ROUTE 41...



And Other Stories

By Lawrence C. Sarsoun

Copyright 1998
Published by Wren Services
4750 Decatur Circle
Melbourne, FL. 32934
321-259-4729
sarsoun@bellsouth.net

FOREWARD

They call Route 66 the Mother Road, and much has been written about it, with famous places and famous stories all along its way from Chicago to Los Angeles. But while Route 66 is famous and historic, there are other roads with other stories.
The book you are about to read is about such a road, a road that people drive on every day, a road that is part of their lives, a road that courses its way north/south through the heartland, the mid-section of America. The trip that was taken on this road, from the cool climes of the northwoods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to the torrid temps of Miami, is more than just a travelogue. It is a story of America at the turning of a millennium. It is about the people and places along a road that is the spine, the backbone of the country. Route 41 cuts across the US of A from conservative communities to liberal enclaves, from towns soaked in their heritage, to ghettoes where ethnic groups grope for a genealogy.
The purpose of the trip is to alert you to a trip worth taking, to places and towns where the real America lives, where real people deal with real problems, places where there are good things happening, places where we are dealing with serious problems. The trip is down most any road in our country, maybe the road down the street from your house. Route 41 is any highway that we live on, it's where the action is.
Life is like that sometimes, it doesn't matter what road you are on. If you are living, you are going somewhere, and it isn't the destination necessarily that is so important, it's the trip, it's the going.
Life is like that sometimes, we must make the trip, do the best we can, try to make the right turns even though the map is sitting in our lap and we haven't got a clue where we are. Life is like that sometimes, we have to make the trip.

INTRODUCTION

I remember the first time the thought crossed my mind to write a book about route 41. We were on one of those summer vacations that starts out in one direction and ends up going another.
The original plan was to head out from Chicago and do the around-Lake-Superior trip, up to the Twin Cities, around the north shore of Lake Superior into Canada, through Sault St. Marie, and then down along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, back to Chicago.
We headed north into Wisconsin and got lost in the upper peninsula of the state of Michigan. Places like Porcupine Mountain, where the beautiful Lake of the Clouds nestles in the hills, you walk up to it, up the path and over a rise, and there it lies, below you, spread out like a glistening necklace.
We got lost in places like Copper Mountain and Houghton, did the tourist things, saw the mines, bought the copper trinkets.

But the most unusual sight of the whole trip was a little segment where we drove up route 41 on the Keweenaw peninsula, to what I call the highway's "End/Beginning". The road runs through a deep forest and the trees form a canopy over the road, cathedral-like. The sun filters through the leaves, like light streaming through stained-glass windows. As you drive down the road, you anticipate breaking out of the woods onto the crest of some hill, where a majestic view awaits you. But the end of the road comes up suddenly, a cul-de-sac (of sorts) in the woods. You circle around and are pointed back the way you came. A small sign tells the story of this end-beginning, how this road will, at this point, begin a journey of some 1990 miles, over hill and dale, will trace its way from northern Michigan to the southern end of Florida, from the cool virgin forests of the north, to the tropical heat of Miami.
This backbone of America, this spinal column that runs north south through the heart of the country, will meander its way through neighborhoods of every stripe, through beautiful woods, verdant farmland, big cities with broad shoulders, and little towns with just shoulders along the side of the road.
It will criss-cross rivers and skirt lakes as it travels from the waters of Lake Superior to the waters of Biscayne Bay. For some, this beginning/end of the road might be a little disappointing, like life itself sometimes.
What, no roadside stand selling souvenirs, no hoopla, no 24 hour restaurant, no museum, no tourist trap? Life is like that. Sometimes we come to watersheds in our life and transitions are made without a whisper. We get up to a new day and put our pants on one leg at a time, just like yesterday, but something has changed.

So we drove around that little cul-de-sac, drove around it in circles about a half dozen times till the wife and kids were laughing so hard they were in tears. "Hey, let's make something out of this, this end-of-the-road-beginning". And then, when we were so dizzy from going around in circles, we finally propelled ourselves out of the cul-de-sac, like a rock slung from a slingshot, whipped back down the road, down the road once traveled, but now we see it from a different vantage, from a different viewpoint. And isn't life like that? We see things differently the second time around.
The kids grow up, a divorce takes them away, and we have another chance to parent a child or children, and we see it differently, we do it differently (if we're given the chance). The same road, going a different way, and the sun streams through the stained-glass windows of the oaks and maples, and we flash down the road through shadow and light, shadow and light, shadow and light. Life is like that, shadow and light, light and shadow.
We must appreciate it for that, we must learn that the shadows are part of the mosaic, that the light wouldn't have as much meaning or beauty if it were not for the fact that it comes out of the shadows.

After awhile, route 41 emerges from the hardwood forest, out onto the rolling hills, open prairies, and farmland, out of the shadows and into the light.
Life is like that, we emerge after awhile, if we keep going.

Thank you very much World Start for this award!