San Antonio. Try as I might, I couldn't "Remember the Alamo." And
they wouldn't let me park in front of it, either.
|
Cape Hatteras Light House, the Outer Banks, North Carolina. The GMC
Jimmy and I were here to do a show this trip. But I once took the
best vacation of my life here, when the Jimmy was still brand new. I
was with a truly wonderful lady, and she made all the difference. |
Canada. The money has pictures of Queen Elizabeth on it. Getting
paid with the stuff feels surreal the first time it happens, but you
get used to it pretty quickly. If you can buy gas and a six-pack with
it -- well, what the hell. It must be real money.
|
That's a mighty big Assumption.
|
The Ozarks, southwestern Missouri. As we all know, Ozark is Krazo
spelled backwards, and many of them live there. |
The Erie Canal, Upstate New York.
|
Gas for 83 cents. Nowadays it would be
cheaper to drive a car that burned heroin. |
The Jimmy at Mt. Rushmore. Sadly, there
is no house on top, as in "North by Northwest." Travel can
dissipate some of your most cherished illusions. |
Hah! So there, you non-believers. Wally
World actually exists. It's in Ohio.
|
The Jimmy in front
of an old Pony Express Station, western Nebraska. The Pony Express
was the high-tech way to send messages in its day. Sort of like the
Internet, but with less horse poop. |
The Straits of
Mackinac, Michigan's Upper Penninsula |
A day off on the
beach, South Carolina |
The Jimmy visits Boys Town. (It ain't
heavy, it's just Omaha.) |
Lake Superior |
The Jimmy goes to Heaven. La Crosse,
Wisconsin. |
The Badlands out West. Keep your gas tank
full; you may not find a town for a while. |
Pittsburgh. |
Frisbie's Corner Tap, Sioux City. No
relation, but their hearts are in the right place. |
Headwaters of the Mississippi River. The
river actually flows through a culvert here. |
I'm not kidding. A culvert. |
The Jimmy rides a ferryboat. |
The Jimmy prepares to ride a rather bigger
ferryboat. |
Fredericksburg area, Maryland. |
Southern Indiana. |
Headwaters of the Mississippi River. The river actually flows through
a culvert here. |
I'm not kidding. A culvert. |
The Jimmy rides a ferryboat. |
The Jimmy prepares to ride a rather bigger
ferryboat. |
Fredericksburg area, Maryland. |
Southern Indiana |
Autumn in the North Woods. |
I hoped this photo would look like the
start of a weird race. No luck. |
Nag's Head, North Carolina. I didn't do
any shows this trip -- this picture is actually from that memorable
vacation with the wonderful girl that I mentioned on Travels With the
Jimmy, Page One. But you have to admit that the Jimmy looks pretty
sharp with a blue whale on the roof. And the trim was still pretty
shiny in those days, too.
|
And speaking of
stuff on the Jimmy roof, here's a photo I absolutely do not remember.
I don't know where I was, why I had a boat on the roof, or what I was
about to go do with it. I can only hope that I had fun. Fun is
important, even if you don't exactly know where you had it, or why it
involved a boat. |
Neil Armstrong home
town and museum, Wapakoneta, Ohio. The locals say that although Neil
has been to the Moon, he has never returned to Wapakoneta.
The average distance from Earth to the Moon is 238,856 miles,
depending upon what the Moon is doing at the moment. The GMC Jimmy
and I traveled nearly 500,000 miles together. By the time I retired
the vehicle, the only original part was the ashtray. |
Old logging
trail in the Black Hills, South Dakota.
|
The Jimmy, with other classic cars.
|
Deadwood, South Dakota. The first time I
was here they still had dirt streets. They've paved them since, which
is a shame. But my picture still hangs on the wall of the Bella Union
casino, so they got that right, anyway. |
Niagara Falls. Don't bother, I've been
there half a dozen times, and nobody ever - ever - goes over in a
barrel. Complete waste of time.
|
Sault Ste Marie, St, Lawrence Seaway.
|
Spending the night with some old friends
in Minnesota. They grew up to be organic vegetable farmers. We're
all from Chicago. Go figure. |
Morgantown, West Virginia. The college
kids here take a monorail to class. At the University of Illinois we
had a bicycle path. |
Mille Lac. |
The 45th Parallel. Halfway between the
North Pole and the Equator.
|
This sign said I
was 1/4 of the way around the world from Greenwich, England. Somebody
must have thought that was pretty important.
|
Minocqua, I think.
|
North Dakota. Don't backtalk these guys -- they have nuclear missiles
in their yards. |
|
Black ice in Wisconsin. One minute
there's road under you, the next minute there isn't. Fortunately I
had the presence of mind to cut the engine while I was rolling. So
the engine didn't keep running while the vehicle was upside down, and
it didn't seize up. The Jimmy had to spend some time in drydock
afterwards -- the roof caved in. But we traveled another 250,000
miles together after this episode. |
Tennessee
|
Out past the 180th Parallel it doesn't
rain often. No rain means no towns. No towns means no donut shops.
No donut shops means no cops. Cruising speed out here is about Warp
Factor Six, all the way to the Rosebud Indian Reservation. And note
the five gallon gas can in the back of the Jimmy -- we're way out in
the Boonies this time, and we'd sure hate to get stuck there.
|
Arkansas
|
The Mackinac Bridge. I'll bet I've crossed it 30 times. If it wasn't
for comedy, I might never have known it existed. |
Grama T's Pasties.
That's the setup, now write your own punch line. Remember that you
can only do the joke when you are in the U.P. No one else will get
it. |
Traverse City. |
Natural Bridge,
Virginia. |
Approaching Buffalo Gap. |
The Gulf Coast |
Nauvoo. |
Appleton. |
Bear. |
Cow. |
Rabbit. |
Turkey. |
Buffalo. |
Hippo |
