Road Trip USA 1977
It's everybody's dream to take a road trip across the United States of America. Had I seen 'Easy Rider' before I emigrated to the USA? I don't remember, but probably, as it came out in 1969 and I left Ireland in January, 1976. During that year I worked in a laboratory at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. By the end of the year I had saved enough money to take that iconic road trip. Well, not as much money as I would have liked, so I had lined up places to stay: with friends, friends-of-friends, and anyone who wouldn't mind me turning up more or less unannounced and bumming a bed. Where they lived dictated the route: from Amherst to Baltimore, down the East Coast to South Carolina, New Orleans, Texas, Colorado, California, up the west coast to Seattle, across Canada to Montreal and from there back to Amherst. I had an almost new, brown Toyota Corolla. I left on the 6th of February at 1:30 PM. With a job waiting for me in Holland in April, I didn't have much time to linger in any one place. In the back of my mind I felt sure that I would be coming back to the USA. And I did, eventually, for the rest of my life!
Here are excerpts of letters I wrote to my parents in Ireland during the trip.
An Aerogramme, mailed in Austin, Texas on Monday, February 14, 1977.
"It's an 8-hour drive to Baltimore, passing through Philadelphia, and the excellent directions that Nancy (my roommate) made for me, I totally mistook them. All the same it was OK finding Freddie's (my roommate's brother) apartment, the lower half of a house in a nice, crumbling area of Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University. We chatted a long time, about nancy, and about travelling. Freddie is 22 but has spent a few months wandering around Europe and is extremely mature for his age. He has a lot of Nancy's furniture including a fold our sofa, so I had a real bed. We arranged a time to meet at the apartment the next day and he left me, and he left me sleeping as he went to work the next day.
I headed off to Washington, going all the wrong routes of course, but actually got parking in sight of the White House. It's a magnificent city with the Smithsonian Institution dominating everything. Went to the natural History Museum and the Freer Gallery which houses Far Eastern Art, and then drove (free parking was up) to the air and space Museum. That was impressive. I could hardly believe the tiny size of capsules like Apollo and Gemini - the actual ones that went to the moon. Finally, I went briefly into the Hirshorn Gallery of modern sculpture, and then back to Baltimore. Freddie was planning something typical Baltimore for me. The only obvious thing there are the Blacks, about 90% of the town. With two of his friends we went to get spicy steamed crabs and ate them with beer at home. Next morning he cooked breakfast for me and I headed off to the Blue ridge Mountains of Virginia. I'd not planned that detour, but it was well worthwhile. they are not so very high, about 4,000 ft., but there's a drive along the tops for a couple of hundred miles, and surprisingly enough, they really are blue. Part of the road was closed where I joined it due to ice, so I only had 50 miles or so. Drove south along the west border of the mountains and over them again into N. Carolina where I got a motel for the night. Cheapest in these areas is about $12.50 including taxes. Next stop was Charleston, South Carolina, which I got to at around 3 in the afternoon. The weather there was balmy; it's on the coast and is really small with only a medical school. There are palm trees and the like, quite a sight after snow. Usually for lunch I'd picnic at rest areas on the highway. Found Eamonn Duke's room (Professor from University College Dublin on sabbatical at the University of South Carolina), but he wasn't there, so I waited. He didn't recognize me at first, and they it was all hugs and 'howaryes'. We chatted non stop for a couple of hours and then he left me a free phone to anywhere in the country while he checked the lab. I called our lab but only got Liz (lab mate) for a brief hello. Then he drove me all around Charleston looking at the fabulous houses there, remnants of past plantation wealth. Some are in good repair, others pretty bad. But the town itself is very stylish indeed. Next we went for a jar, and finally back to Eamonn's house for dinner. Fiona his wife, and Sean and Thomas the kids I have met before, so it was very relaxed."
