Wild, wild ponies

Living on one of the largest and last undeveloped stretches of middle Atlantic coastline, the herds of wild horses that roam around Assateague Island were made famous by a book and movie featuring Misty of Chincoteague.

Written in the 1940s and filmed in the early 1960s, the true-to-life Misty story tells how these wild “ponies”--whose ancestors were sent here by English settlers in the late 1600s--are rounded up from the wildlife refuge on Assateague Island for a forced swim across to Chincoteague. The annual roundup and swim, which attracts thousands of spectators, takes place today (annually on the last Wednesday in July). The auction, which benefits local firefighters, follows tomorrow.

And if you like the idea of seeing these wild creatures in their wild environment, rather than penned up behind a fence, you may consider exploring the undeveloped backcountry of Assateague Island. But before you go, I have to quote one of the most intentionally discouraging bits of visitor information I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

Talking about seeing the wild ponies (which are indeed WILD, so keep your distance – they bite and kick!), the semi-offical Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) website for Assateague Island describes how prospective hikers must bring all their own water, firewood, extra-long tent stakes (because of the wind) as well as copious quantities of the most potent insect repellent you can find.

Or else. Here is a sample:

"... Other critters will demand your attention: biting insects. You must respond effectively to enjoy an Assateague backpack. Insect repellent is ESSENTIAL, possibly more so even than sunscreen, at least in camp. Greenhead flies, the small midges known as "no-see-ums," and several species of mosquito are present in numbers that must be experienced to be appreciated. Greenheads are large, day-flying, solitary raiders with painful bites; they can attack all the way to tide line, but usually go after stationary targets. As long as you're moving, they aren't generally a problem. No-see-ums can be annoying, and are a good reason to make sure your tent has no-see-um netting.

Greenheads and no-see-ums, however, are but pale imitators of Assateague's infamous mosquitoes. They can be active at any time of day, but particularly so from dusk to dawn. They attack in large groups, with a disconcerting purposefulness, settling simultaneously at several locations on the chosen victim. Swatting them requires developing a sense of priorities with regard to bodily parts. Commercial repellents, preferably with a substantial DEET content, are probably the best bet. Even these may not be adequate to ensure comfort at bayside sites in summer. (Canoeing or hiking into bayside sites is most comfortably done during October through April, and is strongly encouraged by the Park). If strong breezes and sunshine did not effectively discourage mosquitoes from invading Assateague's beaches, it would be impossible to recommend backpacking here at all to any but the most intrepid. During cloudy, windless weather, however, you can find them (rather, they can find you) on the beach too. If this sounds bad, it is."

Forewarned in forearmed, as they say.


PS: Anyone want to run a competition to which part of the country has the fiercest bugs?

Road Trip Tips

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for a feature in Forbes.com about the perfect road trip, and I realized that while in my Road Trip USA book, I’m always happy to offer advice about things to do and see along the Great American road, sometimes the most important stuff – like how to adopt the right “road trip” attitude -- is harder to pin down. I don't know if it's our national Puritan streak or what, but Americans on vacation (myself included) sometimes seem to forget that it’s OK just to relax and giggle. (Or play catch, or pose for silly pictures at some semi-historical statue...) To counteract this deeply-rooted orientation toward achievement, over the years I've tried to come up with some helpful, handy "on the road " tips for how to make the most of a family vacation, or a trip with friends.

The greatest words of road trip wisdom I’ve come across are those of the inimitable Yogi Berra, who says: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” With that in mind, here's a “Top 5” list of road trip tips, which are more like a mash-up of 25+ different ideas, all of which are aimed at helping to make the most of your time on the road.

#1: Remember that Carly Simon song, “Anticipation”, which featured the words “These are the Good Old Days?” Well, to my mind spending time planning and thinking about the trip before you set off is the single best investment you can make, and it can also be a lot of fun.

So pick up a good road atlas, or get a handful of maps from the auto club, and let the fun begin. Take advantage of computer-literate kids to cruise the Internet and research the best places to see. Trip-planning software on your home computer (like Microsoft’s Streets and Trips) can help you choose from the millions of miles of scenic, historic and fun-to-drive highways, and keep track of the different places you want to stop and enjoy along the way. Learning about all sorts of fun and fantastic things there are all over the country will help give you confidence to escape the dull old Interstate routine and re-discover the joys of driving.

