Shakedown Cruise: The Great Adventure Begins
Tuesday, April 23 2024
April is the cruelest month, says T.S. Eliot, perhaps because it brings you some false spring that often enough is put in its place by late blasts of winter. This is certainly true on the Great Plains. But I am leaving on my big John Steinbeck Travels with Charley Tour on April 27 …
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Site of the World’s First Atomic Chain Reaction — Video Dispatch
Monday, April 22 2024
Clay visits the site of the world’s first atomic chain reaction on the campus of the University of Chicago.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Rereading Blue Highways — An Enduring Backroads Journal
Monday, March 25 2024
Originally published is 1982, Clay says William Least Heat Moon’s Blue Highways is still our best backroads manifesto.
- Published in Books
Chicago, Launch Point for Historic Route 66 — Video Dispatch
Sunday, March 24 2024
Clay visits the eastern takeoff point for historic Route 66 in downtown Chicago. Now largely superseded by the Interstate Highway system, Route 66 still looms large in American history and mythology.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Don’t Touch That Dial: Tuning in to America
Sunday, January 14 2024
Over a lifetime of travel, I have learned that one of the best ways to examine the pulse of America is to listen to local broadcasting.
- Published in Features
America’s Unrelenting Love Affair With the Automobile
Sunday, January 07 2024
The American automobile is one of the most revolutionary (and liberating) technologies in human history.
- Published in Features