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Baby on the Road: Thoughts from Places

2010-12-30 · John · watch on YouTube · Personal life · reflection essay

Driving his family from Birmingham back to Indianapolis, John contrasts his youthful road trips west, inspired by All the King's Men, with travelling as a father with responsibilities, and concludes that destinations aren't all bad: this road leads home.

What is said

00:00:00 — Morning in the Yeti's childhood bedroom; a child of the brothers and Willy; packing for the drive from Birmingham to Indianapolis

  • ★★ John woke in the Yeti's childhood bedroom, found a child of the brothers removing trash from a trash can, and the family had to drive from Birmingham back to Indianapolis. — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green, Willy, Indianapolis

00:00:24 — Then and now: a whole life in a sedan vs a car-top carrier; past road trips; this trip all about speed

  • ★★★ John says he once could fit his whole life into a small sedan; now he needs a car-top carrier on his station wagon for a five-day trip. — 00:00:24
  • ★★ Recalling his younger years, John lists past road trips to the Grand Canyon, Alaska, San Francisco, and Arthur, Nebraska, home of the world's smallest courthouse. — 00:00:33 · San Francisco
  • ★★ John says he used to get distracted by roadside attractions, but this trip was all about speed: leftover barbecue for breakfast and no stop until lunch. — 00:00:45

00:00:59 — Nostalgia undercut by Happy Meals and the Play Place; a Google-translated German review

  • ★★ John had been feeling nostalgic, but notes that on the old road trips he couldn't order Happy Meals or play in the Play Place, which he can do again now. (playful) — 00:00:59 · Happy Meal
  • ★ While Willy slept, John read Sarah an excerpt from a German review of one of his books as translated by Google. (playful) — 00:01:06 · Sarah Urist Green, Google

00:01:16 — Why his old trips went west: open space and Robert Penn Warren's passage from All the King's Men

  • ★★★ Driving north, John reflects that his old road trips all went west, partly because that is where America's open space is and partly because of a line in All the King's Men. — 00:01:16 · United States
  • ★★★ John reads Robert Penn Warren's passage on the West as where you go when the land gives out or you are 'a bubble on the tide of empire', and wishes he could write such sentences. — 00:01:27

00:02:03 — Becoming an adult; the not-so-small courthouse in Arthur, Nebraska; journey vs destination; arriving home; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says he kept thinking about the old road trips and this one, and about becoming a capital-A adult with capital-R responsibilities. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ John recalls reaching the world's smallest courthouse in Arthur, Nebraska after twelve hours of driving and finding it not actually that small. (playful) — 00:02:06
  • ★★★ When he complained on the way to Carhenge, a fellow traveller reminded him the journey matters, not the destination; John says that's true in its way, but destinations aren't all bad. — 00:02:24
  • ★★★ Driving north with the whole family, John says the road delivered them to the one place his youthful trips west never could: home. — 00:02:36

Humor (significant)

  • Feeling nostalgic for youthful road trips, John remembers he couldn't order Happy Meals or play in the Play Place then. — 00:01:02 > «which I can finally do again after more than two decades.»
  • At a gas stop the family lets baby a child of the brothers 'drive' the car for a while. — 00:01:57 > «despite a child of the brothers's abundant charms, he is not terribly attentive behind the wheel.»
  • The world's smallest courthouse in Arthur, Nebraska turned out not to be that small. — 00:02:20 > «I could easily build a much smaller courthouse in my basement.»

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