"The following morning, with much persuasion to stay, I headed off. Drove through Georgia and Alabama, very inhospitable states. There is nothing obviously inhospitable, it's just that you feel inverse discrimination. Poverty is rife, and in Birmingham, Alabama, where I stopped to try to find John Fitzpatrick from Trinity College Dublin, I can see how they don't really like it there. It's all vulgar neon lights and car sales showrooms. Got a motel later in the night and slept really late the following morning. Mississippi is a pleasant state, a little more prosperous, and of course in day light, most places look OK. Reached New Orleans around 3 where I'd planned to spend a few hours, drive through the night and sleep for a few hours in the car. However, coming into New Orleans, I heard a strange noise from the engine. Drove to the French quarter for parking, checked, and it seemed as if it came from the fan because when you revved the engine it got louder. The fan seemed OK, perhaps a little loose. But when I started it again there was no noise. A bit panicky, I drove to a dealer who insisted the bearing was going. this was Friday, they would be closed 'til Monday and with Mardi Gras the following tuesday I didn't think I could afford 3 days in New Orleans. So I said I'd chance driving 550 miles to Austin, Texas. They said I was crazy. I kept thinking of what you would do in the situation, Daddy, and needless to say, decided you would try it. Well, it's fine so far and I expect it will be. Drove steadily through dark Louisiana and called Tommy (brother of ex-Irish boyfriend) around 9 from Port Arthur on the border of Texas. With fog and dark, I didn't get to the apartment until 4 in the morning, but he was still up waiting for me. Went straight to bed totally exhausted - 800 miles that day.
Saturday, Tommy, Dilip his Indian room-mate and I wandered around Austin, a low-rise, spread out, very prosperous city of quarter of a million people at least. The weather was 60's at least and glorious. that evening I cooked and we went down town for ice cream afterwards. Very good! Yesterday we drove to the lakes outside Austin: doses of people out picnicking, sailing, barbecuing, etc. Went with another fellow from the apartment complex called Vigai to a Mexican restaurant for supper - excellent food. It's so good to be in this heat. I'm just sitting outside doing almost nothing. Perhaps I'll read awhile and maybe go downtown to to San Antonio, or the Mall. I plan to stay here until Wednesday and then go to Colorado."
An Aerogramme, mailed in Grand Canyon, Arizona on Tuesday, February 22, 1977.
"Your worries are now over - I have not one but two travelling companions. I arrived in Boulder, Colorado on thursday night and stayed at the youth Hostel there. Called Nancy (my room mate) in Massachusetts to see how things were and she said had I seen Tom yet (her boyfriend). He was going to surprise me by being in Steve Roper's office (potential postdoc mentor) when I called to see him in Denver the following day! Tom has no job at present since he got his MSc., and thought he might as well take advantage of my trip, so he flew to Denver and stayed with his sister nearby until I appeared. I spent Fioday morning with Roper, making sure I have a good chance of a job with him, the afternoon driving around the Rocky Mountains, and that evening stayed with tom and his sister in fort Collins at the north end of the range. We went to a real live 'Hick' cowboy bar where they genuinely still JIVE. Next day we had a phone call from Tom's room mate in Woods Hole, Bob, saying he thought he might fly out. Sure enough, on Sunday afternoon we collected him from Denver airport. They are wonderful company. I'm so pleased they came. On Saturday I met roper for dinner in the evening after a glorious sunny day in rocky Mountain National Park with Tom. We had a creole dinner, great, as I missed that in New Orleans, and later drove trendily in is Porche open top sports car to a little place up the mountains for a cafe royale, a very nice drink, but with all the palaver of its preparation, I hate to think of the cost. Drove back to fort Collins that night too, and the next day we three headed west to drive over the Rocky Mountains. Spent a few hours in Vail, a delightful skiing resort, very expensive and reminiscent of Austria. The shock of that by comparison with last night's and today's excursions into Indian reservations is very depressing. On Sunday evening, after Vail, we came to some hot sulphur springs and bathed there. it was like being a hard-boiled egg, but very invigorating. These are the things I'd never do alone. Next day we were in the south west corner of Colorado, at Mesa Verde National park. There are old Indian dwellings in natural gorges, carved out of rock side. No tourists around, mercifully, and weather good. By dark we were in Arizona and a genuine sand storm blew up. Gusts of 40+ m.p.h. were blinding, like driving in fog, and the car was full of grit. Stopped for supper at a genuine local spot, but seeing trailer parks full of Indians is awful when you consider the territory they originally owned. They have no employment in the desert and nothing to do. You cannot even graze sheep, just be a tourist spectacle.
