The American Heartland....a love story (LOL)

jpdevol

jpdevol

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I've spent a wonderful couple days driving through the US "Heartland" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_(United_States) while chasing a particularly handsome vintage motorcycle. I just love this part of the country; the people are real, the lifestyle is real. Folks even drive more politely here - no road rage - you pass in the "passing lane" and you use your signal and return to the right lane. No riding along in the left oblivious to traffic behind you and folks move over to let oncoming traffic merge - that sorta thing - they pay attention.

This is the part of the country that makes things. One of the things made here is your food: fertile fields ready for crops as far as the eye can see - for hundreds, nay, thousands of miles. Just look at the hue of that soil:
1682469036503.jpeg

They produce things here. Your steel comes from here (historically Pittsburgh PA) and I passed a big Steel Dynamics plant today in northern IL. Your oil comes from here: Texas, famously, but oil was first discovered in PA and WV (debate) and Rockefeller and Standard Oil was in Cleveland OH. The coal that powers your lights comes from here: southern IL has one of the most abundant coalfields, mostly once owned by a proud Mountaineer, Chris Cline (RIP). Taint as good as low sulphur WV coal but..... I also passed hundreds and hundreds of Wind Power turbines this trip, so the Heartland is producing that too:
1682469745625.jpeg

1682469778747.jpeg


So, I love it here. Them coastal elites can kiss my ass because this is where folks actually produce shit, not just manipulate some angle on the fringes. You can actually ride a motorcycle here because the traffic is not a total mess, drivers pay attention and they're relatively courteous. The real part of this country is in the middle. The stuff on the coast....it's popular (crowded rat race). Take Palm Beach County, for example, produces nothing,as far as I know, except willfully ignorant, narcissistic assholes (not the former Pres. LOL).

Oh yeah, I'm at the hotel for the night and I'm only taking-up 5 spaces:sneaky:
1682470461380.jpeg
 
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From sea to shining sea... :heart:
Bought a conversion van this winter. Sue retires this coming winter. Gives me about 6-8mo to get it ready. Our first trip will be from Chicago to LA.... Route 66... straight through the heartland.
 
Jim said:
Well, bein' in our sixties, staying up past 10 is pushing the limit when it comes to "kicks"... but yeah, should be fun long as we can stay awake. :sneaky:
Click to expand...

We drove the portion that went through Arizona , years ago. Flagstaff, Winslow, Seligman, went through the Grand Canyon caverns. Lots and lots to see and a beautiful 2 lane highway that doesn’t get much traffic. It was fun!
 
jpdevol said:
I've spent a wonderful couple days driving through the US "Heartland" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_(United_States) while chasing a particularly handsome vintage motorcycle. I just love this part of the country; the people are real, the lifestyle is real. Folks even drive more politely here - no road rage - you pass in the "passing lane" and you use your signal and return to the right lane. No riding along in the left oblivious to traffic behind you and folks move over to let oncoming traffic merge - that sorta thing - they pay attention.

This is the part of the country that makes things. One of the things made here is your food: fertile fields ready for crops as far as the eye can see - for hundreds, nay, thousands of miles. Just look at the hue of that soil:
View attachment 241377
They produce things here. Your steel comes from here (historically Pittsburgh PA) and I passed a big Steel Dynamics plant today in northern IL. Your oil comes from here: Texas, famously, but oil was first discovered in PA and WV (debate) and Rockefeller and Standard Oil was in Cleveland OH. The coal that powers your lights comes from here: southern IL has one of the most abundant coalfields, mostly once owned by a proud Mountaineer, Chris Cline (RIP). Taint as good as low sulphur WV coal but..... I also passed hundreds and hundreds of Wind Power turbines this trip, so the Heartland is producing that too:
View attachment 241378
View attachment 241379

So, I love it here. Them coastal elites can kiss my ass because this is where folks actually produce shit, not just manipulate some angle on the fringes. You can actually ride a motorcycle here because the traffic is not a total mess, drivers pay attention and they're relatively courteous. The real part of this country is in the middle. The stuff on the coast....it's popular (crowded rat race). Take Palm Beach County, for example, produces nothing,as far as I know, except willfully ignorant, narcissistic assholes (not the former Pres. LOL).