Along with the essentail virtual cruises down the “Information Superhighway”, a visit to library or a bookstore makes a great pre-trip planning session. The travel sections (at your local library, look for Dewey Decimal #917) have shelves of books brimming with ideas about everything from great hotels to minor league baseball teams, so you can know what’s out there before you pass by. Summer in particular is full of special events and small-town fairs and festivals, and if you time it right these can also make for great memories. Years later, you’ll look back at photos you took at the “Cody Night Rodeo” in Wyoming, “Helldorado Days” in Tombstone Arizona, or a hot-air balloon festival in Vermont, and remember what fun you all had.

Another common-sense but easily forgotten thing that really helps insure that a good time is had by all is, before you go, to make sure everyone gets involved in the planning. This allows every traveler, of every age, to feel that the trip is theirs, rather than something they’re being dragged along on. When you’re out on the road, let all travelers – not just the driver! -- choose some of the stops along the way – even if it’s only a quick stop for an ice cream, to read a historical marker, or to stand up close to a giant roadside statue.


#2: When packing, try to give each traveler easy access to his or her favorite things—maybe bringing a backpack per person for sunglasses, iPods, books and games. Pack things you won’t need for a while in deep store, but make sure you can reach things you’ll need along the way—like Frisbees and baseball gloves.


#3. If you’re road-tripping, make the car as comfortable as possible. Bring pillows and blankets, and have healthy snacks and drinks easily at hand. Play silly games, like spotting “out of state” license plates. Guess what crops are growing in those endless fields -- and stop at a roadside stand to buy apples and snacks for the road.

Save the video player for long stretches of anonymous Interstate, and instead talk to each other, or listen to a good audiobook. Listening to stories is something of a lost art, but a car journey is the perfect place to sit and listen--all together, without making anyone carsick. There are some wonderful stories available on tape or CD, often read by accomplished and engaging actors, and they last for hours.

#4. Once you’re on the road, take some good advice from those yellow highway signs. Be Prepared to Stop: if you see something that looks interesting, stop the car and check it out. Stop Look Listen: get out the car and use all you senses. Life is much more interesting up close than it is at 75 mph. It’s easy to get going again, and you don’t want to spend the rest of your life wondering about that giant sombrero standing along I-95. Being open to the unexpected, serendipitous encounter is what makes a road trip a memorable experience , instead of just another long drive

Eat at local cafes, rather than the familiar chains, and sample local specialties. The whole point of travel is to have new experiences, isn't it? One summer's quest for the perfect piece of berry pie could turn into a lifetime adventure.


#5. Don’t be so worried about getting to your destination that you miss out on the fun of being together with friends and family. We Americans sometimes turn things that should be a pleasure -- like a family vacation -- into something more like hard work, a task to be completed.

So remember -- vacations should be FUN. Go bowling or take batting practice in some middle-of-nowhere town. Be open to unexpected encounters, weird sights and roadside oddities.

Smile for the camera, and as often as possible, make sure the answer to that eternal on-the-road question, “Are we there yet?” is … “YES!”.

Lady Bird, Lady Bird

Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died on Wednesday July 11 2007, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94.

As first lady during the 1960s upheavals of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War, she was a quiet presence at the President’s side, perhaps best remembered as a determined environmentalist: Lady Bird’s primary political activity was campaigning for the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which forced the replacement of roadside billboards and junkyards with trees and wildflowers.

(As anyone who travels Texas highways will know, the long drives are much improved by the swathes of wildflowers blooming along the roadside – thanks in part to Lady Bird’s efforts, which keep growing through the Texas Wildflower Center, which she helped to establish.)

The Houston Chronicle ran a couple of engaging stories about Lady Bird’s long and eventful life: here and here.