Stayed in a very basic motel, almost good by European standards, but to Tom and Bob it was a bit grotty I think. They are not really used to roughing it. We still picnic at lunch time and are looking for an immersion heater that plugs into the cigarette lighter for tea.
Today we drove to the Grand Canyon, and there's just nothing to describe it adequately. It's grand, huge, amazing, etc. I'm glad i saw it with my own eyes because photographs cannot do it justice.
Next stop is Las Vegas for a ceremonial spending of $1 on the tables or slot machines and then on to Los Angeles. We plan to go up the coast to Canada and eventually end up back in Amherst.
I cannot remember the exact date I wrote the last letter, but the trip up through Texas, New Mexico to Colorado was beautiful. Real cowboy, stagecoach, Indian, wagon train country. The first sight of the Rocky Mountains was breathtaking because they looked so unreal, and temperature-wise it was in the 70s. it's cold now but we've been over 5,000 ft. for several days now, and some of the passes are 11,000 ft.
This was definitely a wonderful idea. I'd have regretted not seeing these forever, if I knew about it."
A letter mailed in Brookings, Oregon on Tuesday, March 1, 1977.
"This has been an amazing week, even with, or maybe because of, the company. By 10 PM each evening when we're looking for a really cheap motel, and one of us is hiding in the back of the car, or when Bob says: 'where's the so-and-so' because he's too lazy to look for it, we feel like throttling each other. But the rest of it makes it totally worthwhile!
I cannot remember what day I last wrote, so let me assume it was approximately Wednesday. We drove through the Mojave Desert in Eastern California, and, at a rest area, Tom found what looks undeniably like an Indian arrowhead. The desert is not very sandy, more shingly, but it was drizzling slightly and hazy - very lovely. The rain became heavier, and just approaching the coast, around Los Angeles, the enginge began to stutter a little. By a few hours it had cleaned up, but it may be dampness (?) as the same thing happened this evening with the first rain after dry days and days.
Tom wanted to see a University south of LA and Bob wanted to see the one that Kate went to (Nancy's current room mate) north of LA in Santa Barbara. So we visited both. Had a marvelous Mexican meal in Santa Barbara, and headed up the coast to a resort called San Louis Obispo where Tom had friends, a redundant postdoc and his wife. they put us up for that night and the following morning we left. Along the coast there's the Hearst 'Ranch' which has been turned over to the State for a National Monument. Gaudy, gauche and gorgeous is all I can say, like you'd imagine Gatsby films. It was geared to entertain 1930s movie stars, and in ways is beautiful, but so opulent. The tour was expensive but well-arranged for a place that wants to say 'don't touch' but still wants to give you your money's worth of viewing.
Along by Big Sur and Monterey there's a spectacular coast drive, with houses perched in places that seem, by gravity, not to be able to support them, and the vegetation is rich and luxurious. We stayed that night in a typical American small town and it was Friday with all the local kids 'cruising' up and down the strip, honking their horns. Tom explained the whole set-up to me, and how important and significant each action is. It was hilarious.
the next day we drove through vineyard country to Yosemite National park, and even got a free sample of wine and dried fruits grown locally along the say. Nancy (ex-room mate) had told me to visit the park and she was right. It was a little too peopled for my liking, but very spectacular with giant sequoia trees that you could drive through.
