Back to the open road

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I have a trip to prepare for and be excited about this go-round. How glorious! I’ll admit that I’m not loving every minute of looking into available bed and breakfast establishments in St. Louis, but I will be happy once I’m there and satisfied with the area and the accommodations I chose. I also thought that most of the trip (when not in view of the Jefferson Expansion Memorial, or the Arch) would be the road and picking a good hotel when the time came to stop, but now I have to at least have a sketch of where to stop and a few more guideposts.

The itinerary of a trip long in the making (maybe a few years in theory, but certainly a few months for the actual thing next week!) is something I miss and realize that I enjoy for sure. If anything, it makes sense to compile the books I’ve bought or checked out, and to have telephone numbers and information gleaned from the Mark Twain Cave’s web site and so on. Yes, you can visit the infamous cave from the famous Tom Sawyer’s world. Mr. Twain is one of my favorite authors, and since he is right up there with the many British writers that I practically adore, I must make a pilgrimage to his hometown, Hannibal. That’s Hannibal, not Cannibal. Just wanted to get that straight.

I have the usual long list of things to do to get ready for a 5 or 6-day trip, and I’m also heading to a wedding in rural south Georgia just a few days after I return from this trip. I am seriously going the miles and the distance, but I’m storing up my time not spent in the car now. I’m also stocking up on supplies, making sure I have WiFi in a lot of the places I’m staying, connecting with family and/or friends on the trip route, and taking a few books (audio and tangible) to make the journey all the more meaningful and fulfilling.

So to end, let’s go into the great travel books that are always plentiful for the armchair as well as the actual traveler. I wrote about the “Best Travel Writing” series last time, and now I am in possession of the 2009 collection. I may be trying to read several books at once, but at least there’s a way to quickly read a story or two here and not feel as though I must refresh my memory about a previous chapter each time I pick up the book. I also have Bill Bryson’s “Notes from a Small Island,” for I have wanted to read all the way through his stories of England (my second home) for a while now. I must order “A Sense of Place” online, but since I can barely keep the pile of new/used and ‘to read’ books at bay, I think I’ll take my time. With the exceptions in the book of places that are disappearing, evidently, I will see all those sights that I crave and dream about. On to the next week and my trip, then! Details to follow.

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