Travel Literature

Travel Literature

Part 1

To me the extract from Old Glory: A Voyage down the Mississippi was the most effective. To me it is attention grabbing from the start when there was the part where he compared the raccoons to a school boy and a beggar, he says they are good at somethings but not at others. He says this when he said that they were "Supremely talented, in a schoolboy way, at night exercises, at noisy raids on garbage cans, at climbing trees, they had no gift at all for crossing roads. Bright lights mesmerized them, and they died careless hobos' deaths on the wooded edges of tiny unincorporated towns." This added some humor into the text already. To me some of the most important parts of a Travel Log are things like humor, interesting happenings and being able to relate, which I mean like when you say "that could happen to me". But things also have to be close to the truth and not exaggerated to get it right or else you won't believe a word of the text.

Part 2

A Cross Country Tour

I cruised along in my car, the highway was relatively empty with only a few 16 wheelers and travelers like me. Besides the roadkill every once in a while and some big dairy farms once every twenty five kilometers where wasn't much, maybe those diners too. I turned on the radio and skimmed through the stations, there were your news stations, pop stations and so on. I stayed on a  country station and hummed to the tune of the song. I checked my gas meter and saw it was running low but I was fifteen kilometers to the nearest town and my remaining gas would only last eight. Either I had a long walk ahead or I had to be really, really lucky. I decided to get as far as I could then try my luck.

Eight kilometers and an empty gas tank later I pulled over to the side of the road. I got out and I tried to flag down some cars for some help but none would stop, but God help me when I looked and saw what was maybe, ten or twenty bikes riding towards me. The riders looked bad to the bone, part of a biker gang most likely. I hoped they would keep on going but of course, that didn't happen they stopped. Their leader, or at least what looked to be approached me. I was expecting some mean words or something from them but maybe that was my naivety. He flashed me a great big smile. His voice was deep and rich, not unlike that of Morgan Freeman's. He said five words. Five words that were those of an angel's.

"Do you need help son?"

Turned out they were quite nice guys despite everything that's said about them. They even gave me some gas, free of charge. I thanked them and they went on their way, even giving me an extra gasoline can in case I needed it. And so, I started up my car and drove on, towards Juarez.