On Sunday we drove to San Francisco, the Golden City, and watched Chinese New Year in Chinatown after a delicious meal, with Lion Dances and the music and palaver. You meet just about every weirdo in creation there, but its got an air of fun about it that's missing in many other cities. We even rode a cable car to where you get boats for Alcatraz.
Today it rained, but northern California needs it, so no complaints. It's unbelievably like Ireland here, so fertile, with rolling hills, dairying, fruit growing and lots of grapes. Unfortunatelu it's out of season.
So tomorrow is Oregon, then Canada."
An Aerogramme, mailed in Canada (M4L 3TO - wherever that is) on Friday, March 11, 1977.
"I'm sitting in a cafeteria in University of Toronto, putting in an hour or so before I meet Bob and Tom and go to Montreal. so much for location, but by now we are really getting expert at negotiating universities. Where did I leave you? Berkeley? Oregon? That sounds better. From there we headed to Seattle, Washington State, in absolutely pouring rain. Fortunately that morning, maybe sensing doom, I bought a spray for cleaning connections, because on the highway the car just cut out totally. Wwe sprayed the stuff on the distributor, etc., and all was perfect for another about 50 miles. In the end I gave in a drove to a Toyota dealer. He took it out for a run and found it OK, needless to say. But at least he was honest enough to say that diagnosing the exact area of problem would be very lengthy and I might as well go on as it was. It happened a few more times again, but stopped with the rain. The car has the right idea - it loves snow, sunshine and altitude. Tom's eldest sister went to college in Oregon and has lived for 3 years as a social scientist - dreadful job with semi-delinquent children, and she is also an unmarried mother, though the father of her child lives with her, along with two sixteen year olds in foster care. Weird set-up, but she's one of the most admirable and competent women I've ever met, and she's the same age as I. She couldn't do enough for us; took a day off work after putting us up for the night and feeding us Irish style, at midnight when we arrived! Went up the Space Needles, a revolving restaurant 600 ft. above the ground, at her expense, and had hot Irish whiskeys, looking all over Seattle. she brought us down to the wharf for a magnificent fish dinner that night, and we just had to leave before she spent everything she had on us. Stayed just at the border that night and crossed through a delightful and efficient customs the next day, very different from the Montreal routes.
Still raining we got to Vancouver, and i drove to Simon Fraser University to look for Jim Ryan (fellow student at my lab in University College Dublin). When I asked for him by name, nobody had heard of him, so naturally I thought I had the wrong university. I read an article in the Irish Times on Brian or Brendan Beirne, an Irish scientist who made good in Vancouver for the last 4 years or so, so I asked him. Jim's known as his passport name, Seamus O'Riain, so we did eventually get him. Talk about being surprised. It was hilarious. There was a department party that afternoon to which he brought us, and even Beirne bought us drinks there. The two fellows got maggoty drunk and I declined Jim's invite to stay overnight, saying that we just had to head east. Besides Banff, the famous sik resort, there's nothing for a couple of thousand miles except boredom, so we drove for 36 hours non stop from close to the mountains to near the lakes. Quite a haul, but I did most of it, being untrusting of other people driving my car. Saw Regina, Saskachewan, and was so pleased to be going to Holland (I had considered a postdoc in Regina). It's awful: 100,000 people in the dead center of nowhere and nothing but flat land all around. Arrived in Toronto and left the fellows at the YMCA. They looked lost, being left without a car or clucking 'mother'. Found Jimmy (ex-boyfriend in Ireland, also Tommy's brother) totally unchanged except for older-looking and if anything, more serious. Stayed another day and left without bother. So we're off to Montreal, and will stay probably until Sunday. Then Amherst and home, here we come."
The trip was 12,500 miles approximately. I did almost all the driving. We spent about 5 weeks on the road.
Shortly after this trip, I sold the car to Tommy whom we had visited in Austin, Texas. He came to Amherst to collect it. I left for Ireland in late March, and moved to Holland soon afterwards.
