DAY 8 FRI. MAR. 25 AUSTIN, TX - BENTON, AK

Under grey skies, we bid farewell to Austin, and retraced our steps back to Arkansas.

We saw familiar sights from the other side of the interstate. Prairie, cattle, hear, and large homes: that's Texas. Then, into the pine woods and western Arkansas. We noticed many signs, billboards, and bumper stickers promoting religion ... more than usual. This is really Jesusland here. The people have core values that simply won't compromise on. The Lord, the military, guns, hunting, football, family .... these are important.

We had a great meal tonight. As much as Texas is known for beef, we think Arkansas is known for catfish, and the catfish we had tonight was awesome, along with sweet potato slathered in butter, honey, cinnamon, and brown sugar and amazing bread pudding with home-made praline sauce. We are eating our way through the south!!

We also had another interesting experience at this restaurant. When we ordered a beer and glass of wine, which were on the menu, we were informed that we had to take out a membership. It seems the county was dry, and the way around it is to make the restaurant a "private club" where they could serve alcohol to members!! Ingenious, and only in America !!

DAY 9 SAT. MAR.26 BENTON, AK - FESTUS, MO

If America is a land of extremes, perhaps that is best symbolized by its weather. We began with an early departure from Benton. The skies were dull and foggy, and a steady drizzle heralded single digit temperatures. We saddled up and left, retracing our steps towards Little Rock and the open poverty of swampy eastern Arkansas. Before we could cross the Mississippi, we turned north, through better looking farmland, paralleling the great river, and into the vast sweep of flat prairie in south-eastern Missouri. The panorama to our left was incredible: it didn't seem to end. To our right were gentle wooded hills reaching down to the Mississippi. Much of our journey was uneventful here: indeed, the sun broke out a couple of times. Then, off to the north, was a foreboding storm system that seemed to toy with us, moving west to east in front of us, and staying north, ahead of us. We witnessed several dramatic lightning strikes around us. Rain returned, and the temperature began to fall. Hail assaulted the car, and conditions worsened. Then, in mid afternoon, we lost the prairie and entered gentle rolling hils and farms that resembled southern Ontario. But as we closed in on St. Louis, the temperature dropped dramatically. Snow dusted the ground, nothing to be considered a problem, or so we thought. But southbound traffic featured cars covered by a thick blanket of snow. We looked at each other and knew what we were driving into. Each mile brought more whiteness, and the rain began to adhere to the shining roadway. We decided to abandon our push to St. Louis and found a hotel in Festus just as the rain became ice pellets. A few minutes later, ice and snow rose to a height of 2 or 3 inches, and we knew we'd made the right decision. A few more miles and we'd be battling an ice storm that bent over the tree tops 36 hours after sweltering in Austin's heat and humidity. The political theme of the day is pro-life. We encountered several billboards extolling that philosophy over the miles, and a large hospital featured a lawn full of tiny white crosses and a large billboard that proclaimed "I trust in Jesus." I believe each cross represented an abortion performed at that hospital, although we couldn't be sure of that. Lou and I, both liberals, are becoming overwhelmed by the loud right-wing agenda of south-central America. Are there no American liberals? Or are they hiding from the billboards and the menacing army behind the messages, ready to take guns and bibles to drive away any "pinko" who dares to exercise his or her free speech rights into oblivion and damnation? Or do the liberals take the high road and express themselves elsewhere? Perhaps the truth of America is that there is no one America. The interstate largely cuts through rural America, and liberals tend to live in larger cities, where there's no need to shriek your beliefs from on high. So the country folk proclaim their ideas loudly in the hope of keeping the city slickers away. At least, that's my hypothesis.

DAY 10 SUN. MAR. 27 FESTUS, MO - BATTLE CREEK, MI

We awoke to a completely different world from yesterday. Brilliant sunshine and dazzling blue skies highlighted a winter wonderland. The snow gleamed in the brightness, adhering to ornamental fruit trees already in pink blossoms. It was surreal and wonderful.

We left Festus im improving conditions and drove north to St. Louis. We beheld the Gateway Arch, symbolically separating old America from the new. Somehow, gawking at the sights, we missed our road sign and drove well out of our way. Lou once again had to plot a mid-course correction, and did so successfully. But it gave us a chance to see some of the fine old architecture in some of St. Louis' older neighbourhoods. We hope they are in good repair.

Re-acquiring our route, we followed and then crossed the Mississippi River for the final time. We rolled north and east through more incredible, flat, wide-open prairie north to Chicago. The sky was immense and we could trace the paths of vast weather systems all around us.

