a trip worth taking

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

the quote on the cover sucked me in:

". . . the kind of book Steinbeck might have written if he'd traveled with David Letterman instead of Charlie the poodle." - New York magazine. (sic)

"The Lost Continent" is a hilarious, irreverent, yet thoughtful trek around the mainland US during the mid 1980s. If you have ever read anything by Bill Bryson, you know what a wonderfully entertaining smart-ass he can be. Well what better traveling companion on a jaunt literally around the entire US in an aging Chevrolet Chevette shit-wagon?

This book is a wild, thoroughly entertaining 14,000 mile ride, taking the back roads (hats off to William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" and Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley") and stopping to smell the roses along the way. I really enjoyed this journey, particularly because my wife and i have traveled a good portion of it over the last 4 years. Having taken three driving trips to Colorado, New Mexico, California, Missouri and Kansas, we actually saw and stopped at many of the same places Mr. Bryson writes about. I can't say that my comments are the same as his, but it was great to hear his clever sense of humor narrating the places we've visited so recently. All in all, this book is a trip worth taking!

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