And maybe now is a good time to quote Lady Bird’s husband, the “other” LBJ, about his views on highways:

President Lyndon B. Johnson's
Remarks at the Signing of the Highway Beautification Act of 1965
October 22, 1965

“America likes to think of itself as a strong and stalwart and expanding Nation. It identifies itself gladly with the products of its own hands. We frequently point with pride and with confidence to the products of our great free enterprise system--management and labor.

These are and these should be a source of pride to every American. They are certainly the source of American strength. They are truly the fountainhead of American wealth. They are actually a part of America's soul.

But there is more to America than raw industrial might. And when you go through what I have gone through the last 2 weeks you constantly think of things like that. You no longer get your computers in and try to count your riches.

There is a part of America which was here long before we arrived, and will be here, if we preserve it, long after we depart: the forests and the flowers, the open prairies and the slope of the hills, the tall mountains, the granite, the limestone, the caliche, the unmarked trails, the winding little streams--well, this is the America that no amount of science or skill can ever recreate or actually ever duplicate.

This America is the source of America's greatness. It is another part of America's soul as well.

When I was growing up, the land itself was life. And when the day seemed particularly harsh and bitter, the land was always there just as nature had left it--wild, rugged, beautiful, and changing, always changing.

And really, how do you measure the excitement and the happiness that comes to a boy from the old swimming hole in the happy days of yore, when I used to lean above it; the old sycamore, the baiting of a hook that is tossed into the stream to catch a wily fish, or looking at a graceful deer that leaps with hardly a quiver over a rock fence that was put down by some settler a hundred years or more ago?

How do you really put a value on the view of the night that is caught in a boy's eyes while he is stretched out in the thick grass watching the million stars that we never see in these crowded cities, breathing the sounds of the night and the birds and the pure, fresh air while in his ears are the crickets and the wind?

Well, in recent years I think America has sadly neglected this part of America's national heritage. We have placed a wall of civilization between us and between the beauty of our land and of our countryside. In our eagerness to expand and to improve, we have relegated nature to a weekend role, and we have banished it from our daily lives.

Well, I think that we are a poorer Nation because of it, and it is something I am not proud of. And it is something I am going to do something about. Because as long as I am your President, by choice of your people, I do not choose to preside over the destiny of this country and to hide from view what God has gladly given it.

And that is why today there is a great deal of real joy within me, and within my family, as we meet here in this historic East Room to sign the Highway Beautification Act of 1965.

Now, this bill does more than control advertising and junkyards along the billions of dollars of highways that the people have built with their money--public money, not private money. It does more than give us the tools just to landscape some of those highways.

This bill will bring the wonders of nature back into our daily lives.

This bill will enrich our spirits and restore a small measure of our national greatness.

As I rode the George Washington Memorial Parkway back to the White House only yesterday afternoon, I saw nature at its purest. And I thought of the honor roll of names--a good many of you are sitting here in the front row today--that made this possible. And as I thought of you who had helped and stood up against private greed for public good, I looked at those dogwoods that had turned red, and the maple trees that were scarlet and gold. In a pattern of brown and yellow, God's finery was at its finest. And not one single foot of it was marred by a single, unsightly, man-made construction or obstruction--no advertising signs, no old, dilapidated trucks, no junkyards. Well, doctors could prescribe no better medicine for me, and that is what I said to my surgeon as we drove along.

This bill does not represent everything that we wanted. It does not represent what we need. It does not represent what the national interest requires. But it is a first step, and there will be other steps. For though we must crawl before we walk, we are going to walk.

I remember the fierce resolve of a man that I admired greatly, a great leader of a great people, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He fought a pitched battle in 1936 with private interests whose target was private gain. And I shall long remember the words that I believe he echoed at Madison Square Garden, when he declared to the Nation that the forces of selfishness had not only met their match, but these forces had met their master.

Well, I have not asked you to come here today to tell you that I have a desire to master anyone. But until the clock strikes the last hour of the time allotted to me as President by vote of all the people of this country, I will never turn away from the duty that my office demands or the vigilance that my oath of office requires.

And this administration has no desire to punish or to penalize any private industry, or any private company, or any group, or any organization of complex associations in this Nation. But we are not going to allow them to intrude their own specialized private objective on the larger public trust. Beauty belongs to all the people. And so long as I am President, what has been divinely given to nature will not be taken recklessly away by man.

