April 13, 2025
Day 0 - On the Border (or Thereabouts)
Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains
The Mother Road
Last night Carol and I attended a play inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, about the terminally ill last surviving Oklahoma Joad going to California to find the last surviving descendant of Tom Joad to take him back to Oklahoma to inherit the Joad farm. He finds the last California descendant is a young Mexican-American named Martín Jodes. The play recounts their trip from California back to Oklahoma. Sort of a fitting sendoff for my tour.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
That inspired me to go home and watch again the 1940 movie The Grapes of Wrath. The movie was produced just one year after the book was originally published in 1939, only 13 years after Route 66 was established as the first all-weather road between Chicago and Los Angeles, and just as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was ending.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Pre-Launch
Carol drove me out to Sayre, Oklahoma, late this afternoon, about 23 miles east of the Texas/Oklahoma state line. It's as close to the border as you can get and find both restaurants that are open on a Sunday evening and motels. We had to settle on Denny’s in the truck stop across from the motel for dinner. Carol will drive me the rest of the way to the start tomorrow morning, take some snapshots, wave goodbye, and drive back home.
Hoping for better weather hasn’t worked. Tomorrow’s forecast is still 20-30 mph headwinds with gusts over 40 mph.
It’s about to get real.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 8 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |