance again - we were certainly off the beaten track.

My husband and I are great talkers when we are in our local coffee shop and when we are on the road. We've had some wonderful conversations. About a year and a half ago, when he and our daughter-in-law and granddaughter were traveling to Georgia to welcome our son home from Afghanistan, they stopped in a restaurant in Indiana. The waitress was friendly and they chatted and told her why they were making the trip - dinner was on the restaurant that night. I don't remember the name, but he has it in his computer and we also got a Christmas card from the owner, because my husband sent a letter to the newspaper down there, thanking the restaurant for being so kind.

[ANNIE]

What a heart warming story, NL!  There are good people no matter where one goes!

[JoanP]

So far, we have evites to Rugby, TN, (as long as we don't flirt with MaryZ's husband), and the Great River Road - with lunch reservations at Elsah's.  Not bad after the first leg of the journey. I'm really enjoying your stories too as we move along the road.  Thanks for the picture of the Catalpa tree, MaryZ.  I've never seen anything like them.

"It sounds like he was very respectful toward the people he interviewed."

 Annie  Yes, he does - and the people he's meeting are not as highly educated as he is.  In return, they are curious about him, including him in their private lives.  He must not be threatening or condescending  in any way.

"I feel he shows us people who are content with their lives sharply contrasted with those that aren't."  JoanK

 I've noticed that too, Joan. A question for you - does the author feel the same contentment with his own life?  

 You asked if we think this is true - "A man becomes his attentions. His observations and curiosity, they make and remake him."  Maybe this is part of the healing process - maybe he will come home as content as these people he meets along the road.

Sometimes it's hard to understand living in such remote places - though they all seem to crave, and receive the social interactions where they are.  Most of the contented people we have met are older folks - I have read ahead, and wonder about those teenagers he meets in Wallace, North Carolina will feel that way, ever!  

Are you ready to head into NC?  I've lost all track of time since Easter.  Did you notice the carloads of families heading to the beach?  I spotted beach balls crammed in with the kids...

[JoanK]

JoanP: " does the author feel the same contentment with his own life?" Clearly not -- it has fallen apart, his marriage and job (possibly his career as a teacher, given the competition for academic jobs) both gone. He's looking to figure out how to live his own life.

[JoanK]

He talks about being in the Piedmont. The term seems to be used widely in North Carolina. But I became familiar with the term in Maryland, through a book written by the son of Arthur Godfrey (who he refers to in the boo k as a Piedmont farmer, but some of us remember as a radio/TV personality).

I couldn't find the old book I had, but kindle has an updated edition "Field Guide to the Piedmont" by Michael Godfrey. The Piedmont is a strip of land running in a loose S south from New York to Alabama, 25 miles wide at its narrowest (in D.C.), a hundred miles wide in Georgia and Alabama. It's with goes from the fall line (for example Great Falls) West to the mountains. You can tell if you're in the Piedmont if the land is rolling and the soil is red clay with lots of rocks.

The line between the Piedmont (red clay soil) and the coastal plain (sandy soil) runs right through the middle of DC, and up  Georgia Avenue in Maryland. You can tell when you cross it, because the land gets flatter and the vegetation changes color. The grass is literally greener in the Piedmont, and social class follows, with the poshest areas all in the Piedmont.

I grew up with that vibrant green vegetation, and trees elsewhere never look right to me. I was fascinated to learn that it's all based on what's under the earth, and what happened to the land (an ancient mountain chain) millennia ago.

[maryz]

The term "piedmont" is commonly used in Virginia and the Carolinas, not so much in Georgia or Alabama. 

[ANNIE]

Well, I lived in Georgia for many years, in northwest Atlanta suburbs, where the land rolls and the soil is red clay and full of rocks.  So, I believe that I must have lived in the Piedmont area of Georgia.  We had a hard time getting used to the soil but we learned that if the right things were planted and encouraged with proper watering and good fertilizer, most things would grow and grow and grow!   And there's nothing greener than what grows well in the red, rock filled soil of some parts of our country, especially in Georgia.

