Back-Road-Night-Drive-Bliss-Bob Davis Podcast 842

Back-Road-Night-Drive-Bliss-Bob Davis Podcast 842

Seven States On This Tour

People ask me what it’s like to roll through seven states in nine days. From Eastern Tennessee to the Ozarks in this podcast. Most noteworthy is a night drive. Summertime. Windows down. Join me in Back-Road-Night-Drive-Bliss-Bob Davis Podcast 842.

Angling Up

My big thing is ‘angling up’. Rolling out of Eastern Tennessee to Nashville, and then Northwest on US 70 West. Through the night.

All Back Roads

Especially relevant? All back roads and small towns. Some of them county roads and bad state roads. It’s late. A full moon. Warm and humid.

Going With The Flow. Nothing Else Matters

The theme for this podcast is the question of what’s it like to ‘go with the flow’. Sometimes you end up in a Walmart parking lot and sometimes you end up in a beautiful campsite with a fire already lit and plenty of wood.

Heading Northwest In Tennessee

From Atwood to Milan, Trenton to Dyersburg and Tiptonville it’s most noteworthy that I am visiting places in the Volunteer State I have never seen. Moreover I see the same development in some of the small towns visible in cities.

Travel Alone

Most importantly people wonder what it is like to travel alone. First of all you have to be okay with single person travel. Moreover if you take someone with you, they have to be a good spur-of-the-moment traveler. Seems like the best things happen when you are just in the moment. This is not pin-point efficiency.

Primitive Systems

Mobile Podcast Command is not a plush RV. And…we use maps!

Major Lessons Learned

Above all every now and then there’s a miscalculation that takes you many miles off course. Travelers have to be okay with those kinds of outcomes. On this drive, a major miscalculation meant a major lesson learned. It’s all good though. Learn more in Back-Road-Night-Drive-Bliss-Bob Davis Podcast 842.

Covering A Lot of Space

Finally there are a lot of people out on the road today. Whether they’re doing the Van Life thing, or camping in one of the national or state parks every now and then, I don’t know too many who cover the space I do in a short time frame.

Happiness is…

In conclusion at the end of this day of travel, I am convinced there are so many lessons learned on the back roads, this is what it’s all about. It really is true. Happiness is a clean windshield and a full tank of gas!

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors

Back-Road-Night-Drive-Bliss-Bob Davis Podcast 842

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Road-Trip-Back-Roads-Only-Bob Davis Podcast 839

Road-Trip-Back-Roads-Only-Bob Davis Podcast 839

Whenever I feel like I am in a rut these days, a road trip is always the best medicine. Even more a road trip on the back roads. I’ll tell you all about it in Road-Trip-Back-Roads-Only-Bob Davis Podcast 839.

Mobile Podcast Command has been up and down both coasts. I’ve traveled in this old ambulance across the Midwest, out west, out east, around Florida and the gulf coast many times. Lately though I have become a back roads snob.

Especially relevant is my new mantra. Unless it is absolutely necessary, I prefer the old National Highway system, state roads, county roads or even rural routes. I feel this is where you really get a feel for what’s going on in this country.

Moreover big city people and especially big city media people seem to harbor a belief that there is something sinister and dangerous about rural America.

In Road-Trip-Back-Roads-Only-Bob Davis Podcast 839 I wonder whether some people can travel back roads, and see small town and rural America for what it is, without judgement. Because there is a lot to like about some of the places I have been.

It’s most noteworthy that the lessons you learn hitting America’s back roads seem to coalesce in your mind a few weeks after the trip is over. In addition, I have crisscrossed parts of this country so many times I’ll remember an experience I had, but forget just exactly where it happened.

What’s important in rural America? For one thing, small business and local business.

As I blog I am sitting in a shopping center parking lot about fifty miles south of Roanoke. I’ve rolled through Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and now Virginia.

Truth is some of those back roads are really back roads. Switchbacks through the mountains.

In conclusion, the best part of it all? You get to enjoy all this amazing scenery without being bothered. Usually you’re the only vehicle on the road.

It’s been that way most of this trip, and it’s well worth the effort.

Sponsored by Reliafund Payment Processors

Road-Trip-Back-Roads-Only-Bob Davis Podcast 839

 

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Minnesota Road Trip-Progressives-History-Politics-Duluth 2018-Podcast 727

Minnesota Road Trip-Progressives-History-Politics-Duluth 2018-Podcast 727

These days one of the things you learn on a road trip is how big the United States is. Then, how big individual states are. Finally the traveler discovers how each state is different. In Minnesota Road Trip-Progressives-History-Politics-Duluth 2018-Podcast 727.

Get Off The Interstate

Most noteworthy is what happens when you get off the Interstate and onto the back roads. That’s when you really see how it is.

Covering Politics In 2018

2018 is an election year. I said I would cover the Minnesota political scene this year. The first stop is the Minnesota State Republican Convention. Duluth. On the shores of Lake Superior.

Minnesota History

Furthermore some of the state’s old hands don’t know Minnesota’s unique social and political history. We’ll discover it together in Minnesota Road Trip-Progressives-History-Politics-Duluth 2018-Podcast 727.

Town Hall Is In Our Blood

Sure, we know our pioneer history. Especially relevant is the unique history of political grass roots and town hall style representation.

Minnesota’s first settlers were New Englanders and New Yorkers. They brought town halls with them. Later immigrants from Scandinavia, Germany and Ireland formed the bedrock of so called ‘progressive‘ politics in the state. Therefore, those ideas are still with us.

Yes Republicans Were Progressives and Populists Too

In addition while some people assume progressive politics these days is only the political left, republicans too have a long history of progressivism. Find out in Minnesota Road Trip-Progressives-History-Politics-Duluth 2018-Podcast 727.

Tim Pawlenty Tries To Derail Caucus Process

Will the grassroots system survive in Minnesota? Former republican Governor Tim Pawlenty isn’t attending because he’ll be clinking crystal with rich guys at the Minneapolis Club. Pawlenty’s operatives will push the convention to refuse to endorse a candidate for governor. This is the main issue in Duluth this weekend.

Do We Really Want To Dump The Town Hall?

Moreover populists and progressives go back to the roots of Minnesota Republicans and democrats. Probably a big part of that process has been town hall style politics in the caucus system. Most of all do we really want to get rid of it?

Surprises In This Podcast

In conclusion as I researched this podcast I learned a few surprising facts. I think you will too.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Two things. First, it’s not 35W heading to Duluth, it’s just 35 North. Being a Twin Citiean, I have to get on 35W before 35 North. Second, for some reason I thought the State DFL convention – the democrats – was being held in Rochester, Minnesota the week after the Republican Convention in Duluth. Once again those sneaky democrats have managed to slip out of my grasp. It’s in the 40’s in Duluth and the 80’s in Rochester. Given the quality of the speeches in Duluth this weekend, I wish I had gone to Rochester!)

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Minnesota Road Trip-Progressives-History-Politics-Duluth 2018-Podcast 727

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