It's everybody's dream to take a road trip across the United States of America. Had I seen 'Easy Rider' before I emigrated to the USA? I don't remember, but probably, as it came out in 1969 and I left Ireland in January, 1976. During that year I worked in a laboratory at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. By the end of the year I had saved enough money to take that iconic road trip. Well, not as much money as I would have liked, so I had lined up places to stay: with friends, friends-of-friends, and anyone who wouldn't mind me turning up more or less unannounced and bumming a bed. Where they lived dictated the route: from Amherst to Baltimore, down the East Coast to South Carolina, New Orleans, Texas, Colorado, California, up the west coast to Seattle, across Canada to Montreal and from there back to Amherst. I had an almost new, brown Toyota Corolla. I left on the 6th of February at 1:30 PM. With a job waiting for me in Holland in April, I didn't have much time to linger in any one place. In the back of my mind I felt sure that I would be coming back to the USA. And I did, eventually, for the rest of my life!
Here are excerpts of letters I wrote to my parents in Ireland during the trip.
An Aerogramme, mailed in Austin, Texas on Monday, February 14, 1977.
"It's an 8-hour drive to Baltimore, passing through Philadelphia, and the excellent directions that Nancy (my roommate) made for me, I totally mistook them. All the same it was OK finding Freddie's (my roommate's brother) apartment, the lower half of a house in a nice, crumbling area of Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University. We chatted a long time, about nancy, and about travelling. Freddie is 22 but has spent a few months wandering around Europe and is extremely mature for his age. He has a lot of Nancy's furniture including a fold our sofa, so I had a real bed. We arranged a time to meet at the apartment the next day and he left me, and he left me sleeping as he went to work the next day.
I headed off to Washington, going all the wrong routes of course, but actually got parking in sight of the White House. It's a magnificent city with the Smithsonian Institution dominating everything. Went to the natural History Museum and the Freer Gallery which houses Far Eastern Art, and then drove (free parking was up) to the air and space Museum. That was impressive. I could hardly believe the tiny size of capsules like Apollo and Gemini - the actual ones that went to the moon. Finally, I went briefly into the Hirshorn Gallery of modern sculpture, and then back to Baltimore. Freddie was planning something typical Baltimore for me. The only obvious thing there are the Blacks, about 90% of the town. With two of his friends we went to get spicy steamed crabs and ate them with beer at home. Next morning he cooked breakfast for me and I headed off to the Blue ridge Mountains of Virginia. I'd not planned that detour, but it was well worthwhile. they are not so very high, about 4,000 ft., but there's a drive along the tops for a couple of hundred miles, and surprisingly enough, they really are blue. Part of the road was closed where I joined it due to ice, so I only had 50 miles or so. Drove south along the west border of the mountains and over them again into N. Carolina where I got a motel for the night. Cheapest in these areas is about $12.50 including taxes. Next stop was Charleston, South Carolina, which I got to at around 3 in the afternoon. The weather there was balmy; it's on the coast and is really small with only a medical school. There are palm trees and the like, quite a sight after snow. Usually for lunch I'd picnic at rest areas on the highway. Found Eamonn Duke's room (Professor from University College Dublin on sabbatical at the University of South Carolina), but he wasn't there, so I waited. He didn't recognize me at first, and they it was all hugs and 'howaryes'. We chatted non stop for a couple of hours and then he left me a free phone to anywhere in the country while he checked the lab. I called our lab but only got Liz (lab mate) for a brief hello. Then he drove me all around Charleston looking at the fabulous houses there, remnants of past plantation wealth. Some are in good repair, others pretty bad. But the town itself is very stylish indeed. Next we went for a jar, and finally back to Eamonn's house for dinner. Fiona his wife, and Sean and Thomas the kids I have met before, so it was very relaxed."