In Missouri, the anti-abortion billboards continued. Some were absurd in their appeal. One claimed that the pathway to peace was through opposing abortion, apparently a quote attributed to Mother Theresa. Another asked who would hold the baby's hand during an abortion. Whether one is for or opposed to the choice based on logic or reason doesn't seem to be a factor in this part of the country. Pure emotion is supreme. It is absurd: how can being pro-life promote peace? If one is pro-choice, it must follow that one is a war monger, no? And how can a person hold the hand of a tiny fetus?

The madness continued on the political front as well. A billboard in Missouri displayed the photos of 4 or 5 presumably Republican officials with a caption blaring out about Republican betrayals and calling for a "GOP Renaissance". I'm guessing that the Tea Party was at work here, although those words did not appear on the billboards. In Illinois, a series of placards proclaimed Chicago as a leading city in gun control .... not to promote gun control, but to promote a group called "Guns Save Lives" .... other placards told of how guns would save your life if you were ever held up or robbed. Crazy stuff !!

A mild detour in Lincoln, Illinois, searching for fuel, provided a pleasant surprise, which drew our two American road trips together. We drove on a section of Historic Route 66, at the eastern end of the Mother Road. We had driven some of the surviving western stretches in Arizona during our trip in 2008, so it was nice to see her again, albeit in small patches.

Prairie disappeared and familiar forest, lake, farms, and rolling hills came back in northern Illinois. We skirted Chicago and caught a tantalizing glimpse of her skyline before turning east. I'd hoped to spend some time in Chicago, one of my favourite American cities, but home is calling. We'll save Chicago for another time. Into Indiana, past crumbling homes and vacant factories of Gary, and finally into Michigan, to gain back the hour we lost last week. We pushed to Battle Creek, fatigued and hungry, and stopped for the night. We re-enter Canada tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll see Tony the Tiger before we leave the U.S. !

DAY 11 MON. MAR. 28 BATTLE CREEK, MI - NEWMARKET,ON

No Tony today. We reminded ourselves that the guy who did the voice is long dead anyway. We left Battle Creek in brilliant sunshine and drove east. It was cold. A brief stop at the duty free in Detroit's urban hell, across the rickety Ambassador Bridge and we were back in Canada. Clean highways and no billboards. Snow, our first since Missouri, gathered along the highway, but the road was good, dry and open. And then, Toronto. Our first and only grid lock traffic jam on the trip. Toronto is just too big for its britches and the tie-up was frustrating. Then, north on the 400 and home! Happy Birthday to me!

REFLECTION THURS. MAR. 31 NEWMARKET, ON

We've had a few days at home to digest out trip, and we've come to several conclusions.

First, as always, the excitement of travel is all-consuming for us. Road trips are now especially appealing, and we plan to do more. A roadtrip for us means picking a destination, such as Austin, preparing our car as though it was an Apollo space capsule, drive like hell to get there, explore and then get the hell back home before we run out of air.

Second, we learned more about our fascinating neighbour, the USA. It is such a colossal country, huge in every way. It is full of contradictions: absolute wonder and beauty, and insane and sleazy absurdity. Its successes are many and magnificent: its failures are sad and pathetic. Its people are completely friendly and pleasant, but have little or no idea about the wider world, and this always dumbfounds me. How can a world power, the greatest world power, be, at times, so ignorant and parochial? How can the home of so much innovation, creativity, and progress be so bigotted and closed-minded? How can there be so much hate and fear in a land that claims earnestly to love Jesus? The truth, of course, is that you can never truly know the US because there is no single, true, one-size-fits-all USA. It is a country more fractured and disjointed than Canada ( and that is saying quite a lot! ) and yet, as John Ralston Saul asserts, it is completely united by a common mythology that everyone buys into: the flag, personal rights ( guns, free speech ), and America's God-given right to dominate the world. Such a fascinating country deserves more study and examination, and we plan to do just that.

Finally, a word must be said about traveling together. Lou and I have known each other since grade 11, and have been married for 20 years now. We are moving too rapidly through middle age now, and aches, pains, bad temper, and frustration are part of the journey. All this, we experienced on the trip. But, there's something wonderful about traveling together. We become a team when we journey, and we work well: if you need proof of this, well, we made it there and back again, and we're still speaking to each other. And, we want to do this again and again, as long as we are able, until we finally understand what this huge world is all about. And, when we learn what that is, we'll be sure to tell you !!

Soundtrack:

On a long road trip, there were many hours of good conversation and companionable silence. But we also listened to great music to help set the mood:

The Goo-Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up The Girl

Cold Play - Viva La Vida

Deep Purple - Machine Head

The Black Crowes- Greatest Hits

O Brother Where Art Thou? - Soundtack

Golden Earring - Moontan

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

The Tragically Hip - Up To Here

Colin James - Traveler

- Fuse