[Frybabe]

I'm probably a little ahead, since we haven't talked about his Outer Banks jaunt, but before I forget, I wanted to list these websites for Ninety Six, SC. Since the park ranger talked about the future development of the Star Fort, I wanted to see just what they did with it since Least Heat Moon visited it.  The first has a nice little video, the second is a history of Ninety Six in the 1700s.
 http://www.townofninetysixsc.com/
 http://www.carolana.com/SC/Towns/Ninety_Six_SC.html

[CallieOK]

Thank you for those links, Frybabe.   That's an area I have longed to visit but have not been - and now, will not be - able to do.

He's moving across a big area very rapidly!  Of course, he has a long way to go!

I haven't quite formed an opinion about his choices about whom/what he will include in his narrative.

[JoanP]

Callie, I thought for a while there that Least Heat Moon might have set out on this journey to learn more about his white ancesters.   He wrote about the "blurred photograph" of the first immigrant, William Trogdon's tombstone....said he grew up determined to find that tombstone someday.  Now he  learns that the grave is underwater - and that the original stone had been moved to a nearby museum. Two things surprised me about this North Carolina visit.  He learns that William Trogdon was shot  - and then buried by his SONS right there where he fell.  I get the feeling that he knows more about those sons than he's telling us.  If he knew nothing more, wouldn't he have spent more time looking for this branch of the Trogdon famly and their offspring there in North Carolina?  
The other thing - he's told that the original tombstone had been moved to a nearby museum...and yet he doesn't stick around long enough to find that tombstone he grew up thinking about.  Did you think that was a bit odd.  I know if I'd come such a distance, and this was my destination, I'd do some research while I was there.  In fact, I have done it - would love to do more.

I'm think beginning to understand why he has chosen this circular route, rather than take an east-west trip across the mid-section of the country.  Need to think about it some more.

I'm wondering about his choices of the characters he chose to include too.  I'm curious to see if there is a thread that is stitching their stories together.  I'm ready to believe that he's not looking for any more Trogdons in North Carolina - that after the death of William Trogdon, the whole clan got out of their - migrating to MO.  
In North Carolina, he learns  his ancestral grandfather was shot and killed for no apparent reason by Colonel Daniel Fanning...Maybe he's here to find out WHY  it happened, rather than to find the original tombstone?

Here's some background on Daniel Fanning:
He moved to the Pee Dee area of South Carolina when he was about 19 and eventually became an Indian trader, becoming acquainted with both the Catawba and Cherokee. At some point near the beginning of the Revolution, he claimed a group of Whigs attacked and robbed him, resulting in him becoming a rabid Tory (loyalist to the British Crown).

Throughout the Revolution, Fanning wreaked havoc upon his Patriot adversaries, joining with both the British and Cherokee in his exploits in South Carolina. Whig forces captured him repeatedly and he escaped just as often.

By 1781 he had made his way back into North Carolina, following Lord Cornwallis’ troops. He set up camp near Cox’s Mill on the Deep River in present-day Randolph County, launching repeated attacks on area Whigs. The hostilities in central North Carolina as a result of clashes between Fanning’s Loyalists and area Patriots resulted in a bitter and violent backcountry civil war. Colonel Daniel Fanning

[JoanP]

Maybe Daniel Fanning's motivation for the killing ties in to the North/South Carolina stories - the disappearance of the first settlement on Roanoke Island and the and then Old Ninety Six which sits astride the Cherokee Trail.  (We're almost there, Fry.)  Thanks for the links - will put them into the heading.

All these wars, or struggles over land -  with innocent people getting killed.  Is this the history, the story of William Least Heat Moon's roots that he has set out to understand?

[ANNIE]

JoanP
Least Heat Moon's grandfather was shot because he was helping the Patriots??, I think.  Here's a link to the Cherokee Path.

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Old_Cherokee_Path

I am liking where LHM is traveling. (in Georgia for me)  I've heard but not seen the Trappist Monastery but know of it in Conyers.  In that part of the trip, I am really enjoying his thoughts on the Thomas Merton book, "Seven Story Mountain".

I am in the wrong place in my reading, aren't I?  Sorry about that!

Frybabe,the links are so informative.

[ANNIE]

Here's a quote from the interview which I linked earlier.  It just seems to be one answer of why WLHM took off to circle America in the '80's after losing his job and his wife.

WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON: My theory is it comes from the historic fact we are all from the other side of the planet. I know there are American Indian tribes that deny that, but I think archaeology and anthropology show that all of the so-called Native American tribes did indeed come from the Eastern Hemisphere. We’re all the descendants of travelers. And with the exception of people of African descent, virtually all of our ancestors came here wanting to find better territory. I think it’s genetic memory functioning — when life gets this way or that way, and we’re not really happy with it, what do we do? Put a kit bag over one shoulder and head out for the road because that’s where solutions might lie. Somewhere out there is an answer to why a life is as it is"

[Frybabe]

I am surprised no one has said anything about the Outer Banks. Surely someone has been there (not me).

I got a kick out of his encounter with Brenda the waitress. I guess the place was an exception to his calendar rule.

Adoannie, I like the map you found. I stopped reading, temporarily, in the middle of the Trappist Monastery. I wanted to finish my taxes. Ah yes, wasn't that the spark one of the reasons for the Revolutionary War?

Back to the monastery, do you get the impression that LHM was not exactly comfortable in that environment? It didn't stop him from hanging around though. The meals he described there were a little startling, not the amount, but the food combinations.

[CallieOK]

Oh, my!  I have discovered how to follow Least-Moon's daily travels via the satellite picture on the Map Quest "get directions" route.  I may never get anything else accomplished during the rest of this discussion!!!! 

Following the route on South Carolina 34, there appear to be quite a few developed areas and what look like large rural homes.

What is your definition of "reconstruction"?

Re:  sharecropper cabins, Least-Moon says, "Only on humanitarian grounds can a traveler approve the nationally standardized boxes replacing them."

Does he have a romanticized view of "the old days"?

[Frybabe]

Does he have a romanticized view of "the old days"?

Not sure, Callie. Maybe not so much a romanticized view but more of a dislike for the new bulldozing over the old without regard or respect?

[CallieOK]

Frybabe,   The sharecropper cabins shown if you scroll down through these pictures look very much like ones I've seen in the Mississippi Delta area.  Why would anyone not want to move into something better - even if it is a " standardized box?

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brown/photos.htm

[pedln]

Frybabe, yes, the Outer Banks -- I went with my daughter and her partner from Nag's Head down to Okracoke. Cape Hatteras.  It's been a few years.  Wonderful beaches, and thankfully not all developed.  I loved the lighthouses.  We drove down, but were on a boat for part of the journey.  I can't remember if it was a ferry or if we had to leave the car someplace.  I drove back to Nag's Head and the girls rode their bikes.  Kind of barren, as I recall.  Not a lot of activity along that narrow stretch.

[JoanP]

Oh, we cannot skip over the Outer Banks!.  We're turning into 'gotta-get-there drivers.  The Outer Banks of North Carolina  has been our vacation spot for years and years!  Where did you and the girls stay, Pedln? Kitty Hawk?  Nag's Head? Or in the more developed areas up by Duck?
Besides climbing those mountainous sand dunes, one of our favorite vacation things to do was to drive over to Manteo for the outdoor production of "The Lost Colony."  Our kids learned the story before they could talk!

What happened in Manteo is so important to our history - to the relationship between the native Americans and the colonists!  I think this is the reason Heat Moon - "Wm" - included the story in this book. Here's more on the play,  The Lost Colony
.
There's so much more - I've got to get to gym class - but hope you haven't driven off by the time I get back.  

[ginny]

Oh Outer Banks, we spent our honeymoon (part of it) on Outer Banks and I still remember one really neat lighthouse. We went all up the East Coast for some reason.

I am LOVING the memories you all have put here. This is a unique and very special discussion, just look what we're learning about some of our readers we've never known before. Love it!

We were of that era, tho, weren't we? "See the USA in your Chevrolet, America is asking you to call."

I can still hear Dinah Shore singing it.  And we did, didn't we?  With no air conditioning. Remember those strange net sort of seat ....cushions you could put in the car so you wouldn't stick to the seat in the heat?

And NOW who is doing it? Retirees! And living in their cars, sleeping in Wal Marts, 60 Minutes did a big show on it recently.  Why?

