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.