Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance tells the story of a father and son motorcycle trip with a pair of friends but also delves into fundamental questions about how to live life and tries to reconcile science, religion and more.Ī powerful read that will not only inspire you to hit the road but inspire you to examine your own perspectives on some of these central themes of life. Part philosophical treatise and part motorcycle road trip across the northern stretch of the United States and then down to California. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig Steinbeck was 58 when he set out on this journey alone (well, with a dog), which just goes to show that isn’t just for young, aimless, 20-somethings. He had his French poodle Charley in tow throughout his journey through a “New America” that was on the cusp of some great upheaval. Essentially completing a massive circular journey through America. Steinbeck set out on a giant cross country journey from New York, up to Maine, across to the west coast, down to California then across the southern half of the states back east, before venturing back up the East Coast. According to Steinbeck’s son, the real reason for his journey was that he knew he was dying and he wanted to see the country one last time. In September of 1960 John Steinbeck, already a successful author, set out to rediscover an America that he worried he had lost touch with. Heat-Moon does a great job featuring the lives of the people he meets along the way, a curious cast of characters who live in “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill.” Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck His travels to small-town America show a country on the verge of change with the increasing homogenization through fast-food culture and strip malls.
The premise of the book is his travels along the smaller roads, marked blue on the map, and discover small-town America. What’s your favorite roadside attraction? Leave your comment below.Heat-Moon set out to put the past behind him by setting out on the open road.
Several employees in the parking lot politely laughed and carried on with their day. When we arrived, we parked in the parking lot and got out to take some pictures with the statue. It seems the employees of the meat plant are used to people stopping in to see the statue. The location has since been transformed into a meat plant, but the statue still stands in its original spot. There is only one confirmed Hobo Joe statue that remains, and it stands outside of the original Hobo Joe restaurant. The statues were made by Marvin Ransdell in memory of a friend who was a traveling hobo. We were delighted to find this silly statue, and like many of our road trip adventures, it’s finally become a funny road trip story for us.įrom what I’ve read online, the 27-foot-tall statue used to stand outside of each Hobo Joe restaurant. Tucked away down a side street, and behind a large tree was this massive statue we’d been searching for. With all the buzz online the past few years about the statue, we were finally able to find better directions for the statue. It had officially become an unsolved quest for us that had to be completed. We were fortunate enough to travel down to Arizona a few months ago, and made it our mission to find this silly statue. We thought we knew where it was located, but just couldn’t find it.įast forward three years and this roadside attraction has now made it on to our “must find” road trip list. We spent a good two hours driving back and forth in Buckeye, Arizona looking for this statue. We weren’t really sure what the hype was all about, so we figured we would check it out for ourselves. There was lots of talk online within the road trip community about this statue, and lots of people visiting it. One of the popular roadside attractions at the time was the Hobo Joe statue in Arizona. We chose to stopover in Arizona for a few days before heading home through Nevada. It’s kind of a popular thing in the road trip community, and it gives us road trippers a fun break from driving long distances.Ī few summers ago, we were off on our first west coast road trip adventure. Finding Hobo Joe: A Road Trip Story | TravelPulseĪs a road tripper, I’ve enjoyed driving around the country looking for quirky and off-beat roadside attractions.