"The following morning, with much persuasion to stay, I headed off. Drove through Georgia and Alabama, very inhospitable states. There is nothing obviously inhospitable, it's just that you feel inverse discrimination. Poverty is rife, and in Birmingham, Alabama, where I stopped to try to find John Fitzpatrick from Trinity College Dublin, I can see how they don't really like it there. It's all vulgar neon lights and car sales showrooms. Got a motel later in the night and slept really late the following morning. Mississippi is a pleasant state, a little more prosperous, and of course in day light, most places look OK. Reached New Orleans around 3 where I'd planned to spend a few hours, drive through the night and sleep for a few hours in the car. However, coming into New Orleans, I heard a strange noise from the engine. Drove to the French quarter for parking, checked, and it seemed as if it came from the fan because when you revved the engine it got louder. The fan seemed OK, perhaps a little loose. But when I started it again there was no noise. A bit panicky, I drove to a dealer who insisted the bearing was going. this was Friday, they would be closed 'til Monday and with Mardi Gras the following tuesday I didn't think I could afford 3 days in New Orleans. So I said I'd chance driving 550 miles to Austin, Texas. They said I was crazy. I kept thinking of what you would do in the situation, Daddy, and needless to say, decided you would try it. Well, it's fine so far and I expect it will be. Drove steadily through dark Louisiana and called Tommy (brother of ex-Irish boyfriend) around 9 from Port Arthur on the border of Texas. With fog and dark, I didn't get to the apartment until 4 in the morning, but he was still up waiting for me. Went straight to bed totally exhausted - 800 miles that day.
Saturday, Tommy, Dilip his Indian room-mate and I wandered around Austin, a low-rise, spread out, very prosperous city of quarter of a million people at least. The weather was 60's at least and glorious. that evening I cooked and we went down town for ice cream afterwards. Very good! Yesterday we drove to the lakes outside Austin: doses of people out picnicking, sailing, barbecuing, etc. Went with another fellow from the apartment complex called Vigai to a Mexican restaurant for supper - excellent food. It's so good to be in this heat. I'm just sitting outside doing almost nothing. Perhaps I'll read awhile and maybe go downtown to to San Antonio, or the Mall. I plan to stay here until Wednesday and then go to Colorado."
An Aerogramme, mailed in Grand Canyon, Arizona on Tuesday, February 22, 1977.
"Your worries are now over - I have not one but two travelling companions. I arrived in Boulder, Colorado on thursday night and stayed at the youth Hostel there. Called Nancy (my room mate) in Massachusetts to see how things were and she said had I seen Tom yet (her boyfriend). He was going to surprise me by being in Steve Roper's office (potential postdoc mentor) when I called to see him in Denver the following day! Tom has no job at present since he got his MSc., and thought he might as well take advantage of my trip, so he flew to Denver and stayed with his sister nearby until I appeared. I spent Fioday morning with Roper, making sure I have a good chance of a job with him, the afternoon driving around the Rocky Mountains, and that evening stayed with tom and his sister in fort Collins at the north end of the range. We went to a real live 'Hick' cowboy bar where they genuinely still JIVE. Next day we had a phone call from Tom's room mate in Woods Hole, Bob, saying he thought he might fly out. Sure enough, on Sunday afternoon we collected him from Denver airport. They are wonderful company. I'm so pleased they came. On Saturday I met roper for dinner in the evening after a glorious sunny day in rocky Mountain National Park with Tom. We had a creole dinner, great, as I missed that in New Orleans, and later drove trendily in is Porche open top sports car to a little place up the mountains for a cafe royale, a very nice drink, but with all the palaver of its preparation, I hate to think of the cost. Drove back to fort Collins that night too, and the next day we three headed west to drive over the Rocky Mountains. Spent a few hours in Vail, a delightful skiing resort, very expensive and reminiscent of Austria. The shock of that by comparison with last night's and today's excursions into Indian reservations is very depressing. On Sunday evening, after Vail, we came to some hot sulphur springs and bathed there. it was like being a hard-boiled egg, but very invigorating. These are the things I'd never do alone. Next day we were in the south west corner of Colorado, at Mesa Verde National park. There are old Indian dwellings in natural gorges, carved out of rock side. No tourists around, mercifully, and weather good. By dark we were in Arizona and a genuine sand storm blew up. Gusts of 40+ m.p.h. were blinding, like driving in fog, and the car was full of grit. Stopped for supper at a genuine local spot, but seeing trailer parks full of Indians is awful when you consider the territory they originally owned. They have no employment in the desert and nothing to do. You cannot even graze sheep, just be a tourist spectacle.
