Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 9
SOUTH CAROLINA was boring. For the sake of haste I got on Interstate 26, which runs in
a Zoo-mile diagonal across the state, through a monotonous landscape of dormant tobacco
fields and salmon-colored soil. According to my Mobil Travel Guide, I was no longer in
the Deep South but in the Middle Atlantic states. But it had the heat and glare of the South
and the people in gas stations and cafes along the way sounded Southern. Even the radio
announcers sounded Southern, in attitude as much as accent. According to one news broad-
cast, the police in Spartanburg were looking for two black men “who raped a white girl.”
You wouldn't hear that outside the South.
As I neared Columbia, the fields along the road began to fill with tall signs advertising mo-
tels and quick-food places. These weren't the squat, rectangular billboards of my youth,
withalluringillustrationsandthree-dimensionalcows,butjustlargeunfriendlysignsstand-
ing atop sixty-foot-high metal poles. Their messages were terse. They didn't invite you to
do anything interesting or seductive. The old signs were chatty and would say things like
WHILE IN COLUMBIA, WHY NOT STAY IN THE MODERN SKYLINER MOTOR
INN,WITH OUR ALL NEW SENSU-MATIC VIBRATING BEDS. YOU'LL LOVE 'EM!
SPECIAL RATES FOR CHILDREN. FREE TV. AIR COOLED ROOMS. FREE ICE.
PLENTY OF PARKING. PETS WELCOME. ALL-U_ CAN-EAT CATFISH BUFFET
EVERY TUES 5-7 PM. DANCE NITELY TO THE VERNON STURGES GUITAR
ORCHESTRA INTHE STARLITE ROOM. (PLEASE NoNEGROES). The old signs were
like oversized postcards, with helpful chunks of information. They provided something to
read, a little food for thought, a snippet of insight into the local culture. Attention spans had
obviously contracted since then. The signs now simply announced the name of the business
and how to get there. You could read them from miles away: HOLIDAY INN, EXIT 26E, 4
MI. Sometimes these instructions were more complex and would say things like BURGER
KING-31 MILES. TAKE EXIT 17B 5 MI TO US49 SOUTH, TURN RIGHT AT LIGHTS,
THEN WEST PAST AIRPORT FOR 21/Z MI. Who could want a Whopper that-much? But
the signs are effective, no doubt about it. Driving along in a state of idle mindlessness, suf-
fering fromhungerandagrease deficiency,yousee asignthat saysMCDONALD'S--EXIT
HERE, and it's almost instinctive to swerve onto the exit ramp and follow it. Over and over
through the weeks I found myself sitting at plastic tables with little boxes of food in front of
me which I didn't want or have time to eat, all because a sign had instructed me to be there.
At the North Carolina border, the dull landscape ended abruptly, as if by decree. Suddenly
the countryside rose and fell in majestic undulations, full of creeping thickets of laurel,
rhodo dendron and palmetto. At each hilltop the landscape opened out to reveal hazy views
