Roadtripping (Part 1)
In which we spent a couple of weeks going from state to state, while I got confused by the short story collection I was reading.
If you were wondering what happened to this newsletter over the last couple of weeks, blame it on the call of the open road, as we spent our time behind the wheel heading north and west to spend some time with friends and family while taking in some sights along the way.
According to the route I traced on Google Maps after our return that was 53 hours of driving and just over 3,400 miles - but that doesn't include the side trips we took around MD and into PA and DC so maybe closer to 4,000 miles.
By my calculation, we also hit 14 states on the trip:
TX, LA, MS, AL, TN, KY, VA, MD, DC, PA, WV, OH, IN, AR
Most of the driving on the first day was the 5 hours just to get to the Texas border. Followed by a blast across Louisiana on a freeway route that was sadly bereft of any fun or interesting roadside distractions.
The following day we started to see signs for some of those iconic American attractions but missed seeing The World’s Largest Cast Iron Skillet as it was a little too far in the wrong direction.
A jam on the freeway due to a traffic accident meant we got to The Lost Sea (America’s largest underground lake) 4 minutes after closing time. Another missed opportunity. But we did see a choo-choo when we drove through Chatanooga - so there’s that.
Despite those minor disappointments, we had a great drive with nice clear skies and great views through the hills of the Piedmont Uplands in Alabama, and some fun driving through the Smokey Mountain backroads in Tennessee.
Our overnight stop was Pigeon Forge, TN, which was to quote Gill, “bonkers.” You know you are in for something different when the first sight you see driving into town is King Kong’s butt. (There was a giant statue of him on the side of the Wax Works museum.)
It was surreal to find a town full of oversized glitzy (and delightfully tacky in some cases) theme park style attractions in the middle of Tennessee. But I will say the Titanic Museum (the reason for our visit) was exceptional, surprisingly tasteful and respectful, and a moving tribute to the ill-fated crew & passengers.
After we left Pigeon Forge we took a diversion off the freeway in Tennessee to check out the Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park which had a recreation of the homestead farm where Crockett spent his early childhood. We also took time to do some trail walking in the nearby woods. This was much more our sort of thing.
The trip back to the freeway was an hour of switchback country roads perfectly suited to some fun MINI motoring.
The next stop was Roanoke, Virginia where we found a “brick oven pub” to enjoy a large glass of red wine and some of the best-tasting and heavily loaded GF pizza I’ve ever had (and they didn’t charge a premium for a GF crust either- which made a change).
After a straightforward drive from Virginia to Maryland with one weird little diversion. We stopped at a tiny isolated off-highway gas station in the middle of nowhere Virginia. There was maybe three people there and as the car was filling up I started chatting to the guy at the next pump who it turned out was also on a trip from TX to MD and recognized our car and informed me we’d been passing each other on the freeway since Knoxville TN!
On arrival in Maryland, we settled into the historic home AirBnB that would be our base for the next week of visiting family and friends around the Baltimore area, plus taking a few excursions to explore the small towns in the northwestern area of the state that we hadn’t really visited before.
While in Maryland we took the opportunity to take a side trip to Washington DC, primarily to visit the Bond-in-Motion exhibit on display at the International Spy Museum just off the mall. (We’ll be posting a few observations about that in the next edition of our James Bond Lexicon newsletter.)
After the Spy Museum, we hung out on The Mall for a while taking in the sights before meeting up for a meal with a CompuServe Comics Forum buddy who I hadn’t seen in way too long (although neither of us could remember exactly when we last met.)
The day in DC was an excellent way to wrap up the first half of the trip.
Other Stuff
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Word Slinging
As this edition of the newsletter drops I’ll be on the road again, but this time for a short hop up to Dallas where I’ll be spending the week visiting some of my content consulting business clients. But to start things off I am delighted to be taking part in the Carpe Fabulam mini-convention tomorrow (Saturday, April 13th) hosted by my friends at Carpe Diem Comics in McKinney, TX, on the north side of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area.
Come join us - You can find out more details right HERE
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2024- “The Best Stories of Arsene Lupin” by Maurice Leblanc
This was my road trip evening reading, and it left me a little confused.
Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief, appeared in 17 novels and 39 short stories published between 1905 and 1939. His popularity in France was comparable to the popularity of Sherlock Holmes in the UK and the two were rivals in print (and between their respective creators). Lupin has been a source of inspiration for films, comics, manga, and TV including the recent Lupin series on Netflix.
This volume is clearly put together to reach those coming to the character through the Netflix show and manages to fail spectacularly.
The 19 stories in this collection are fun and entertaining tales from various points in Lupin’s career, but it’s the collection itself that misses the mark.
There is no background information on Lupin for the new reader, nothing to put the stories in context, no publication information, and it reads as if different translations were used as character voices are inconsistent.
But the biggest error of all is the order in which the stories are presented. They jump around Lupin’s timeline, and worst of all a trilogy of connected tales are in reverse order!
It’s a real shame because a good editorial hand could have made this a perfect introduction to a classic character for a new audience. Instead, it’s a jumbled mess.
Seeing this review a friend of mine mentioned that he considered the best adaptation/version to be the 1971 French-produced TV show starring Georges Descrieres. Based on the opening titles below it certainly looks like fun.
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We’ve also updated our online bookstore at Bookshop.org with a list of the books read in 2024 to date, so you can pick up copies of any that interest you, while also helping out local independent bookstores
Bond Briefings
In the latest edition of our bi-weekly James Bond Lexicon newsletter I take a look at what The Saint’s creator, Leslie Charteris had to say about Ian Fleming and James Bond - let’s say he wasn’t exactly a fan of 007. We also have an update on some podcast rescheduling, and say farewell to another couple of members of the Bond family.
If you enjoy the worlds of 007 and haven’t subscribed, you can join us at the link below
Before They Were Beatles Updates
The next episode of THE FORGOTTEN BEATLES podcast now live and available on your podcast platform of choice or directly at the link HERE.
In this episode, we cover the 3 Cs - George’s stand in Vince Calandra, acapella group The Chants, and drummer Norman Chapman.
The March issue of the Before They Were Beatles newsletter in which formally introduce one James Paul McCartney to our story is now online. If you don’t want to miss out on the expanded story of the early Beatles history when they are published, you can sign up for a subscription below.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week we move on to January 1969 with new issues of Detective Comics and Batman to start the year.
My pick this week is Batman #208 but not because of the cover. This is an unusual 80-page Giant edition, in that instead of just being straight reprints of old stories, as these compilation issues tend to be, it instead has an original framing story that connects multiple extracts rather than full story reprints.
Where on the Web is Alan?
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See you next time
Alan J. Porter
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