Stayed in a very basic motel, almost good by European standards, but to Tom and Bob it was a bit grotty I think. They are not really used to roughing it. We still picnic at lunch time and are looking for an immersion heater that plugs into the cigarette lighter for tea.
Today we drove to the Grand Canyon, and there's just nothing to describe it adequately. It's grand, huge, amazing, etc. I'm glad i saw it with my own eyes because photographs cannot do it justice.
Next stop is Las Vegas for a ceremonial spending of $1 on the tables or slot machines and then on to Los Angeles. We plan to go up the coast to Canada and eventually end up back in Amherst.
I cannot remember the exact date I wrote the last letter, but the trip up through Texas, New Mexico to Colorado was beautiful. Real cowboy, stagecoach, Indian, wagon train country. The first sight of the Rocky Mountains was breathtaking because they looked so unreal, and temperature-wise it was in the 70s. it's cold now but we've been over 5,000 ft. for several days now, and some of the passes are 11,000 ft.
This was definitely a wonderful idea. I'd have regretted not seeing these forever, if I knew about it."
A letter mailed in Brookings, Oregon on Tuesday, March 1, 1977.
"This has been an amazing week, even with, or maybe because of, the company. By 10 PM each evening when we're looking for a really cheap motel, and one of us is hiding in the back of the car, or when Bob says: 'where's the so-and-so' because he's too lazy to look for it, we feel like throttling each other. But the rest of it makes it totally worthwhile!
I cannot remember what day I last wrote, so let me assume it was approximately Wednesday. We drove through the Mojave Desert in Eastern California, and, at a rest area, Tom found what looks undeniably like an Indian arrowhead. The desert is not very sandy, more shingly, but it was drizzling slightly and hazy - very lovely. The rain became heavier, and just approaching the coast, around Los Angeles, the enginge began to stutter a little. By a few hours it had cleaned up, but it may be dampness (?) as the same thing happened this evening with the first rain after dry days and days.
Tom wanted to see a University south of LA and Bob wanted to see the one that Kate went to (Nancy's current room mate) north of LA in Santa Barbara. So we visited both. Had a marvelous Mexican meal in Santa Barbara, and headed up the coast to a resort called San Louis Obispo where Tom had friends, a redundant postdoc and his wife. they put us up for that night and the following morning we left. Along the coast there's the Hearst 'Ranch' which has been turned over to the State for a National Monument. Gaudy, gauche and gorgeous is all I can say, like you'd imagine Gatsby films. It was geared to entertain 1930s movie stars, and in ways is beautiful, but so opulent. The tour was expensive but well-arranged for a place that wants to say 'don't touch' but still wants to give you your money's worth of viewing.
Along by Big Sur and Monterey there's a spectacular coast drive, with houses perched in places that seem, by gravity, not to be able to support them, and the vegetation is rich and luxurious. We stayed that night in a typical American small town and it was Friday with all the local kids 'cruising' up and down the strip, honking their horns. Tom explained the whole set-up to me, and how important and significant each action is. It was hilarious.
the next day we drove through vineyard country to Yosemite National park, and even got a free sample of wine and dried fruits grown locally along the say. Nancy (ex-room mate) had told me to visit the park and she was right. It was a little too peopled for my liking, but very spectacular with giant sequoia trees that you could drive through.
