[Sketch Trip America] Episode 22: If you're a true cowboy, be quick on the draw!

 22. American Midwest Outfit - If you're a true cowboy, be quick on the draw!

    Sunglasses used to be something that was only used to show off. If you wear a wide-brimmed hat, what you hear is, in all likelihood, a sarcastic comment asking if you've been on a trip abroad.

    In a cowboy movie set in the American Midwest, when people appear wearing sunglasses ‘Americans are all so fashionable.’ It was probably natural to think this way.

    But when we got to the Midwest of America, my body first told me that that wasn't the case.  By the time we reached Missouri, we saw drivers wearing cowboy hats one by one. My skin and eyes started talking to me.

    ‘I’m burning to death. 'I'm going to turn red.'

    ‘I can’t see. My pupils feel like they're going to explode.'

    Sunglasses and a hat are basic, I ended up wearing an arm sleeve. If you can cover anything, it's best to cover it. The Cowboys' scarves weren't stylish either. My red, ripe throat is burning. If you don't want to groan all night, you need to wrap it around.

In the Midwest, cowboy hats, sunglasses, and scarves were not a fashion item but a survival tool.

    When you stop at a gas station to fill up the tank, if someone walks around without a hat or sunglasses, people in the Midwest, in all likelihood, might think this way.

    "Are you a foreign tourist?" 

    "Foreigners are all so fashionable." 

 

 

    At present time in 2014, to become a true cowboy running through the American Midwest, you should be quick to draw your sunscreen from your pocket at any time.

Jingoogk's Sketch Trip America is written originally in Korean.

[Sketch Trip America] Episode 21: Old Town to Old Town No. 2 - Crossing America

Old Town to Old Town No. 2 - Crossing America

5. Coleman Theatre

    ‘When it opened in 1929, it was the most elaborate theater between Dallas and Kansas City.’ This was the description of the Coleman Theater. It made me wonder how little effort was put into making the things around it. And that it provoked such thought was quite interesting in of itself. Also, it was particularly interesting that it was an 85-year-old theater. There may have been plenty of theater facilities in Korea 85 years ago, but the important question is whether they still exist. When the Kukdo Theater in Seoul was demolished a dozen years ago, it felt like the era of theaters with architectural beauty was over. Even if it was the same movie, I would always go to the Gukdo Theater, which has marble and a spiral staircase. Some groups of the cultural world tried to prevent demolition, but it was in vain. There is no wonderful Hanok-style theater in Seoul that is hundreds of years old. For a theater that is 85 years old, especially if it is still alive, it is appealing enough to me.

The Coleman Theater was small and Spanish-style. Spanish style also means that it includes Arabic styles. This is because southern Spain was under Arab rule for a long time. The entire building is beige. The entrance eaves were dark green. The decorative carvings along the lines of the building were elaborate. Just like the explanation, it seemed like a lot of effort was put into it. Judging from the pictures hanging at the entrance, the real work put into it was inside the theater, but it was closed on the day we went.

    Feeling disappointed that I couldn't see the theater, I looked into a corner of the building that looked like a tourist office, and a world map on the wall of the office caught my eye. There were red flag-shaped pins in various places on the world map. What does this mean? When I looked closely, I saw that it was the country of the foreign tourists who visited the area or Coleman Theater. There were about two dozen countries, including Japan. But there was no Korea.

“Why, there is Japan, but there is no Korea,” Sumi shouted.

It really was. I was thinking, “Oh, this can't be,” then Sumi continued.

    "Koreans just go where everyone else goes. If they come to a place like this and put a pin on it, then it’s truly Korea in the world. It may not seem like it, but Japanese people are traveling to places like this. Don't get disappointed at the fact that Japanese culture is more widely known than Korean, instead of just going to LA or New York all the time, you should come to places like this. I want to show that Koreans really know how to enjoy traveling. We have to put a pin in there."

It was a legitimate reason to be upset. One red pin on an old theater in a remote village? It may not seem like a big deal, but if you think about it reversely, even though it is not a big deal, there is no Korea. We were burning with a sense of duty to stick a pin in Korea as well, but the door was locked. What do we do?

After giving it some thought, we wrote something on a piece of paper and stuck it on the office door before heading off:

"Hi, we came here while you were closed for the holiday. Could you please add a pin on the board for us? We're from Hyde Park, NY, and Seoul, South Korea. THANK YOU! Sumi & Jingoogk www.sketchtripamerica.blogspot.com."


