Major Announcement - Seymour, IN

(No YouTube link this time around, just text. Those with short attention spans and/or a busy workday can find the "too long; didn't read" version of this below.)

In the course of our travels, we have outrun a tornado in Alabama, accidentally done some off-road driving in Maine, dodged floodwater in Missouri, and waited out a blizzard in Wyoming. We have driven while barely awake in the dead of night. Last week - on December 5th - we woke up in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, ready to visit Albuquerque and Santa Fe before making our way to Colorado.

We never made it.

On our way north, we encountered freezing rain, followed by sleet. The car we have is a Mazda 6. She's great for fuel economy, rated one of the safest cars out there, and is in such good shape that when we got the oil changed in Seattle the fellow at the garage asked what we were doing right. However, at the end of the day, our car is still a four-door sedan. It is not equipped for brutal weather, and even in extreme winds can buckle from side to side. As we sat at lunch, watching an apocalyptic weather forecast covering most of the Midwest, Alexa and I reached a mutual decision.

The trip is being put on hold until springtime. We will continue to post entries on the blog and photo albums on Facebook, but the traveling segment is on temporary hiatus. (I cannot stress enough the word temporary here.)

In terms of the grand scheme of our trip, this was not an easy decision. As it stands now, we have 4.5 states left: the northern half of New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Aside from Hawaii and Alaska, we have literally seen everything else. We were so close that we were projecting a completion date of around my birthday (January 11th). However, in terms of our personal safety, the safety of our vehicle, and the safety of what little we have with us on the road, this was a no-brainer.

Since then, we made our way across Texas, visiting San Antonio and Houston, before venturing north. For the time being, we are visiting my family in Seymour, Indiana, where we will be through Christmas. After the New Year, we will resume blogging and posting photos, while also preparing a manuscript version of American Weirdness for publication and getting caught up on other projects.

I know I can speak for both of us when I say thank you - the readers - for your continued interest in this project. It has changed shape in the nine months we spent on the road, morphing from a travelogue with dining reviews to an almost anthropological glimpse at American society. Despite this, our readership hasn't just remained constant. It has increased. Whatever it is we are doing, we are clearly doing it right.

I also want to extend our sincerest of thanks to all of our nearest and dearest who have offered us food, a free place to stay, local recommendations, or even just a hang-out during our travels:

Jenn and Jay in Charleston

Joe in Knoxville

Vickie, Travis, and Scott in Atlanta

Stefania in Auburn

Danielle in St. Petersburg

Lewis for recommending stops in Delaware and Cape May, NJ

Briana and Dave in NYC

Tom and Lisa in Brooklyn

Jim in Newport

David and the kids in Scranton

John and Lu in Buffalo

Venkat and Parampara Das in New Vrindaban

Mark and Jeanne in Nashville

Phil and Ann in Madisonville

Nancy, Dudley, and Andy in Louisville

Joyce and Eric in Seymour

Kat in Indianapolis

Carrie in Columbus

Lori and family in Fort Wayne

Harleen in Ann Arbor

Eric and Ann in Detroit

Surendra in Lansing

Jonas in Minneapolis

Amanda, Amanda, and Daniel in Milwaukee

Mike in Vermilion

Art Barrow

Katie, David, and Joe in Seattle

Michael in Portland

Dan, Beulah, and Daniel in Corvallis

Emily in Salt Lake City

Winty in Sacramento

Kevin in Los Angeles

Josh and Amber in Florence

Deepak in San Antonio

Monica in Houston

Whether you offered us a bed, a meal, or even just tea, it meant the world to us.

This will be our last post for 2013, but this is only the beginning. Life on the road for any stretch of time, let alone nine solid months, is both fun and grueling. (Contrary to what our only naysayer might think, to call this a year-long vacation is callous, insensitive, and just plain stupid.) We're ready for time off from it, but at the same time I am happy to say that the last thing we want a break from is one another. Last week, my dad quipped that at this point Alexa and I could renovate a house and/or build one from scratch. And, as we told Tom and Lisa in Brooklyn, we are so close as a couple that we finish each other's sandwiches. It's a little scary.

We will see you in 2014.

Until then, Merry Whatever, Happy Who Cares, and use this time to reflect on the past and look towards the future.

Peace,

Alex

tl;dr - bad weather, tired, taking winter off to get caught up, resuming travels in the spring; see you in January.

The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing: The World's Largest Cross, Effingham, IL

Alongside Interstate 70 in southern Illinois is a massive cross – 198 feet tall, to be exact –made out of aluminum siding. Do I even have to write this one to convey to you our shared thoughts on it?

Imagine a world where a religion adopted a method of execution as their central symbol: a noose, a guillotine, a lead pipe in the billiard room…now imagine that symbol stamped all across the United States. The cross, too, at least historically, was the device for one of the most popular execution methods of its era: crucifixion. There are crosses everywhere in this country. In regions with higher concentrations of Baptists, it is usually a trio of crosses. Roadside are makeshift memorials to loved ones who died in automobile accidents, marked by crosses. And yet, there is never a roadside assemblage of crescent moons and stars, six-pointed stars, the Sanskrit depiction of “Om,” Buddha’s wheel of dharma…

For those who don't know - and want to - the Christian Cross, Jewish Star of David, Hindu Om, the Star and Crescent of Islam, the Buddhist Dharmic wheel, the Shinto Torii, the Sikh Khanda, the Baha'i Star, and the Jain Hand.