Frybabe, that saddle looks like an old Stubben Siegfried I have up in the barn. Wonderful saddle, you almost could not fall out of it if you tried.

And Ninety Six!! I live 50 miles from Ninety Six and have never been there. Isn't that always the way? What wonderful links, too, I've learned a lot about it.

How interesting this country is. You don't need to go to England to find interesting quaint people and places, we're quaint right here. That's why Charles Kuralt did so well with his pieces.

And Roanoak Island. I used to have a quote memorized about the Scuppernong and I've half forgotten it, but it was written by Sir Walter  Raleigh's report back, something like In 1615 we rounded Roanoak Island, and the smell was as sweet as if we had been in  any garden, and grapes grew abundantly, even climbing up to the tallest trees,  and we think the like is not to be found...That, apparently, was the first mention of the Scuppernong grape, which was originally found there.   The original Mother Vine is (so far as I know) still alive in Manteo. Didn't Andy Griffith live in Manteo? Or does he?

I'm way behind you in the reading. I was sideswiped by  the blindstiff which LHM was taken for by the man in Grayville. Don't you love how he faithfully (?) records these conversations as if he's looking for a truth, any truth, to get his bearings?

And Ghost Dancing!  Just like today, living in the car.

Did anybody notice the vade mecum? I haven't seen that in years.  Leaves of Grass and Black Elk Speaks for him. Wouldn't be for me.

It made me wonder what MY vade mecum would be?  IF you had to take an in print book: no  e-Books.  Vade from the same root as Vadis in the expression Quo  Vadis, Domine? Meaning go, and mecum:  with me, what your (almost literally) Go To Book is?   What book YOU consider important enough to pack on a road trip? Something comforting, is that why he picked a book of poetry and one of...what? Biography?

I love that expression.  Go with me: my "vade mecum."

I get the feeling he's on a quest.

4.  Were you aware of the extent of Dickens' travels in the US?  Oh gosh, yes,  his remarks upon touring the US and his book American Notes  nearly started a war hahahaha

From the BBC, fascinating article, the entire article and his remarks might make some of you angry:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17017791

On his first visit to America in 1842, English novelist Charles Dickens was greeted like a modern rock star. But the trip soon turned sour, as Simon Watts reports.

On Valentine's Day, 1842, New York hosted one of the grandest events the city had ever seen - a ball in honour of the English novelist Charles Dickens.

Dickens was only 30, but works such as Oliver Twist and the Pickwick Papers had already made him the most famous writer in the world.

The cream of New York society hired the grandest venue in the city - the Park Theatre - and decorated it with wreaths and paintings in honour of the illustrious visitor.

There was even a bust of Dickens hanging from one of the theatre balconies, with an eagle appearing to soar over his head.

Dickens and his wife, Catherine, danced most of the night in the company of around 3,000 guests.

"If I should live to grow old," the novelist told a dinner the following night, "the scenes of this and other evenings will shine as brightly to my dull eyes 50 years hence as now".

But a visit which had started so well quickly turned into a bitter dispute, known as the "Quarrel with America"....more

[JoanP]

"I get the feeling he's on a quest."

Ginny!  So good to see you here.  Was hoping to meet up with you in South Carolina (what's a loblolly tree?) but this is a really pleasant surprise to see you here in Manteo.  I agree with you - Least Heat Moon seems to be on a quest - which wasn't really clear to him when he started out, I don't think.  
About "The Lost Colony" - the story of the disappearance of the first colony in the New World...Manteo, the birthplace of the first baby to be born here - do you remember the name of the little one?

I think that when Heat Moon returned, he researched the early attempts to colonize the area.  Turns out, the story in the Lost Colony that portrayed the war-like Indians who wiped out the poor defenseless colonists was probably not an whole story.  Heat Moon tells how the colonists depended on the Indians for survival, how natives greeted them, smiling, of joy and kindness -tells of how Sir Walter Raleigh's cousin, Sir Robert Greenville - saw them as savages, burned their village, shot them, beheaded them...
Heat Moon writes that England learned nothing from the Spanish mistakes pillaging the New World.

Manteo today is like a Disney beach town...looks like a restored Elizabethan village.  not a place you go to find out more about the past.  Of course, the colonists never returned here - went on to Jamestown instead...where the Indians, well, that's for another day.

