A few weeks ago I picked up Tales from Nowhere at the Harvard Coop. Having been to Nowhere several times now, I felt it might be interesting to see where other people’s Nowheres were.
Some people’s journeys to Nowhere were far more interesting than others. Towards the end, I felt uninspired and had to push myself to finish the book –not very encouraging.
My Nowhere was nowhere exotic or outlandish or even overly adventurous. My Nowhere too place over several hours of driving through Oklahoma on a toll road that was like a washboard, the highlight of the trip was getting money back when we exited because clearly we’d paid too much for the experience — I think we made a 10 cent profit.
It was quite a few summers ago and Dad and I were driving back after visiting Principia and some of Dad’s friends in Missouri. On our way through Oklahoma here was no good speed to go, the continual wum-wum-wuming of the washboard road was awful, only rivaled by the scenery, miles of flat nothing.
The speedometer says you are going straight ahead at 70 miles an hour, nothing changes, the landscape remains the same, are you really moving? I’m still wondering.
I’ve been to other Nowheres, but Oklahoma’s toll road Nowhere was especially nowhere-esque.
Glad to have you back writing. I missed you. I’ve been to some nowheres too. I think some of them also might have been in Oklahoma!
Stephen