Thursday, May 8, 2008 I’m alone again, as I often end up when I travel – which might bear closer examination. Am I bad at selecting travel partners? Are they wrong to select me? Or is it just that, at one time or another, we must all face the world alone and the road...
Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Last night, Steph and I were more lost than we’ve been yet on this road trip, when our car tripped over the brick and mortar of Saint Louis, Missouri’s oldest district: Laclede’s Landing, perched on the Mississippi River. As sunset bathed the...
Heading south on Route 66 from Springfield, Illinois, Stephanie and I take a detour at Glenarm to see an old covered bridge to nowhere. The red, wooden, barnlike structure with the white-fenced ramp was built in 1880. If you've watched The Bridges of Madison County,...
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 Stephanie and I spent last night at the Springfield, Illinois Route 66 Hotel, with vintage autos parked in the lobby, and a V8 engine revving in our room — Steph snored and coughed with a vengeance. I suspect my sick travel partner will soon...
Monday, May 5, 2008 When the Interstates muscled across the American West, Route 66 became a detour. Today, Route 66 features detours within detours. Isn’t the best stuff in life off the main road? Before Stephanie and I continue south from Wilmington, we make a...
Sunday, May 4, 2008 Stephanie wakes with a cold and a fever of 100-plus. She wants to sleep it off so we can still hit The Mother Road this afternoon. We’re planning to take Route 66 all the way to L.A., but now I’m wondering if we’ll ever make it out of Chicago. The...
Saturday, May 3, 2008 In keeping with our Route 66 theme, I have a less than highbrow goal in visiting the Art Institute of Chicago: I'm here to see that creepy icon of nostalgic Americana known as American Gothic. So I figure hitting the museum an hour before closing...
Saturday, May 3, 2008 Stephanie and I are about to ask the hotel concierge how to find a few sites from my list, when we overhear him telling some senior citizens about a boat tour of the skyscrapers lining the Chicago River. Chicago was the birthplace of the modern...
“…the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn...” Jack Kerouac. We grab a cab to take us to the...
Friday, May 2, 2008 My first full day in Chicago starts with gray rain and a cold shower, but I won’t let it color my mood. The Whitehall Hotel's boiler is on the fritz, so the front desk comps our breakfast while Steph waits for hot water. We order our meal brought...
Cara Lopez Lee is the author of the novel, Candlelight Bridge, and the memoir, They Only Eat Their Husbands. She’s a winner of The Moth StorySLAM and is featured in many personal storytelling shows. Her writing appears in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Manifest-Station, and Rivet. Cara and her husband love traveling, but their home is coastal Ventura, California, where they enjoy tending their Certified Wildlife Habitat full of birds, bees, and butterflies.
