MEMPHIS, TN.—Many of the travel books I have written and the notes I have taken have been about getting there.
What about the art of being there?
I’m being there in my 2015 camper van right now. What is around me? Not many people. I’m at the rugged Graceland RV Park and Campground, across Elvis Presley Boulevard from the fancy hotel Guest House at Graceland.
The campground is about 30 percent full. My refrigerator has a six-pack of Diet Mountain Dew and a six- pack of Memphis High Cotton IPA. Being there is being prepared for fun.
I have trouble getting the heat going on my first trip of the 2019 winter. A simple switch of the outdoor electrical [...]
Our family in Wrigley Field’s 242, summer of 2000. Mom and Dad with caps, sons Dave (L) and Doug behind them with caps. (Mark Ibach photo.)
After 33 years I have dropped my Chicago Cubs season tickets.
Success became too much to handle.
Our first year as season ticket holders was in 1985 when Wrigley Field was more middle class friendly. Compared to today, I recall more families and more wayward old guys. By chance, in 1985 we landed in the shade of the dark green grandstands behind home plate. Newspaper columnist Mike Royko sat in front of us and adult movie star Seka was down the row. She’s a baseball [...]
My Evergleam.
MILWAUKEE, WI.—Aluminium was a foil for Midcentury America.
A section of the fantastic “Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America” exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum is devoted to the possibilities of aluminium (or aluminum.)
The late Chicago architect Henry P. Glass designed a collapsable aluminum and plastic trailer, a.k.a. the “Accordium Camp Trailer.” The proposed 700-foot camper folded up like an accordion and could be hauled behind a car. The mid-1950s project was commissioned by Alcoa Aluminum’s free-wheeling “Forecast” program.
Alcola promised, “There’s a world of aluminum [...]
Kurt Grahnke on Washington Island (photo by Eliza Grahnke)
WASHINGTON ISLAND, Wi.–The best books contain discovery on every page. Over the summer we had a book signing for my Camper Book at Fair Isle Books on Washington Island. We drove my blue camper van off the Washington Ferry (built in 1989 in Sturgeon Bay) on to the island of 35 square miles.
There are no bridges on this island, but there are timeless connections.
The cozy book store was one of our first stops. I always like to make sure my books are in the store. Book store owner Deb Wayman had a note for me. It was from Gwen Gotsch, an Oak [...]