Image credit: Wikimedia.

Now is as good a time as ever to restate that I find nothing wrong with the core precepts of Christianity. Whatever belief system helps you become a better person without being a self-righteous ass about it, I say go for it. My dad is a good Christian. My grandparents are good Christians. There are plenty of good Christians the world over. This isn’t for them or even about them – and with that, I hope more Christians stand up for themselves and the true messages within their religion, of love, acceptance, and service to mankind, not just as an affront to the clinically insane claimants of the faith, but also to reshape popular perception.

Theological conundrums aside, and I assure you the book will have a much meatier take on the subject, the important question I have asked as we traveled across the United States is this: “What about non-Christians?” What about non-Christians who wish to buy alcohol on a Sunday in any number of states? What about non-Christians who see a billboard telling them evolution is a lie, and to call 1-855-FOR-TRUTH to hear the real story? What about those pro-life billboards?

Not even the worst.

Image credit: Plunderbund via Gender Focus.

For people living on either coast, this may seem baffling, but it is a reality throughout the Midwest and the South. (That said, I would love to know the rates of teen pregnancies in regions with those awful “LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION” billboards.) If this was a phenomenon limited to a single state, it would not be as bad. It would be a problem as easily resolved as my version of censorship: if you do not like it, turn it off! If you don’t care to see these messages, avoid the one state that has them. Unfortunately, this presentation of a warped, distorted Christianity that is anti-gay, ferociously anti-abortion, and anti-science, whatever the numbers actually are for practitioners and church memberships, is loud, proud, and preachy.

People are entitled by the Bill of Rights, their own free will, and some level of divine inspiration to pursue and practice the belief system of their choice. Where I draw the line is when one narrow school of thought is considered superior, influencing not just popular culture, but public policy. My gripe is with how in-your-face certain types of Christians can be. For the most egregious example of this, look no further than the Effingham Cross.

Interstate 70 serves as a major route for transportation from Baltimore to Utah, spanning just over 2,150 miles. Anyone who has passed through Illinois on this road has seen it, almost popping up out of nowhere: a giant cross, illuminated by a circle of spotlights on the ground. A close inspection reveals it is covered with aluminum siding, looking more like the weekend project of a crazed Home Depot employee than an earnest testament of faith.

No idols...no graven images...but a cross that towers over the nearest grain silo? Totally okay.

At the cross’ base is a relatively new church facility. Its sanctuary has at its front a wall of glass, granting visitors a view of the enormous cross and the relaxing vista of four lanes of constant Interstate traffic. Staffed by elderly volunteers, the church also offers a ten-minute video detailing the construction and installation of the cross. For reasons that I do not understand, both the video and their literature makes a big deal out of the fact that the cross was completed and put in place in the weeks after 9/11.

Alexa Altman: 5 foot 4 inches of fierce.

I was also left with a bad taste in my mouth when I learned the designer deliberately planned for the cross to stand 198 feet tall. What sounds like an arbitrary number is in fact two feet less than the minimum height listed in an FAA regulation requiring a blinking red light on top. Something about that struck me as so unnecessarily defiant, as if a cross twenty-four inches taller would somehow be cheapened by a blinking red light in compliance with federal law.

It was (literally) a hundred degrees out, with that Midwestern humidity to boot. I promised Alexa a cake pop to stay there while I walked back far enough to get the entire cross in the frame. 

The worst thing about this incredibly well-lit monstrosity is in knowing the resources invested into it, the time, money*, and manpower that could have built a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, or a Boys & Girls Club. Jesus was a champion for the weak, for those in need, and for children. My Biblical knowledge is rusty, I’ll admit, but I definitely do not remember him insisting his followers build a cult of personality around praising him, much less to construct a replica of the device used in his brutal public execution.

Jesus' execution, as depicted in a film that parents who otherwise protest violence in cinema took their children along to see.

Christianity is not the only religion in our cultural landscape, and with increased globalization, its numbers will continue to drop so as to make room for different belief systems and philosophies. This does not mean it is going away – and I would not want that to happen– but instead that other ideas will enter our cultural lexicon. After all, is America not the land that, even today, boasts room for all? Or did that go away along with habeas corpus and payphones?

The Effingham Cross would be less obnoxious if, along that same stretch of road, there were massive replicas of the symbols of every major world religion. But then again, it would not be too long before Muslim extremists would attempt to blow up the Star of David, Zionist war-hawks would build a barbed-wire fence around the Star and Crescent after vandalizing it, while the Baha’is would wonder aloud why we all just can’t get along.

Then again, religion is a subject much like sex. A private and deeply personal matter, it is best discussed in small groups, where experiences and pursuits can be discussed in a climate of respect and understanding, with an unwritten law in effect that those who talk the most frequently, the most publicly, and the loudest about it are the ones who are getting the least enjoyment from it.

Credit: Photobucket. 

*Actual retail price: $1,000,000.00. It wouldn’t exactly be the Ritz-Carlton, but that could build a homeless shelter or seven.