The Road Trip Blues

Now that winter has finally passed us by, many of us are taking to the highways again for the Great American Road Trip – an annual ritual for those of us privelaged enough to travel. I have travelled across Canada twice and have spent countless hours winding through the interstate highways of the eastern United States.

At least once a year I head to Asheville, North Carolina to visit family and to enjoy local mountain life: hiking trails; music; food; and beer (the local microbrews are excellent).

The Asheville trips have become almost ritualistic. A 7:00 am departure for the winding 14-hour drive, with my better half (BH) handling navigation (almost) and jockeying tapes in and out of the casette player at regular intervals. A long drive requires some good musical inspiration. You need something to block out the sounds of the road and to keep your blood moving. A side of Nirvana usually gets us going, later shifting into AC/DC, and finishing the morning with some Van Halen – overdrive with finesse!

Normally the afternoon is a mix-match of aging mixed tapes from years gone by, but this year Blind Joe Death (BH’s brother) decided to grace us with his un-caffeinated presence (we stopped in PA to get him a fix), and so we assigned him to DJ duty. We converted our low-tech AM/FM/cassette player into a CD jukebox using the iRiver AFT 100 Mobile FM Transmitter – maybe the best $10 I ever spent on a trip:

Blind Joe is a mix-master extraordinaire, and he kept the tires out of the ditch with several themed compilations – some of which may get posted here in time for your summer driving adventures.

Normally the drive is quite uneventful, but this year’s trip was a Slow Ride experience.

We had been expecting border delays due to the Swine Flu outbreak, but U.S. officials asked us no health-related questions. Instead we were asked for our Canadian passports – this due to the pending June 2009 implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), the bastard child of the anti-democratic (and generally secretive) Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) – a post 9/11 power grab by our ever-so-predictable corporate elite. For more on the SPP, visit the official U.S., Canadian, and Mexican government websites. Ontario residents will soon be able to cross the border using an enhanced driver’s license that will share information with border officials and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yeesh, just typing those last two words gives me the creeps. Could a government agency have a more Orwellian title?

If that wasn’t enough to set the tone, the rainstorm we came into certainly was. We had already been in two long traffic jams and we hit a third one just before entering Pennsylvania – a car-b-q on New York State Thruway. Several hours of driving through rain is tiring on the eyes and the nerves. Bummer man, bummer. It was enough to give us the Road Trip Blues.

But the blues didn’t last for long. Animated from his re-caffeination, Blind Joe inspired us with his mixes and we were all flying high in the sunshine as we passed over the New River Gorge in West Virginia. At 3,030 feet long and 69 feet wide, the bridge is the world’s largest steel span and the second highest bridge in the United States, rising 876 feet above the New River Gorge in southern West Virginia. In 1978, 53 miles of the New River was added to the National Park System as the New River Gorge National River. For years, crossing the New River Gorge meant long detours along narrow, winding mountain roads. The completion of the bridge in 1977 reduced this dangerous 40-minute trip to a smooth and scenic one-minute drive.

Track Listing for Road Trip Blues:

1) Gene Harris Quartet: Summertime – 8:39
2) Duke Ellington: Track 360 – 2:05
3) Mario Pavone Octet: Not Five Kimono – 5:34
4) 20% Tippers: Jacob and Rachel in the Fields – 5:23
5) Pete Seger: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy – 3:00
6) Big Bill Broonzy: Black, Brown and White – 2:45
7) Branford Marsalis: Brother Trying To Catch A Cab (On The Eastside) Blues – 9:05
8) Branford Marsalis & Linda Hopkins: The Road You Choose – 6:23
9) J.J. Cale: Clyde – 2:33
10) John Lee Hooker: 713 Blues – 5:55
11) John Lee Hooker: 714 Blues – 1:39
12) Paul Reddick: Devilment – 2:45
13) J.J. Cale: Perfect Woman – 2:10
14) J.J. Cale: Days Go By – 3:27
15) Paul Reddick: If By This – 5:36
16) Danny Schmidt: Firestorm – 3:46
17) Larry Estridge: Spirits of the Revolution – 5:11