Oh yeah, I'm at the hotel for the night and I'm only taking-up 5 spaces:sneaky:
View attachment 241381
Click to expand...
What a great trip assessment JP; I had no idea, but you are right. I have travelled through many countries and the assholes tend to be in the big cities; or in the more commercialised zone's of the coastlines. No one has the time to tell you the time! The real people are the workers who till the land and produce for the greater community.
 
Having grown up on a farm in central Michigan and, whenever given a choice, lived in the boonies all my life, I know what you mean.

I take no offense and know exactly what you mean, but for those that may not know, the "Coastal Elite" lifestyle comes to a screeching halt about half an hour North of Portland, Maine. Oh, there are a few seasonal wannabees in Bah Hahbah, but we just sort of giggle at them, take their money and get on with our hayseed ways.
 
Mailman did the best section I think. I rode Route 66 about10 years ago on Heritage softail as part of group tour. Not everyone's up of tea but I enjoyed it.
For me the really interesting stuff started around Arizona.
 
JPDevol - I understand everything you said about "country people and living", but there is a side to living in a small community that I call " small town thinking". I made that term up but once they make up their mind about you, youre buggered.
I grew up in a small country town in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, and the liars and bullshit got so bad my Dad shifted us (me and my brother and Dad) out to a farm house 10 Klms out of town.
That happened because we got blamed for breaking up a house with an axe - by the time they had found the real culprits the "small town thinking" was up and running.
Living 10 Klms out of town, Dad wouldnt let me go into the town in case I got the blame for something - well in one school holiday period I got the blame for breaking the windows in the billiard club and stealing a battery and telling a lady to go and get fucked - I wasnt even in the town.
Now JP before you get youre hanky out - what you said about people that live on the land is very true - the farmer that owned the farmhouse and land we lived on was like another father to me- he would include me in everything he did on the farm and the same for all the other farmers in the district - they would help me build gocarts, let me catch yabbies in their dams, play in the shearing sheds during shearing etc. - but they were real country folks - very different to the gossips in the town.
Hope you enjoyed my story - Ray.
 
LTGTR, what you say is also true. As I said, I grew up on a farm in Michigan and neighbors could be depended on to drop whatever they were doing and come to your aid if needed. If we saw something unusual going on we'd check on it. Some call it snoopy, we called it looking out for each other.

I now live in a small fishing village in coastal Maine. People here tend to mind their own business but will also help you out when needed. However, New Englanders, and especially it seems Mainers, are very clannish. My wife was born in the house we live in, as was her father. But, she committed the cardinal sin of marrying a flatlander, moving away and then coming back to retire here. Therefore, she's "From Away". Being from "out West" I'm obviously in the same boat.

They're nice enough to me, I even have a few locals I count as friends, but I'll never be a "native" no matter how long I
live here.

And small town talk...Oy... Two things have stuck to me and will never change. When I was the IT guy for the local school, my assistant got canned for inappropriate communication with students. Nobody knew him but they knew me and the rumors started flying. Only thing that saved me from being ridden out of town on a rail was that one of the head office gals (a multi-generation native) was married to a lobsterman and she got on the marine radio and cleared it up PDQ. The stink still clings to me in some circles.

The other is that I'm "rich". I'm supposed to have several rental properties and be rolling in it. I don't. Hell, I can just about manage taxes and insurance on MY place! Truth is, I'm okay but that's because I've never gotten into the habit of Keeping Up with The Joneses or spending more than I make. Mostly. :rolleyes:
 
DE - after I wrote that blather, I got to thinkin': I hope DE doesn't think I'm lumping him in with the the Coastal Elites;)

There are coastal areas of the US that are quite rural in feel, if not fact; the Outer Banks of NC being one.

Ya'll know what I mean: it was a rant.......There was a recent poster that denigrated members from many of the great states (geographic snobbery?); it stuck in my craw. Had to get it out;)

Often, the Coastal Elites aren't actually from the coast, but they've moved there now and are smarter than rest of us and want to tell everyone else how to live.
 
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And so we come to an end of the "flat land" as we officially enter Appalachia just south of Lancaster, OH. If ya continue in a southeasterly direction, you'll be in Appalachia until you get well into North Carolina.
1682545400088.jpeg

Continuing to the southeast about 90 miles we arrive in the Ohio River Valley and home...
1682545554272.jpeg

1450 miles & the SOIR in 3 days; I'm beat, but it's a good tired☺️
 

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