This will be the final America Road Trip Project update. After forty-four days on the road, east to west across the USA, north to south, south to north, living in a series of nice and not-so-nice hotel and motel rooms, and in other people’s homes, but mostly in a Ford Mustang convertible, I am ready to go home to Berlin.
But, first, I have two more events to do, and, despite my total exhaustion, I’m really looking forward to them. The first one takes place tomorrow, October 27, at Saint Mary Church in Greenwich, CT. The other one takes place on October 28 at Crows’ Feat Farm in Kensington, New Hampshire. Here are the flyers. Join us if you can.
And here’s the final update …
When I last posted we were taking a little break in New Orleans, which was lovely. We drove out early morning on October 19, heading for Oxford, Mississippi, Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi.
The town-hall event at Ole Miss was fantastic. As at LSU, I was very impressed by the students who participated. Incidentally, Trent Lott was doing some kind of event just across the hall, and we drew a bigger audience than he did. Many thanks to Professor Marvin King for organizing the event and to all the students who attended and shared their views!
Our next scheduled event was a gathering in Bakersville, NC, but we couldn’t do that drive in one stretch, so we set out for Nashville. We ended up cutting through part of Alabama, and found ourselves at Kelley’s Cafe at Cooley’s Corner, where I had a great conversation about America with the waitress. You’ll have to wait for the book for the full account of that. I don’t have the focus to do it justice at the moment.
We spent the night at a cheap motel in Nashville. Neither of us had been to Nashville before, so we felt compelled to check out Broadway, which was a total zoo. Again, I’ll cover this episode in detail in the book. I don’t have the chops to do it now.
The next day, we drove back up into the Appalachians and made it to Bakersville, NC, five minutes before the gathering was supposed to start. It took place in a fire station, which was undergoing renovation, and was small but lovely. We heard stories of how the community came together after Hurricane Helene devastated the area. There was a huge Confederate flag hanging on the wall—Hugo didn’t get a picture of it—but the local Confederates didn’t attend, which was slightly disappointing, but it was great to meet and hear the views of the locals who did.
Many thanks to Suzanne Teune for organizing the gathering and putting us up in her place, which was adorned with her beautiful artwork!
By the time we made it to DC I was completely shattered and, sadly, had to cancel my lunch date with Nico Perrino of FIRE the next day (my apologies, Nico!). We drove on to Debbie Lerman’s house in Philadelphia, where, despite my condition, Debbie and I debated the nature of power and global capitalism deep into the night.
And now, here we are, back where we started, forty-five days ago, in Connecticut.
That’s it … the last America Road Trip update. You may not hear from me for a while, as I suspect I’m going to crash pretty hard when I get back home.
Before that happens, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the generous readers and colleagues who have supported and contributed to this project, either by hosting us and organizing gatherings and events, or by funding it, or by attending our events and sharing their perspectives with us. It’s going to be quite challenging to capture it all in a book, but I’ll do my best … after I recover.
The America Road Trip Project is made possible by generous contributions from Harley Lennon Squires, Ralph A. Korpman, M.D., Debbie Lerman, Sasha Latypova, Integrity Media Group, several anonymous contributors, and donations from readers.
Photos: Hugo Fernandez, Professor of Fine Art and Photography, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, Long Island City, New York
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