Podcast 568-BobDavisPodcastRadioShow-51

Podcast 568-BobDavisPodcastRadioShow-51. Setting the stage for the final two podcasts of Election 2016. Observations from the Fall 2016 mega trip. Fom Minneapolis to Seattle, down the PCH to Los Angeles, across the desert to Phoenix, across New Mexico to Roswell, up through the Texas Panhandle, through Oklahoma and Kansas back to the upper midwest. A circuit of the country that leaves an indelible impression on the eve of the 2016 election. In Podcast 568-BobDavisPodcastRadioShow-51, extemporaneous talk in four segments about the effects of travel. Seeing the country softens your judgements and opinions and strengthens the conclusion that the worldview we’re being fed in the media is not the real world. In reality people are going about their business, raising their families, living their lives. In reality America’s economy is a force of nature that does not react well to government attempts to stimulate or control it. In reality the roads and bridges are not crumbling. In reality people are not at each other’s throats. What is happening is a political realignment. Election 2016 may be the first indication of the coming realignment that may take a view cycles to work itself out. With so much focus on former ‘rust belt’ states and cities like Ohio and Michigan it is almost as if there’s a denial of the juggernaut that is the west coast, from Los Angeles to Seattle, or the industrial agriculture and energy producing states like Texas, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota. In the end, the election will be a state by state affair. In the end there could be surprises, or it may turn out to be a pretty conventional election compared to the last three or four cycles. While the media loads new story lines meant to control you, and push you into a decision, take a moment and allow this podcast to set the stage for what is about to happen. Or not. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

Podcast 567-Western Legends

Podcast 567-Western Legends. The first thing one learns on a big road trip of the Western US is that it is vast. That sky. Those mountains. The desert. The border. In the Southwest these features take on mythical proportions. It’s fertile ground for two of the greatest legends of the west. One of them dates by to 1881. The other is new by historical standards, dating back only to 1947. Each legend features a town. A town seemingly in ‘the middle of nowhere’. Tombstone Arizona developed quickly as a silver mining and ranching center. Tombstone quickly attracted gamblers and fast women interested in separating cowpokes and miners from their hard earned money. It also attracted a legendary western lawman from Dodge City, Wyatt Earp and his two brothers. It didn’t take long for trouble to find the ‘retired’ Earp. The gunfight at the OK corral is the kind of legend that spawns myth, and Hollywood loves legends that spawn myth. What really happened on October 26th, 1881 in Tombstone will be debated for many years to come. In modern day Tombstone the gunfight replayed everyday in a life-imitating-art-WestWorld kind of way. A new legend has captured the attention of the world in a completely different kind of way. In another desert near another lonely town something happened in June and July of 1947 that has never been completely resolved. The incident at Roswell is truly a modern legend. Podcast 567-Western Legends  takes you inside homespun museums and reenactments in two different towns in two unique places in the American Southwest. These are not National Parks. In their own way, the people of Roswell, New Mexico and the people of Tombstone, Arizona are paying tribute and still trying to make some sense of the events that made their towns famous across the world and influenced the thinking of generations of Americans. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

Podcast 564-Trying Not To Talk Politics

Podcast 564-Trying Not To Talk Politics. Live from the Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona in Podcast 564-Trying Not To Talk Politics. After two intense political podcasts, time for an easy talker to start your week out. The real challenge of what I call an ‘easy talker’ is not to talk about the easy stuff, which or me is usually political. This time though, I got into some great content about travel. I feel a motivation to travel and have an increasing desire to cut the tether completely and roll. For good. What would I need to make that happen? About midway through the trip across the Great Northwest, now into the Great Southwest, a sense of well being and relaxation has set in. It’s great to visit friends and family all over the country living their lives, caught up with various pursuit. No matter what you see in the media about the tone of the country life goes on. There’s something reassuring about that reality. Coming through Eastern Los Angeles, into the California desert was a great contrast to a week of rain and wind on the coast. Joshua Tree National Forest is highly recommended. The desert itself is hypnotizing and I have the feeling the most dramatic part of the trip is ahead as we head east on two lane roads through Arizona to New Mexico and then Texas. From the plains of North Dakota to the mountains of Montana, Utah and Washington State, on over to the pacific coastal highways, down through the redwoods to LA, and now headed east in the desert I want to live in so many places! I have always loved road trips and you would think I would get them out of my system, but after a few days in Arizona, I feel like I am starting out the trip all over again. The longer the trip, the better as far as I am concerned. Sponsored by Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park, Minnesota.