Cross Country: Fifteen Years and 90,000 Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a Lot of Bad Motels, a Mo

When I began the book, I didn't like it. I didn't care about Lewis and Clark and their expedition. Then I thought, give it a chance. I believe everyone and everything deserves a second chance. Boy, am I glad that I did! I absolutely loved it! I hated that it ended. I did learn a thing or two about our interstate system, and this spectacular country of ours. I wish it never ended. I may read it again some day.

CROSS COUNTRY: 15 YEARS AND 90,000 MILES ON THE ROADS AND INTERSTATES OF AMERICA is a travelogue like none other, providing a jolly story of a family car trip across America from Oregon to New York - and reflecting on history and culture along the way. From a similar venture by beat author Kerouac to the expeditions of Lewis and Clark, this memoir melds past and present and provides a vivid blend of the author's experiences and his reflections on others who've made the trip. A spicy, involving and highly recommended story evolves.

You can sometimes tell a lot more about a book from its subtitle than its title. This is surely the case with _Cross Country: Fifteen Years and Ninety Thousand Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a Lot of Bad Motels, a Moving Van, Emily Post, Jack Kerouac, My Wife, My Mother-in-Law, Two Kids, and Enough Coffee to Kill an Elephant_ (Bloomsbury) by Robert Sullivan. You can view the sample of the topics in the book on display in the subtitle, but more important, you get an idea that Sullivan is a writer who cannot resist cramming more in. This was true in his last book, _Rats_, an examination of a rat colony in New York City, and is even more true in this big and desultory rumination on the great American road trip. Sullivan reports that when in the car, "I am - like a tour director nobody paid for, like a tour guide nobody can stop, like a human roadside plaque - going on and on... I wish I could control myself; my explications worry me to some extent." His family, he reflects, is a captive audience, but he invites the reader to remember that the book can be put down for a few minutes or possibly forever. Many will find this expansive book disorderly and self-indulgent, but I found it hard to put down, and was sorry when the long trip was all done. Sullivan is an engaging, informative, and funny writer, and in a book that is about wandering, he never really wanders off subject, but he does pull in facts and history about an astonishing range of topics, from roadside sculptures to the Cannonball Run. Sullivan has driven across the country more than two dozen times, since he has contacts on both coasts. The book is ostensibly a memoir of a trip from Oregon to New York, just a family driving, mostly on interstates, and initially following the return route of Lewis and Clark. His "Hey, who wants to read from the Lewis and Clark journals this time?" might have been greeted with moans, but the kids and wife seem to be good sports about it all. (And the son does the reading.) He has historically appropriate fiddle music ready on CDs. Though Lewis and Clark form the major digressions in this memoir, Sullivan is fascinated by later cross country travel. We learn, for instance, that cross-country drivers used to stay in campgrounds, and then bungalows, and then into something new called motor courts, auto hotels, or motor hotels. These were called "autels" before "motels" became the accepted term. Though hotels tried to be a "home away from home", they gained a bad reputation; in 1940, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, said motels were "dens of vice and corruption." Who knew that there was a history of lids for coffee cups? Most to-go coffee lids are "drink-through" lids, and the first one, the "Stubblefield Lid" was patented in 1935. Stubblefield is not to be confused with "the guitar pick", which leaves a remnant of plastic once the user rips a wedge-shaped piece from the edge, or the "peel and lock" l

Although this book may seem a bit disjointed and rambling at first, hold on and enjoy the ride! The disgressions will teach you much-- from the monumental Lewis and Clark expedition and the development of the interstate system to the evolution of Holiday Inns and paper towel dispensers. I also enjoyed Sullivan's non-snarky and down-to-earth observations about traveling with his patient wife and kids. He has a wide-eyed wonder about it all that keeps the reader involved and awake--even without the benefit of coffee.

I loved this book. Took me back to long car trips to see the grandparents in Illinois, fighting with my stupid sister, having to pee every half hour, eating junk we never got at home... The writing is just fine, regardless of what the previous reviewer says. Read it!