A brief material culture interlude

Charlie and I are stopped in a Super 8 Motel in Pennsylvania on our way back to Wisconsin after my interlude in Delaware for the past two weeks, and while I don't have much time to post (I need to get to sleep so I can drive tomorrow), I thought I'd share this quickly.

This is the soap from our hotel in Clearfield, PA, and I think it could be the beginning of a great lecture on the material culture of American auto travel. The exit where we've stopped is one of the typical sort so ubiquitous to anyone who spends a good deal of time on the road - anonymous, rather forgettable, filled with the corporate markers that one would expect on the side of an American highway (Holiday Inn, Super 8, Arby's, Lowe's, Burger King - and Sheetz, which makes subs much beloved by Charlie). And yet. The San Francisco Soap Company, and the Golden Gate Bridge. "Sure, you may be stopped for the night as you trek along Route 80," this soap may say, "but don't forget - if you keep driving, you'll end up in California! Anything is possible!" I love the "nourished with enriching olive oil" line also - I just washed my hands with this soap, and it's definitely the generic crappy hotel variety that makes your skin feel weird - but something about that line makes me picture sitting in the shade in a vineyard in Napa with a Cab Sav in one hand and something delicious in the other.

Or maybe I'm just tired. Folks, this is what it's like to travel with an art historian.

Tomorrow, once I get back to Wisconsin, I'm going to start working out for real what this blog will be and how I'm going to maintain it. I'm sure I will have more news soon!