'I'm an on-time 66 traveler from Korea and I've been visiting the Coleman Theater and putting a pin on our map, but I'm not sick of the door being late. You guys are plugging it in instead. please.'




You can see photos of the interior of the Coleman on the website below.


http://www.colemantheatre.org/

6. Ribbon Road

    Ribbon Road was a road with really nothing to see but a funny anecdote. It was given a pretty name, Ribbon Road, because of the shape of the narrow, one-lane road, but it was actually a story about Oklahoma State trying to reduce its budget. Road construction by pouring concrete is an expensive project, and in the 1920s when Route 66 was being built, some people seemed to have considered the construction of a two-lane road a waste of budget. However, it was impossible not to build the first road connecting east and west, so the best solution the state of Oklahoma came up with was to reduce the cost by half by making certain sections of the quiet outskirts of the city a one-lane road instead of two lanes. It is said that in a time when only one car passed by, there were people who boasted that two cars would never meet at the same time. Over the next 80 years, skyscrapers were built in Oklahoma City, and eight-lane highways were built, but some sections still remained one-lane and the road came to be called the Ribbon Road.

    I thought about it as we drove along the crumbling one-lane road. If I were a person from a time when only one car could pass in an hour, would I have determined that building two-lane roads was a waste of money or as a preparation for tomorrow? A perceptive person would have drawn a two-lane road, but given the circumstances at the time, such insight did not seem to be easily obtained. For about ten minutes while we were passing through Ribbon Road, we did not encounter any cars coming from the opposite direction. It was as predicted by the person who decided on the one lane 80 years ago. It was fortunate. If two cars had been encountered on this road, a true spectacle would have occurred where the drivers of both cars would stick their heads out and have a discussion about whether or not each other's car would touch or not on this semi-unpaved road. The cows on the side of the road would have eagerly watched the show. Ribbon Road was a road full of lessons(?) where you could experience with your whole body what the world was like created by people who could not see the future.

7. All Husbands' Grave (Catoosa, Blue Whale)

  

    Although it was the first day of September, the summer heat did not go away. When I got out of the car and looked around for a while, my whole body was drenched in sweat, and I got back into the car with a sticky body. When the sweat cooled down, after driving some, I got out again at the next place. I repeated this six times, and it started to get tiresome to stop somewhere. Katoosa's Blue Whale always appeared on the internet and in guides, but no matter how much I tried to look at it favorably, I didn't know why there was so much interest in a whale that was as good as a local children's playground, so I just wanted to pass it by. Still, the reason I stopped at Blue Whale was because the shape of the whale was so childish that it was noticeable even on the road going at 50 mph. Why is this whale so popular in an era where everyone has been to at least a few large theme parks? I felt like I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't check.

    On a small pond, there was a blue whale with its mouth wide open. The inside of the whale's stomach was unsightly, made of steel bars and PVC. Still, there was everything there, so it seemed like it would be fun to run around inside the whale, dive, and go down a slide. There was also a lifeguard station. The sighting ends there. After quickly finishing the sightseeing, we were about to leave when a middle-aged female ranger approached us and started talking to us. "Where are you coming from?" She said that there were quite a few people swimming when it was hot and asked if we would like to look at some old photos in the management office. I didn't really feel like it, but it seemed rude not to oblige, so I just planned to quickly scan inside and head out. When we followed her inside, however, there were not just a few photos, there were A LOT of them. At first, I skipped it half-heartedly, but after looking at a few pages, I saw that the photos contained interesting stories. Summarizing the ranger's explanation and photos, it was like this.

    In the early 1970s, a man named Hugh Davis created a whale in this pond as a surprise wedding anniversary gift for his wife, Zelta, who collected whale figurines. At first, it was a family-only place, but as many locals came to visit, Hugh bought tons of sand, built a sandy beach and picnic area, hired lifeguards, and opened it as a public swimming pool. Eventually, it became a popular place for both residents and Route 66 travelers passing through to enjoy playing in water.

    The ranger said, pointing to one of the faded photos. “This is the husband.” Sumi wanted to take a closer look, so I quickly closed the photo album and said, ‘He's the one who makes all husbands tired, so don’t bother remembering it for a long time.’ I joked with concern and opened the photo album again. Decades of images of Hugh, his children, and the local people passed by one by one, and the reasons why people love Blue Whale were clearly captured. If I hadn't stopped by the management office, I would have left without knowing what Blue Whale really means.