(They have a neat Christmas shop - very popular in July! )
But

[ginny]

Interesting that you should ask that, My DIL just told me recently the difference in Loblolly and other pine trees:

From: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/loblolly_pine.htm

Loblolly Pines are large trees, growing up to 100 feet tall. Along with Eastern White Pine and Virginia Pine, it is one of our most common pine trees. The easiest way to tell them apart is to count the needles. Loblolly Pines have clusters of three needles, Virginia Pines have clusters of two, and Eastern White Pines have clusters of five.

Loblolly Pines grow in forests and fields. In fields, they are a pioneer tree, meaning they are one of the first trees to grow.

The trunks of Loblolly Pines can be up to three feet wide. The bark is thick, scaly, and dark grey. Underneath are brown layers.

Leaves are needles, in clusters of three, with each one being about six or seven inches long. Needles stay green all year.

It appears that Andy Griffith has died, I do seem to remember it now,  and his widow applied for a permit to tear down his coastal house on Manteo, this was last March I think and I don't know what happened to any of it:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/03/21/tearing-down-any-griffiths-n-c-coastal-home-should-anyone-care/

[JoanP]

A nice little cottage in Manteo.  I've heard it was/is a Sears house -

He was born in Mount Airy, N.C., in 1926. He got his first break in 1944 when he landed a small part in "The Lost Colony," the outdoor drama that is still performed on Roanoke Island on the Outer Banks, and he returned for several summers until he worked his way up to playing Sir Walter Raleigh. Later, when he came into some money, he bought a home on Manteo and spent quite a bit of time there.

Andy Griffith -

[Frybabe]

Yes, Ginny, I saw vade mecum. I just love coming across Latin phrases when reading.

[JoanP]

And I love noticing the different birds and the trees as he moves from one region to the next, Fry.  Thanks for the loblolly info, Ginny!    Not quite as dramatic as the catalpa, but lovely.  Do they grow near you?  Did I understand that you live quite near Old Ninety Six where Heat Moon first noticed them??

I can't imagine Charles Dickens in Manteo.  This just doesn't compute!

I looked up that 1942 American tour of his and found this:

"At the time of his first visit in 1842, Dickens had finished his fifth novel, BARNABY RUDGE, and was a spectacularly famous novelist. He had heard and read extraordinary things about the United States of America, and wanted to see it and form his own judgments. He traveled by steamship with his wife Catherine, leaving their four children behind in England.

He found much of America charming and appealing, especially in his first weeks. The Atlantic crossing was extremely uncomfortable; Dickens found his stateroom small and cramped, and, like most of the passengers, he suffered from seasickness. Arriving in Boston on January 22, 1842, he spent most of the next two weeks there, then went on to explore more of New England, visiting Worcester, Hartford, and New Haven.
 He spent the latter half of February and the first week of March in New York City, and then proceeded to Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. In April he visited Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and New York, and in May he toured Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, returning to New York in June and departing for England on June 7, 1842. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dickens/life_journeys.html

No mention of Manteo.  Will keep looking.  Maybe he didn't have a speaking engagement in Manteo, but was interested in seeing where England's first attempt to colonize the New World took place.

Here's a question for you - We're getting ready to vote for the April group discussion.  Would you be interested in reading Dickens' American Notes - a travelogue,  detailing his trip to North America from January to June, 1842.?  Or do you think we will have enough traveling for a while when we get back to MO with Least Heat Moon?

[JoanK]

Sharecroppers cabins. If you've read "Now Let Us Praise Famous Men", James Agee describes these cabins: no, I don't romanticize them.

We spent one vacation on the Outer Banks, and loved it. But I always remember my neighbor: she had had triplets, giving her 5 children under the age of eight. She was overwhelmed. Her husband, thinking to help, arranged for them to take a vacation on the Outer Banks. So she packed up all the equipment needed for the 5 kids, exhausted they drove down there, and unpacked all the equipment and kids again. They had just finished, and were taking a breath when  someone banged on the door. "You can't stay, You have to leave. There's a hurricane coming!" So they packed up everything again, drove back, and unpacked everything."

"I'll never go on a vacation again" she said. "It's too exhausting".