Day 26 Monday, October 31, 2011

No that's not misspelling, there is indeed an Oolteway, Tennessee population 35,000 (rummored.) On this Halloween Day about 10 miles north of here in Interstate Highway #75 I heard this terrific noise from the front right section of my car. It sounded like I had run over some kind of tree limb or heavy wire and it had somehow become caught in between the tire and axel and was thumping against the tire well. Then as suddenly the noise stopped. But shortly I noticed how difficult it was to turn the streering wheel. I knew then what it was.

The power steering had gone out and that meant one of the belts had broken that turn the power steering pump. When I found a place to exit I popped the hood and saw the disengaged but not broken belt. I called AAA and they came to haul my car to a repair shop and here I am as it was too late to get the new belt and make a repair.

Actually I was told it was a "harmonizing ring" that was the problem. It is a piece of hard vulcanized rubber that fits behind a pulley and when it wears out the pulley beings to wobble and the belt either breaks or slips off the pulley. Mine slipped off the pulley.

So here I am a few hundreds yards up Lee Way in Ooltewah, Tennessee in a friendly McDonalds. I'll be sleeping tonight in my van, of course. I'm hoping the broken belt won't effect the car's heater!

I apologise to one and all for falling behind on answering my e-mails. I can't offer a good excuse except that when I arrived at Lamar's place (see photo of Lamar's house in Clinton on attachement.) I felt extremely low energy, probably from fighting off some sinus infection. The other thing is that I have a weakness for yarning about the teenage years that Lamar and I shared when we were growing up in the same small town, going to the same small high school, reviewing the lives of those who have died and those still alive that we knew in that town and school. Lamar and I were up to 11 p.m. last night doing just that.

The other thing is Lamar has been working on a kind of murder mystery novel, which I just finished reviewing a few minutes ago. I promised him that I would do whatever I could to help him write the best book that is inside him. That might be overvaluing my abilities. But Lamar is one of those authentic and genuine men who have one of the most overworked and overused word in our language: character. Having been through the mill of what a beginning writer goes through to successfully find a publisher, I know how the sharks can destroy a person's self-confidence in their own work through careless criticism.

He is bound to encounter some of that and I want to do what I can to be a kind of buffer and encourager. At any rate I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 days I spent as his guest. As you can see from the photos attached of his house, it is big and it offers a beautiful view of the wooden hills. Last night we both enjoyed a phone conversation with a man, Roger S., who grew up not in our town but in a town "across the river" and who competed against us in sports, but now lives in Florida. He lives slightly south of a city named Saint Petersberg and he is expecting me on Wednesday. But as I told Roger, nothing so far on this Big Journey has gone scripted, that is, nothing has followed a design. So I added, "I'm hoping I'll be in sunny Florida on Wednesday and see you."

Naturally I'm disappointed to have any car problems. As I wrote some days ago, although I try not to be, I find myself in silent competition with John Steinbeck and William Least Hurt Moon for their American auto odesseys in 1960 and 1978. Steinbeck had no car problems that he mentioned and Moon only had a water pump problem in North Dakota and already I've had two car repairs. So being as supersticious and childish as I am, I'm feeling I'm falling far behind my dead and living competition. I find no comfort in the fact Steinbeck was 10 years younger than me when he set out and had state of the art creature comforts in his camper truck and Moon was probably 30 years younger than me when he set out.

Oh, the man behind the counter here explain to me Ooltewah is an Indian name, probably Cheerikee for a sacred burial ground of the Indians that this city sits upon. So perhaps some of those old Indian ghosts have risen up to cast their spell on unknowing travelers crossing over their holy grounds on this Halloween Day.

Find attached the latest photographs and the Daily Logs that accompany them. I attach them because they have maps for geographic reference. Actually the photographs have maps so I can put the latest Daily Log below this text.

Roger

P.S. It is also hard on my ego that in my American Journeys in 1995, 1996, and 1997, which totaled 33,000 miles I didn't have a single car problem, not even a flat tire! Now I have the biggest and supposedly best car I've ever taken out on the road and already two breakdowns. As they say, life is a mystery.