    For fun, Sumi asked me to pose as I was bitten by a whale. I did what Sumi wanted. Hugh made a whale for his wife, Zelta, and I willingly became whale food for Sumi. That was the only way to survive.

    Before leaving, I looked back at Blue Whale. If I was driving through hot Oklahoma and had a quick swim in a local pond that appeared out of nowhere and then drove off again, it seemed like there would be no other oasis in the desert. I definitely recommend that wives go, but I recommend that husbands never go. If you are still together, please take care of yourselves.

8. Rock Cafe

    The pride of Rock Cafe, a restaurant that opened in 1939, is its grill which has been around for over 70 years since its inception. Named Bestie, she is said to have cooked five million burgers, countless chickens, and various grilled dishes with her stocky, sexy body measuring 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, and weighing 200 pounds. This is a humorous explanation on the Rock Cafe website. She is said to have survived a fire in a restaurant once, so she is a woman who has a knack for hot things. I didn't go inside, but many Route 66 travelers recommend eating here if you pass by.

9. The Chandler Armory

    I was very excited because it was said to be a castle-shaped armory building. But the sun was setting, and after wandering around for a while, we arrived and, as expected, opening hours were over. The building is Art Deco style. Now used as the Route 66 History Museum. I later found out that there wasn't much on display as an armory. Thanks to this, the regret of not being able to see it disappeared as if it had been washed away.

10. SODA POP

    Donuts the size of a building, ice cream the size of a house… Whenever I see large advertising sculptures in the United States, I wonder why they make them so big. The person who told me the reason was my friend Jungdeok, who ran a donut business in Texas. In the central U.S., where the horizon is wide, outdoor sculptures are easy to find because they can be seen from a great distance once they are tall and large. It was an advertising culture related to topography.

    The last stop of the day was Soda Pop. Soda Pop was famous for its large neon sign shaped like a soda bottle. But why a soda bottle? Is this even a store that only sells soda? Oh, no way. Then I wondered what kind of store it was.

    What can we do to make a gas station a tourist attraction that people visit from far away? The method Soda Pop chose was to sell all kinds of soda. Soda Pop's identity was a gas station. It was no different from a regular American gas station in that it sold gas, had a convenience store, and prepared and sold simple meals. However, this place named it Soda Pop, erected a large neon sign, and sold all kinds of soda drinks. The store, which could even fit a basketball court, was filled with all kinds of soda. Upbeat music was playing, families were eating, and young people were constantly coming and going, giggling. It seemed like people would stop by here at least once for fun and see the place, and they would talk about this place at least once more. The neon giant soda bottle made it impossible not to remember this place forever. As far as I know, this is the only gas station that I'd go out of my way to take a look at.

    While I was looking at the neon soda bottle, admiring the exquisite marketing techniques, two female college students approached me and asked me to take a commemorative photo of them with the neon background. I was happy to take the photo and then we took a commemorative photo together. Celebrating the magical gas station that mixes gasoline and soda properly and sells it as a culture. Some gas stations are caught mixing additives with gasoline to make a bigger profit. I hoped they would come up with something like Soda Pop instead of becoming infamous in today's news.

    It was 9:20 pm by the time we visited all ten places we had planned. The weather was getting increasingly cloudy, and finding a campsite became difficult. Sumi and I went to a nearby motel, warmed up a can of beef stew in the microwave, and hurried to sleep for tomorrow. It was around the time I fell asleep that the thought of the true joy of traveling across America was ‘a trip from Old Town to Old Town’ occurred to me, and I decided to subtitle this section of my travelogue from Old Town to Old Town.

Jin Kook’s Auto Chart


Accommodation: Americas Best Value Inn. $55 + tax = Total $61.72.

+ 2

    While I was starting my itinerary, there were two places I wanted to see additionally but couldn't stop by. Since I couldn't stop by, of course, I don't have any pictures. So I consoled my regret with a drawing.

    Golden Driller near a city called Tulsa.
Tulsa has become a large city thanks to the oil industry.
Of course, the symbol is a giant drilling for oil.
In the central U.S., you have to grow first.
I drew myself in front of the Golden Driller so you can see its size.

    Round Barn. A circular-shaped barn for a farm.
A rather large farm building was made round and made of wood.
The inside looked pretty cool, but unfortunately, we couldn't stop by.
The shape of a modern grain warehouse was not much different from this warehouse.

    Today's journey is depicted in this drawing.
It is literally a journey from Old Town to Old Town.
If I had to add a subtitle, it would be ‘Choose according to your taste’.
The next day's schedule started from Oklahoma City.