This Congress is to be thanked for the bill that you have given us. I wish it could have been more, but I realize, too, that there are other views to be considered in our system of checks and balances.

The grandchildren of those of you in this country that may have mocked and ridiculed us today, someday will point with pride to the public servants who are here in this room, who cast their lot with the people.

And unless I miss my guess, history will remember on its honor roll those of you whom the camera brings into focus in this room today, who stood up and were counted when that roll was called that said we are going to preserve at least a part of what God gave us.

Thank you very much.”

Save the Spindle!

What is it about Walgreens and Route 66 roadside attractions? Especially in Illinois, it sometimes seems that wherever there’s a much-loved piece of highway history, Walgreens wants to pave it for a new parking lot. First to go (in my limited and perhaps not-exactly comprehensive study…) was the Cozy Dog hot dog stand in Springfield: in the late 1990s, this 50-year-old landmark was forced to move to new premises when Walgreens wanted its prominent Route 66 corner location. The Cozy Dog survived the move, but the prognosis is less good for another beloved institution: the tower of cars known as The Spindle, standing proudly if incongruously (for now…) in a suburban Chicago shopping center parking lot.

So, if anyone out there wants to adopt the Spindle, drop me a line. Estimates are that it would cost something on the order of $300,000 to move and remake The Spindle in a new location – money well spent to preserve a unique Car Culture artefact.

(Maybe The Spindle could be moved west to Amarillo, to stand alongside that other great critique of American Car Culture, Cadillac Ranch? Someone call Stanley Marsh 3 – quick!)


Here the whole story thus far, as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Abducted by Aliens

The last thing I remember, it’s late June and I’m sitting at my desk working on a little story about Independence Day, thinking profound thoughts about freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and all that. Then the next thing I know: two weeks have gone by, and I’ve missed the 4th of July... And the All-Star Game. Do you know what happened? No, I wasn’t being lazy, or having too much fun. You guessed it: I was abducted by aliens.

(OK, it’s a weak excuse for not posting much of anything for a long while, but it lets me segue into a strange tale of otherworldly comings and goings...)

If you're one of those who think “Independence Day” is more a movie than a significant historical moment, to whom the name “Roswell” means something extraterestrially special, you’ve probably spent the 4th of July celebrating not 1776 but 1947. Yes, while most Americans were enjoying parades and fireworks shows celebrating our forefathers’ collective bravery in the face of tyranny, way out west in Roswell, New Mexico, more than 35,000 people joined together to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of a very close encounter of the UFO kind.

Seventy-five miles north of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the ranching town of Roswell (pop. 45,293) has become a catch-word for flying saucers, UFOs, extraterrestrials, and a complicated U.S. government cover-up of all the above. The cover-up is the one thing that’s pretty much a given, since the Air Force has gone so far as to deny officially that anything ever happened in Roswell--which is equivalent to a confession, in the minds of UFO believers. Everything else about Roswell is, so to speak, up in the air.

The short version of the Roswell story (for the full account, click here ) goes something like this: In the summer of 1947, at the start of Cold War hysteria, something strange and metallic crashed into a field outside town. Some time later the Army Air Corps (teams of tight-lipped operatives wearing special suits and dark glasses, no doubt) came and recovered it. In early July, reports to the effect that a flying saucer had landed in Roswell appeared in the local paper, and quickly spread around the globe, only to be denied by the government, which claimed the “flying saucer” was actually part of a weather balloon. The whole story was pretty much forgotten until 1978, when a retired military intelligence officer from the Roswell base sold a story to the ever-reliable National Enquirer, repeating tales of the 1947 “flying saucer” crash, and telling of his subsequent capture of extraterrestrial beings. This in turn spawned countless other stories, books, and films and TV shows, and has spurred the growth of a battery of tourist attractions and souvenir stores in and around Roswell.

If all this hype and hoopla hasn't strained your credulity, you’ll want to know that, for the past 60 years or so, the Roswell creatures have been living in the tantalizingly named Area 51, outside Las Vegas along the Extraterrestrial Highway.

As the saying goes: the truth is out there…