In reading, map out treats and eats

Even if you can't travel around the country, these books can make you feel like you did.

By JERRY V. HAINES
Published July 10, 2005

"Forget the Statue of Liberty," says Richard Grant in American Nomads. "The road is America's pre-eminent symbol of freedom."

And this time of year, with the imminent prospect of freedom, however brief, from the bonds of cubicle or classroom, most of us contemplate where we'd like to go. Through the pages of books we travel:

APPLE'S WAY: R.W. Apple Jr. provides 40 answers. Apple's America is his guide and paean to 40 U.S. and Canadian cities (omitting New York since these pieces originally were prepared for the New York Times, which he has served since 1963).

He begins each with a little Apple-flavored insight:

Atlanta is "a city without a historic core, a city in constant evolution - a Deep South version, you might say, of Los Angeles." Hampton Roads, Va., "has had a balcony seat for history." San Francisco "is the city Americans fantasize about."

Then he serves helpings of city history, assesses local government and the art scene, points out architectural standouts in the skyline and captures the civic mood.

Finally, Apple shares tips on what clearly is his favorite part of travel, local dining. Indeed, his restaurant squibs reflect an involvement that one wishes pervaded the rest of each chapter: While the essays are commendably comprehensive (although occasionally marred by cliche), there is less sense that he is "taking us along" than that he is merely "sending us there" - albeit well prepared. One craves more Apple in Apple's America.

NOW EXITING THE HIGHWAY: Roadtripping USA provides eight itineraries - East Coast, Oregon Trail, Route 66, for example - to get you inspired. These authors stop in small towns and often take you off the interstates to the parallel, lonesome old roads (what William Least Heat-Moon calls "Blue Highways") that still have charms you'd hate to miss.

But some major cities are omitted because they're not on one of the eight routes. And lengthy descriptions of other cities - St. Louis, San Francisco - appear twice because separate itineraries intersect there.

There's also a useful guide to before-trip preparations and other helpful tips (how not to use bear repellent; avoid Sturgis, S.D., during the motorcycle rally).

Dig out your Willie Nelson CD, and get on the road again.

THE TRAVELERS: Richard Grant's American Nomads are not mere summer vacationers, nor itinerant sales reps, but members of a culture unto itself. Bums and survivalists; alkies and stoners; pure of heart and dark of soul - they're the girl thumbing rides at the onramp, the kid Dumpster-diving for dinner, the guy in the oncoming car hallucinating giant jackrabbits.

They not only want to be on the road, they need to be there. Staying stationary gives them pain.

Grant's profiles alternate between historic nomads (mountain men, Comanche warriors, and a marooned 16th century conquistador who roamed the American Southwest) and their modern counterparts (rodeo cowboys, freightcar riders, sweet and sociopathic hitchhikers).

Grant rides with them, eats and drinks with them, hears their stories, dodges their fists. And you may be sharing the road with them.

ON A MISSION: You might think Timothy K. Beal's Roadside Religion would be a collection of oddball stops. But the religion professor from Case Western rarely pokes fun. Though he does scorn some wayside religious sites he finds hypocritical or manipulative, mostly he takes them seriously, particularly the home-built ones with apocalyptic messages or acres of rustic crosses.

He sees meaning in Gospel-themed miniature golf courses. He is surprisingly disarmed by an inspiration park operated by the creator of "Precious Moments" gift items (it has a version of the Sistine Chapel where every figure - except Jesus - is one of the trademark, stylized, bigheaded kids).

Just as "outsider art" helps us understand mainstream art, Beal says, "outsider religion" helps illuminate "insider religion."

NAPOLEON WAS RIGHT: If an army travels on its stomach, why not us? Jane and Michael Stern have a new edition of their encyclopedic Roadfood to help you find something other than chain-marketed fast food. Here are 600 diners, pits, and holes-in-the wall where the prices are low, the Formica tabletops have never seen white linen, and the only live music is the counterman's song of "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger . . ."

The Sterns favor local cuisine, from Michigan's pasties, to Buffalo's beef on 'weck, to oyster po-boys in New Orleans. They have eaten in each listed restaurant; imagine the work - and their antacid consumption.

THE BIG EASY: For something you do within one city, take up Roy Blount Jr.'s Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans.

"New Orleans is my favorite place in the world to ramble," he says. "Even on those deep-summer days that make a person feel swathed in slowly melting hamfat, New Orleans has always put a spring in my step."

The "feet" are mainly metaphorical, and the rambling takes you not only through New Orleans neighborhoods but from one spider-webby footlocker to another in Blount's extraordinary, dusty atticlike brain.

He keeps his eyes open for details ("It can rain so hard in New Orleans that you expect to see alligators bouncing off the pavement.") and juxtaposed bits of history ("New Orleans was the first American city to build an opera house and the last to install a sewer system.")

THE WELL-TRAVELED WRITER: Finally, a classic American road trip: In 1978 William Least Heat-Moon set out to explore the Blue Highways, the little, mostly two-lane roads marked in blue on the oil-company road maps. Starting from his home in Missouri, he proceeded to coastal Carolina, then moved clockwise around the circumference of the lower 48.

He is a good observer and an even better describer, making you smile in recognition of things you've never seen before. Although occasionally given to grand pronouncements ("A person shows himself in the way he opens an orange"), he can portray a greasy cafe so accurately and sympathetically that you will put down the book with your hair smelling of bacon.

He gets lost and battered by storms ("A rule of the blue road: Be careful going in search of adventure - it's ridiculously easy to find."). He finds much that is prefab and fake but, particularly in the people he meets, also the authentic America.

If fate should contrive to keep you home all summer, a copy of Blue Highways on your night stand will let you greet autumn with a sense that you've been somewhere.

Freelancer writer Jerry V. Haines sets out on the road from his home in Arlington, Va.

- Apple's America: The Discriminating Traveler's Guide to 40 Great Cities in the United States and Canada, North Point Press ($22.50), 415 pages.

- Roadtripping USA: The Complete Coast-to-Coast Guide to America, Let's Go (St. Martin's Press) ($24.99), 995 pages.

- American Nomads: Travels with Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, Cowboys, Indians, Hoboes, Truckers and Bullriders, Grove Press ($24), 311 pages.

- Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith, Beacon Press ($24.95), 216 pages.

- Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to 600 of the Best Barbecue Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, & Much, Much More, Broadway Books ($18.95), 555 pages.

- Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans, Crown Journeys ($16), 143 pages.

- Blue Highways, Back Bay Books ($14.95), 421 pages.

[Last modified July 8, 2005, 09:45:07]