Jingoogk's Sketch Trip America is written originally in Korean.

[Sketch Trip America] Episode 20: Old Town to Old Town No.1

Old Town to Old Town No.1

September 1, 2014: Carthage, Missouri to Arcadia, Oklahoma 

    After leaving Red Oak II and heading back down the cornfield road we entered yesterday, we got back on Route 66. The charm of traveling on Route 66 is that it passes through all the old small towns that the highway does not stop at. According to American road traffic laws, the speed limit when passing through a village is usually 30 miles per hour. Of course, you can avoid such slow speed on the highway, but on Route 66, you WANT to drive slowly. From Chicago to LA, you always pass through the town centers on your route. If driving without stopping is the virtue of the highways, stopping 'everywhere' is the unique virtue of Route 66. ‘There are so many things to see and do on Route 66 that it is impossible to include them in this guidebook.’ As written in the Route 66 guidebook for the Missouri-Oklahoma section, all the old roads run from east to west as short as 30 miles or as long as up to 90 miles. The basic pattern of traveling on Route 66 is to head west patiently while observing the towns and the scenery between towns. Stopping somewhere or delving deeper into one of the many places is an option that allows you to experience another trip during your cross-American trip. Like that one night at Red Oak II.

    The guidebook, which said it was impossible to include everything, recommended a whopping 95 places. Among them, we chose ten places for today. The distance is about 250 miles in total. It's a 5-hour drive if you just drove through, but I didn't know how long it would take if you added time for sightseeing. It seemed like we would drive for about 30 or 40 minutes, stop and look around, and then drive again for another 40 minutes. The last stop was Soda Pop near Arcadia, Oklahoma. The neon sign in the shape of a giant soda bottle is a can't-miss. The basic plan for our trip is to get to the accommodation or campsite before the sun sets, but since we had to see soda pop at night, we decided to drive until dark today. Alright. We spread out the still-wet laundry that had been washed on the back of the car and set off for the Top Ten of our choice, from Carthage to Soda Pop.

 

1. Carthage 

    The first stop was Carthage we stopped by for dinner last night. Unlike the desolate night scenery, Carthage was a small city full of low-rise, pretty buildings. Last night's desolation seemed to come from the flat, low, unfamiliar cityscape to me. People who were born and raised in a place with a wide horizon sometimes feel claustrophobic in a place surrounded by mountains, but to me, who was born and raised in a place where 70% of the land is mountains, the flat terrain seems dreary.

 

2. Precious Moment 

    I didn't know what kind of place it was until I arrived, but it was a theme park with characters based on Christian religion. It seems to be somewhat popular, but it was my first time seeing this character.

 

3. Neons and signs 

    Neon signs, researched and commercialized by British and French scientists, are said to have caused a global craze in the advertising and signage industry. It arrived in the United States in 1923, and for the next 20 to 30 years, American neon signs reached their peaks in popularity. Since the opening of Route 66 in 1926, it was natural that neon signs would decorate Route 66 at the beginning of its prosperity, and the heydays of both came around the same time. The fact that road trips enjoyed in primary-colored cars under neon lights became one of the symbolic images of the 50s and 60s is a result of its heyday. The decline of neon signs came after the mid-1990s, but the decline of Route 66 began much earlier, therefore some neon signs and signs that decorated Route 66 share a historical trajectory with Route 66. The dramatic revival of Route 66 in the 2000s made it possible to travel through the cultures of the times, where both the decaying and the current were co-existing.

 

4. Ku-Ku Burger 

    A famous burger restaurant on Route 66. It started as a drive-in burger chain in the 1960s and at one time had dozens of stores, but now they are all gone and only this one remains. In fact, it is a Mom & Pop store (meaning a small store run by mom and dad). Even though the fortunes of the family have declined, it is a place that is still alive and well. The taste and quality are the best of any chain burger I've ever had. There is no comparison with McDonald's, and Burger King, Wendy's, and Shake Shack are also well below, and although the styles are different, they are comparable to Five Guys. However, since only one Cuckoo Burger remains and McDonald's has spread all over the world, it seems that taste and quality are not necessarily proportional to business in the food industry. I hoped that the Ku-Ku Burger's superior quality wasn't the cause of its decline. It would be very sad if it did not prosper because the ingredients were not spared. I imagined a world where there were many moderately sized chains like Ku-Ku Burger, hoping that there would be a global movement of people who love good neighborhood burger restaurants, and I rapidly ate up the hamburgers cheese sticks, and fries that can only be eaten at Ku-Ku Burger. By lunchtime, we had stopped by 4 places and there were 6 places left.

