Hello, Radio Readers. I’m author Julie A. Sellers. Welcome to this High Plains Public Radio Radio Readers Book Club BookByte of The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson.
Anyone who has traveled much is far too aware that there are often things that do not go as anticipated or turn out, frankly, wrong. Bryson’s travelogue of his journeys across the country is filled with a mosaic of just such experiences, and Bryson portrays them with a humor that is at times hilarious and others, mordant.
One of the most common sources of Bryson’s mishaps is dining while traveling. His memories of perilous dining adventures extend back into his childhood and visits to his grandparents’ home. There, his grandmother experimented with recipes combining prepackaged foods and highlighting Rice Krispies whenever possible. He remembers of his grandmother, “She was about as bad a cook as you can be without actually being hazardous.”
It is perhaps these early experiences that lead Bryson to embrace his “six rules of public dining.” These norms include gems such as “Never eat in a restaurant where you can hear what they are saying in the kitchen” and “Never eat in a restaurant that has bloodstains on the walls.” Throughout his journey across the United States, Bryson dines in a variety of establishments, some of them a hit, others, a disaster.
Accommodations represent the same opportunities for extremes. Bryson discovers locations that far exceed his expectations and those that are abysmally worse. He finds good deals on rooms and at other times, wonders if he’s purchasing the establishment. Sometimes, it seems that only his chance to skewer a hotel afterwards motivates him to stay in it.
The gulf between expectations and realities is another source of conflict and humor. As Bryson enters eastern Colorado, he is disappointed to discover that there are no mountains yet and that “This sure wasn’t the Colorado John Denver was forever yodeling on about.”
Farther down the road, he opts for a scenic route up through a mountain pass. The already tense drive on nerve-wracking narrow road is made that much worse when it begins to snow, making a mess of his windshield when mixed with the bugs from his trek across Kansas and Nebraska. When he exits the car to clean the windshield, his imagination takes flight, and he envisions a horrific scene of being attacked by a bobcat. This is but one episode when the weather alters Bryson’s plans and impacts his expectations.
Although Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America is over thirty years old, the sentiments of travel disasters feel universal. Some things, it seems, don’t change with time, GPS, or smartphones.
I’m Julie A. Sellers for HPPR Radio Reader’s Book Club.
