Friday, May 28, 2004

Most fascinating drive I (n)ever made

The Most Fascinating Drive I Never Made

I enjoy historic places, so I am sorry I never took a car, camper, or motor home on the Lewis and Clark Trail from Saint Louis to the Pacific. I used to be in awe when I crossed that trail near Kansas City. I would tell myself that I am standing where Lewis and Clark and their band of explorers stood two hundred years ago. A trip that took 45 brave men (and one woman) 554 days to make in the nineteenth century would make an exciting three week adventure in the twenty-first.

The Most Fascinating Drive I Ever Made

I have driven the streets of Subtropolis, an entire underground city. Developers took an old mine near Kansas City, and used its dozens of underground passageways and chambers for streets and businesses. Businesses who need the advantage of controlled and constant humidity and temperature settle there. The United States Postal Service stores and distributes stamps from there. A candy maker makes his confections there. There is a restaurant to serve the hundreds of workers who spend their days there, and a parking lot for their cars. Eighteen wheelers drive from the highway right into the underground passages to the doors of their clients. There is even a railway under the mountain. All the streets look alike and it would be easy to become lost, but the walls are painted with huge arrows that point to exits. Subtropolis is not for the claustrophobic.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had never heard of Subtropolis. I'll have to look it up. Now I want to go there.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to inform you that after doing some family tree searching I uncovered that I am actully related to William Clark. (Actully the name is kept in the family.)  I like your journal. Check out mine if you get a chance. Here's the link.

Anonymous said...

Can't call up the entries.  

Anonymous said...

I love to read about Lewis and Clark. Their story is so amazing the things they all went threw. We have been to some of the sites..the spot where they stopped or crossed and like you I would stand there feeling their presence trying to imagine what is was like for all those brave people! I'm going to have to go back and read up on it again..I thought there were a couple of woman that made the trip..hmmm..must be thinking of something else! the weather has been beautiful down here..Dad says it's been hot up your way. Think we are heading up your way at the end of June!

Anonymous said...

WOW!

Sounds surreal.

Yet, a little disturbing too.  Could it possibly be the beginings of "The Time Machine?"