 

Continuing on Part 2 of From Old Town to Old Town - Crossing America. 

 Jingoogk's Sketch Trip America is written originally in Korean.

[Sketch Trip America] Episode 19: A Stormy Night

A Stormy Night

The building Lowell let us stay in was the General Store that his father owned in his old town. It was the most special one in the entire Red Oak II. Inside the store was a large open hall and in the back of the store was a storage room and a small bathroom. There was no shower but a sink and toilet was more than good enough for us. I washed my face and hands in the sink and wiped the rest of my body with a damp towel. A whore's bath, Lowell had told us that was the name for it. I have to say whore's bath was very refreshing for me.

 

A patch of grass would've been plenty for us, but a whole store building to stay in?  We became a staying-over guest from mere passer-by's and we were inside s store building in Missoura. Lowell liked to separate the lower part of Missouri from the North and called it 'Missoura.' In the corner, there was a wood stove and tables that looked as old as the building itself. Sumi and I put our laptop on the round table and started to write our travel log.

'Today, we enter deep into our journey. I started to feel this sometime today, then suddenly….' I wrote this and suddenly, for sure, it started to really pour with gusts of wind. The roof was rumbling and walls made squeaking noise. The ceiling went dop-dudop-duddadop. The window panes were clattering, and the walls went kwikity-kweek. The romantic mood abruptly turned into eery feeling.

"You know, in movies, the towns people come to 'take care of' the outsiders at nights like this, holding all sorts of farm tools in hands." I said half-jokingly.

"That's actually scarier than ghosts." Sumi said curling in her shoulders.

"Right. The ghosts disappear in the morning, but people being territorial continue on during the day."

"Remember 'Deliverance'? They encounter terrible local people. So scary."

Suddenly, the front door swang open. We looked up in surprise. There was someone standing at the doorway and looking in our direction.     

We also stared him in silence. For a while, we were lost for words. If we were in our house, we would say, 'Who is it?' But we were in someone else's empty building. It actually took some time to think up what to say. Most of all, I had to summon my poor English grammar and began saying, "We…. arr… tra…vel..er… so, ….." But Sumi said in simple, precise and fluent English that we were visiting and Lowell had let us stay the night here. The person standing at the door said that he was Rose's son and he thought it strange to see lights on in the empty building. He then said good night and left. It must be also unusual that someone stayed in this building over night. I admit, it is pretty strange thing to ask to stay for the night at someone's house in this day and age. We finished writing down brief description of today's journey and lied down on the sleeping bag spread on the floor. The old ceiling panels were visible in sight and it became special again that we were staying here.

"It's pretty amazing that we're sleeping here. Don't you think so, Sumi?"

"Yeah, I know. It's pretty, this building. I like that old wood stove, too."

"The building squeaking also makes me think there's something about this place."

"What about this place?"

"Spirits. Ghosts are shaking the panels one on each panel, right?"

"I know! There were religious fanatics lived here and they killed people while doing some sort of exorcism, then buried the bodies underneath this building. That's why there're evil spirits roaming around here."

"Wait. Should I bring the camp axe from the car? Shouldn't we have something with us?"

"No, Jingoogk, we shouldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"You know that's how people get killed, one by one. While you are gone, something could happen to me, then you. Besides, how can I tell after you're back, if it's really you?"

"You're right. Let's pick a password. Shinkyo-dong! The town we lived when we were in Korea."

"You can't say that out loud? The ghosts already heard you."

"Uh, um. No, no, we said it in Korean. Zombies and ghosts here use English."

"Okay. Then go. Bring me some chips and peanuts, will ya?"

"Where are they?"

"You look around. They should be somewhere behind the driver seat."

"Sumi, I think I better stay. We shouldn't be apart, as you said. Let's hold together tight and go to sleep."

I closed my eyes for a long time but didn't fall asleep. I had been fighting with the squeaking of walls for some time, then I began to feel sleepy. But soon enough, the rattling of the windows woke me up. This whole process repeated several times. There was a thunder in a distance. Whenever the lightning hit, the inside of the building brightened up like in daylight. Flash! One, two, three, four, five…. Craacckkk! Five miles. Sumi opened her eyes. She mustn't've been asleep. Splatt! We started counting together. "One, two, three…" Kaboom! Three miles. Again, splatt! "One, tw…" Boom! One mile. And then? Sumi and I prepared ourselves.