On Sunday we drove to San Francisco, the Golden City, and watched Chinese New Year in Chinatown after a delicious meal, with Lion Dances and the music and palaver. You meet just about every weirdo in creation there, but its got an air of fun about it that's missing in many other cities. We even rode a cable car to where you get boats for Alcatraz.
Today it rained, but northern California needs it, so no complaints. It's unbelievably like Ireland here, so fertile, with rolling hills, dairying, fruit growing and lots of grapes. Unfortunatelu it's out of season.
So tomorrow is Oregon, then Canada."
An Aerogramme, mailed in Canada (M4L 3TO - wherever that is) on Friday, March 11, 1977.
"I'm sitting in a cafeteria in University of Toronto, putting in an hour or so before I meet Bob and Tom and go to Montreal. so much for location, but by now we are really getting expert at negotiating universities. Where did I leave you? Berkeley? Oregon? That sounds better. From there we headed to Seattle, Washington State, in absolutely pouring rain. Fortunately that morning, maybe sensing doom, I bought a spray for cleaning connections, because on the highway the car just cut out totally. Wwe sprayed the stuff on the distributor, etc., and all was perfect for another about 50 miles. In the end I gave in a drove to a Toyota dealer. He took it out for a run and found it OK, needless to say. But at least he was honest enough to say that diagnosing the exact area of problem would be very lengthy and I might as well go on as it was. It happened a few more times again, but stopped with the rain. The car has the right idea - it loves snow, sunshine and altitude. Tom's eldest sister went to college in Oregon and has lived for 3 years as a social scientist - dreadful job with semi-delinquent children, and she is also an unmarried mother, though the father of her child lives with her, along with two sixteen year olds in foster care. Weird set-up, but she's one of the most admirable and competent women I've ever met, and she's the same age as I. She couldn't do enough for us; took a day off work after putting us up for the night and feeding us Irish style, at midnight when we arrived! Went up the Space Needles, a revolving restaurant 600 ft. above the ground, at her expense, and had hot Irish whiskeys, looking all over Seattle. she brought us down to the wharf for a magnificent fish dinner that night, and we just had to leave before she spent everything she had on us. Stayed just at the border that night and crossed through a delightful and efficient customs the next day, very different from the Montreal routes.
Still raining we got to Vancouver, and i drove to Simon Fraser University to look for Jim Ryan (fellow student at my lab in University College Dublin). When I asked for him by name, nobody had heard of him, so naturally I thought I had the wrong university. I read an article in the Irish Times on Brian or Brendan Beirne, an Irish scientist who made good in Vancouver for the last 4 years or so, so I asked him. Jim's known as his passport name, Seamus O'Riain, so we did eventually get him. Talk about being surprised. It was hilarious. There was a department party that afternoon to which he brought us, and even Beirne bought us drinks there. The two fellows got maggoty drunk and I declined Jim's invite to stay overnight, saying that we just had to head east. Besides Banff, the famous sik resort, there's nothing for a couple of thousand miles except boredom, so we drove for 36 hours non stop from close to the mountains to near the lakes. Quite a haul, but I did most of it, being untrusting of other people driving my car. Saw Regina, Saskachewan, and was so pleased to be going to Holland (I had considered a postdoc in Regina). It's awful: 100,000 people in the dead center of nowhere and nothing but flat land all around. Arrived in Toronto and left the fellows at the YMCA. They looked lost, being left without a car or clucking 'mother'. Found Jimmy (ex-boyfriend in Ireland, also Tommy's brother) totally unchanged except for older-looking and if anything, more serious. Stayed another day and left without bother. So we're off to Montreal, and will stay probably until Sunday. Then Amherst and home, here we come."
The trip was 12,500 miles approximately. I did almost all the driving. We spent about 5 weeks on the road.
Shortly after this trip, I sold the car to Tommy whom we had visited in Austin, Texas. He came to Amherst to collect it. I left for Ireland in late March, and moved to Holland soon afterwards.