Small towns in Maine haven’t changed much since 1960 …
Neither have many of the crossroads.
Steinbeck didn’t sleep in a Bangor motel as he says in
“Charley,” but I spent my first night at a Walmart there.
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The Spalding Inn is in the White Mountains near Lancaster, N.H., where Steinbeck said he camped on a farm but didn’t.
Steinbeck ate dinner at the exclusive Spalding Inn — after he was given a
coat and tie to meet the dress code.
“Charley” & America in Pictures
By Bill Steigerwald
In the fall of 2010, I retraced the road trip John Steinbeck made for his bestseller “Travels With Charley.” Along with posting blogs to “Travels Without Charley” at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I took nearly 2,000 pictures of America and Americans.
I took snapshots of people I met, places I went or things I thought were interesting, pretty, funny or stupid. I photographed many places Steinbeck mentions in “Travels With Charley” as well as hotels and homes he stayed at while on his 1960 journey.
Some of my photos are pretty good, some are blurry or kind of crazy. Many were taken through my car windows at 70 mph.
Collectively they help me tell the true story of “Travels With Charley” and provide a hint of the beautiful country and good people I saw on my high-speed dash down the Steinbeck Highway.
Here are some photos from Lancaster, N.H., on a Saturday in September, 2010.
Lancaster, N.H., where Steinbeck stopped twice,
going east to Maine and west to Chicago.
A farmer’s market in Lancaster, N.H., on Sept. 25, 2010.
A sign of the Tea Party in September of 2010 in northern Vermont.
“Charley” & America in Pictures
In the fall of 2010, I retraced the road trip John Steinbeck made for his bestseller “Travels With Charley.” Along with posting blogs to “Travels Without Charley” at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I took nearly 2,000 pictures of America and Americans.
I took snapshots of people I met, places I went or things I thought were interesting, pretty, funny or stupid. I photographed many places Steinbeck mentions in “Travels With Charley” as well as hotels and homes he stayed at while on his 1960 journey.
Some of my photos are pretty good, some are blurry or kind of crazy. Many were taken through my car windows at 70 mph.
Collectively they help me tell the true story of “Travels With Charley” and provide a hint of the beautiful country and good people I saw on my high-speed dash down the Steinbeck Highway.
Steinbeck's first two sleepouts in his camper shell were on a dairy farm above his kid's exclusive boarding school in Deerfield, Mass.
The farmhouse was vacant but still in great shape on Sept. 24, 2010.
But the barns and fields of the farm were being reclaimed by nature and in the orchard the apples were rotting on the ground..
“Charley” & America in Pictures
In the fall of 2010, I retraced the road trip John Steinbeck made for his bestseller “Travels With Charley.” Along with posting blogs to “Travels Without Charley” at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I took nearly 2,000 pictures of America and Americans.
I took snapshots of people I met, places I went or things I thought were interesting, pretty, funny or stupid. I photographed many places Steinbeck mentions in “Travels With Charley” as well as hotels and homes he stayed at while on his 1960 journey.
Some of my photos are pretty good, some are blurry or kind of crazy. Many were taken through my car windows at 70 mph.
Collectively they help me tell the true story of “Travels With Charley” and provide a hint of the beautiful country and good people I saw on my high-speed dash down the Steinbeck Highway.
Blaize Zabel was going home to Massachusetts.
The Cross Sound Ferry from Orient Point across Long Island
Sound to Connecticut is a 90-minute cruise.
Tools of the drive-by journalism trade.
I met super journalist John Woestendiek and Ace, fellow “TWC”-chasers,
on board the Susan Anne. They would eat my dust for weeks.
“Charley” & America in Pictures
In the fall of 2010, I retraced the road trip John Steinbeck made for his bestseller “Travels With Charley.” Along with posting blogs to “Travels Without Charley” at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I took nearly 2,000 pictures of America and Americans.
I took snapshots of people I met, places I went or things I thought were interesting, pretty, funny or stupid. I photographed many places Steinbeck mentions in “Travels With Charley” as well as hotels and homes he stayed at while on his 1960 journey.
Some of my photos are pretty good, some are blurry or kind of crazy. Many were taken through my car windows at 70 mph.
Collectively they help me tell the true story of “Travels With Charley” and provide a hint of the beautiful country and good people I saw on my high-speed dash down the Steinbeck Highway.
Downtown Sag Harbor in the afternoon, Sept. 22, 2010.
Sag Harbor’s pier as the moon comes up on Sept. 22, 2010.
Sag Harbor’s harbor as the sun comes up Sept. 23, 2010.
Leaving Steinbeck’s driveway at dawn on Sept. 23, 2010.
“Charley” & America in Pictures
In the fall of 2010, when I retraced the road trip John Steinbeck made for his bestseller “Travels With Charley,” I took nearly 2,000 pictures of America and Americans. I took snapshots of people I met, places I went or things I thought were interesting, pretty, funny or stupid. I photographed many places Steinbeck mentions in “Travels With Charley” as well as hotels and homes he stayed at while on his 1960 journey.
Some of my photos are pretty good, some are blurry or kind of crazy. Many were taken through my car windows at 70 mph.
Collectively they help me tell the true story of “Travels With Charley” and provide a hint of the beautiful country and good people I saw on my high-speed dash down the Steinbeck Highway.
Buy “Dogging Steinbeck”
First Bill Steigerwald took John Steinbeck's classic "Travels With Charley" and used it as a map for his own cross-country road trip in search of America. Then he proved Steinbeck's iconic nonfiction book was a 50-year-old literary fraud. A true story about the triumph of truth.True Discoveries
I discovered two important truths when I set out to follow John Steinbeck’s "Travels With Charley" route in the fall of 2010. I found out Steinbeck’s iconic nonfiction book was a 50-year-old literary fraud. And I found out that despite the Great Recession and national headlines dripping with gloom and doom, America is still a big, empty, rich, safe, clean, prosperous and friendly country. This site explains how I stumbled onto Steinbeck’s deceit and includes the daily account of my 11,276-mile drive from Long Island to Maine to California and back. Meanwhile, I’ve turned my adventures with John Steinbeck and his famous work into an Amazon.com book of my own, "Dogging Steinbeck." A nonfiction one.
E-mail Bill Steigerwald