Splaaattt!! Kaboooomm! Lightning hit right above our heads, and the noise ripped the sky apart. Simultaneously, the front door split open, letting the bright light and rain spears pour in. If there was a dark figure standing in the doorway, it would definitely have been an evil spirit, but there was nothing outside the door. Another lightning struck but no evil spirit or terrible townspeople came. Only rain and wind rattled the door noisily. A thought crossed my head, 'Who is going to close that door?' Now that the inside the blanket was all warm and cozy, I didn't want to get out to close the door. If there would've been a scary ghost, I would've asked it to do it for me. A terrible group of townspeople that despise outsiders didn't come by here when we needed them. It was four in the morning and no one out walking around in this storm. I had to get out of the blanket eventually and put the latch across the front door.

When I laid back down, thunder, lightning, wind, windows rattling and the possible corpses underneath the floor still made me feel uneasy. As the thundering subsided and the rain and wind dissipated, I slowly fell asleep. If Lowell hadn't let us stay here, we would've been camping outside in this storm….. zzzzzz.

Cock-a-doodle-do!

This time, the sound of a rooster had woken me up. Seven ten. The donkey that brayed eeee-ahhh until late at night was quiet. He must not be an early riser. Outside the front window of the store only showed calm and serene landscape with no trace of the storm from last night.

 

Morning in Missoura

The sky that the storm recently passed still looked gray, but the ground was shining and moist making it more vibrant than under the midday sun. Old car, old airplane, metal sculpture and old building…. the sight from yesterday was added with the trees and plants that are refreshed, the town of Red Oak II began to stir and started growing more beautiful than the day before.

The weather in the Midwest seemed unpredictable. The vast flat land has no peak in sight. The grassy fields stretch as far as where eyes meet the horizon. This openness gives no shelter to the clouds and the restless wind only blows in one direction. In the summer, the moisture from ground boils up to form the cloud but has no control but to throw down thunder and lightning wherever the cold wind from far tells it to. Many days of accumulation may come down all at once in one night. And the ground with no hills of peaks remain mute receiving everything that's pummeling down on it. It goes up during the day and upside down, it pours out spilling everything over night. The sky and the ground pass the water up and down, connected in columns of water pipes for a few hours then quiet down all at once. That is the weather here. In between the heaven and the earth, people, animals and houses have to endure it all. That's why the border between the sky and the ground is only a straight line. Nothing of the human shoud dare to invade it.

A Cup of Coffee

We made omelet in the back porch of the General store building then headed to Lowell's home. He was just coming out of the house and we had coffee together with his wife in the front yard. From where we were sitting, there was a good view of Red Oak II. Maybe Lowell had placed his home in such a way that while smoking his corn cob pipe, he could enjoy the outcome of his project and also plan a new one. As we talked about Lowell's new plans for Red Oak II, our travel stories and other stories of our lives, Lowell sometimes smoked the corn cob pipe. Milford the gray cat and Geisha the black and white cat rolled over on the grass often catching our hands petting their soft coat.

 

A Stroll with Lowell

After the coffee, Lowell wanted to show us some place that we hadn't seen. It was the area where Lowell had first appeared when we first met him. Beyond the wide tree shade, there were Lowell's previous studio, his first house when he moved here, his daughter's house and few other houses and gardens. They were private and uniquely decorated. Lowell's stroll route was also unique. A visitor would view it from the front taking the wide paths, but Lowell walked through narrow space between eves of two adjoining roofs, then a path behind house and through a back door. It was the route he takes in his daily routine. A visitor wouldn't be able to see this convenience, function and joyfulness. The visitor and the dweller: This two different ways of seeing one thing made me realize why the old homes that were transported to some of the museums that we visited on the way here felt so fake. It was the lack of 'necessity'. The real life space shows the effort and endeavor for what is necessary, but museums certainly lack that aspect. Lowell's place is full of evidence of this effort and endeavor.  This is why Red Oak II is the true living-history.

 

 

After the stroll with Lowell we said our good-bye's. One night seemed like many days of excitement. When will we come back to this place again. I suddenly felt like someone who's lived all his life. It was because Red Oak II came into my life as a precious jewel of a place. Sumi and I put the purple beans and hand drawn map given by Lowell on the dashboard of our car, the green Passat Wagon, aka Nok-Cha(green tea: 'Cha' in Korean is a homonym of car and tea) and turned on the engine.

Jingoogk's Sketch Trip America is written originally in Korean.