Day 22 Thursday, October 27, 2011, Clinton, Tennessee

Tennessee

Beginning miles from Kennewick 3,133. Temp. 60, overcast and cloudy.

One of the road atlas that I have lists the mileage from Seattle to Nashville as 2,463 miles, add 175 miles to Knoxville and it is 2,638. But Kennewick is 220 miles from Seattle so it should read, 2418. But my speedometer reads 3,133. It means that with the detour to Billings, Montana is an extra 745 miles. Yet I have no regrets in detouring to Billings in order to try and locate the woman who wrote my first book review.

This day I used most of the whole day just doing paper work trying to catch up on work that I had been unable to do with a place to work. I felt a huge sense of slowness both mentally and physically without the stress and stimulation of road challenge. I immediately took a hot bath to start the morning to remove both the actual collection of road grime and the mental road grime that one feels sitting hour after hour immobilized behind the wheel of an automobile.

The summer-like sunshine held steady, but the weather man has promised by nightfall the rain and cold will arrive. We watched the video of Gunfighter, the 1950 film with Gregory Peck that I had seen as a boy in Ritzville in 1951. I was surprised how much I didn't remember, especially the ending where Peck is back shot by a punk.

Day 23 Friday, October 28, 2011, Clinton, Tennessee

Beginning Miles from Kennewick: 3,153 Temperature: 45, raining at 8 a.m.

I worked at Lamar's until about 1:30 and then drove into Knoxville AAA to get maps. It rained all the way. Temp. 44.

I stopped in Oak Ridge to have the oil changed at J.C. Penny ($24.30). Then picked up a pizza on way home. We watched the BYU-TCU football game and some of St. Louis-Texas World Series on TV.

I got voice mail from Roger Snow in Florida with generous offer to help if I needed it.

Day 24 Saturday, October 29, 2011, Clinton, Tennessee

Beginning miles from Kennewick: 3,201 Temperature: 45? Woke up to fog but by 9 it burned away revealing a blue sky and sunshine.

Began reading Lamar's manuscript Prompted. Drove into Oak Ridge to visit Museum of Science and Energy. Very interesting, but I had little time but to skim over most of the exhibits. Then drove into Knoxville to visit the campus of the Univ. of Tenn. Because they had a football game that night against South Carolina. I had to park downtown because there was no parking close to the stadium. I met a couple walking to the stadium from Huntsville, Alabama. She worked fro NASA and had known Werner von Braun. She also knew who Homer Hickham was. Their name was Mr. And Mrs. Dan McCown. (see photos attached.) Everywhere one sees people in orange. The school colors.

The atmosphere around the stadium was different than at Notre Dame. (see photos of people at stadium.) Less affluence, less show of money. Drove back to Clinton about 8 and fell asleep watching football with Lamar.

Day 25 Sunday, October 30, 2011, Clinton, Tennessee

Beginning miles 3,269. Temperature 37 at 8 a.m. and foggy. Fog burned off by 10:30.

Continued reading Lamar's manuscript. In afternoon he took me on a drive to see Norris Dam about 20 miles NW of here. It was the first dam built in the TVA program in 1934. Cleaned out back of van trying to remove smell of spilt gasoline.

Day 26 Monday, October 31, 2011, Clinton, Tennessee

Beginning miles from Kennewick 3,269 Temp. 40 at 7 a.m.

Atlanta

Overcast with gray sky.

When I woke up this morning I had some kind of headache,

Most of it seemed centered around my eyes, so I suspect I

have some kind sinus infection and have had it since I left

Kennewick or shortly thereafter.

I plan to drive to Atlanta today. I am told it's about 230 miles From Knoxville. I'd like to make contact with a man named Drew Westen, who is a professor of psychology at Emory University. He wrote a brilliant essay about Obama not long ago. I sent him an e-mail but he made no reply. So it might be another of my wasted efforts to find a person of interest on this Big Journey. But in fact I had to pass through Atlanta on my way to Florida.