Travels With Charley Day 15

Steinbeck continues his journey to and through the northwest.  He meets a very interesting character on his way.  He meets and talks with an actor for quite a while.  Personally, I really liked the actor character.  The actor conveyed a very important message that I completely agree with.  The actor focused on staying true to yourself and what you enjoy.  It is far too easy to become distracted or discouraged in today's society.  However, the actor is unfazed by the world and its judgements of him.  He remains true to who and what he is and I respect that.

Travels With Charley Day 14

Steinbeck moves into the Dakotas and finds himself feeling nostalgic.  As he drives through the country roads he finds himself thinking about how the hustle and bustle of the city is so daunting compared to the open aired rural country.  He also focuses on food and its freshness.  He says that our country has gotten so concerned about cleanliness that we have sacrificed taste.  This is a sad notion indeed.  Steinbeck definitely prefers the country to the city I believe.

Travels With Charley Day 13

Steinbeck travels through Illinois and Chicago,  but doesn't write about it because he feels it wound not mesh with his previous writings.  He enters Wisconsin and describes it in very flattering light.  He is impressed with the crisp clear air and the variations of landscapes.  He later tries to see the twin cities of Minnesota, but he is unable due to the influx of traffic.  It is in Minneapolis that he writes his analogy to being a weakening swimmer with all the humongous trucks.  I remember reading that in class.  He gets back on highway 10 and stops at a diner where a very rude waitress and cook give him directions to Sioux Centre.

Travels With Chaley Day 12

Steinbeck travels to a hotel.  He asks for a room but none are available at the moment.  He haggles with the man at the front desk and is eventually allowed to use a room that was rented to a man who left early that morning to catch a plane.  The room hasn't been cleaned so when Steinbeck enters the room he is met with a certain degree of filth.  Steinbeck gets Sherlock Holmesesque and makes all these deductions about the man that used the room before him.  His deductions are rather impressive.

Travels With Chaley Day 11

Steinbeck continues his journey through the midwest.  He meets a couple more people who are minor and unimportant characters.  Not too much happened plot-wise.  Steinbeck likes the midwest and thinks the people there are some of the most genuine in the country.  I have to agree with that.

Travels With Charley Day 10

Steinbeck makes his way into the midwest in this installment.  He stops by a seemingly vacant lot in Michigan and is immediately confronted by a man trying to chase him off the property.  Steinbeck manages to bribe the man with a cup of coffee and ends up becoming friends with him.  The next day they go fishing together.  Midwesterners, at first encounter may seem irritable, but are actually quite nice and thoughtful people.

Travels With Charley Day 9

Steinbeck leaves Maine and travels west.  He visits Niagara Falls.  He tries to cut through Canada at one point to save himself a bit of driving, but he is stopped by immigration agents at the border.  The agents tell him that he may bring Charlie into Canada but the U.S. officials will not let him bring Charley back into the U.S.  Steinbeck proceeds to turn around and head back into the U.S. but not before being harassed my U.S. officials.  Steinbeck associates himself with truck drivers here and compares them to sailors.  He discovers that the truck drivers know little of the country other then their stops on their paths.