Storms and superman

It's been a little stormy over here the past couple of nights, during the day it's been in the high 80% with a humidity factor of between 40 and 60% which is pretty high and also pretty sticky!

On Monday, in an effort to make the most of my time here, we went on a little road trip, now we could have gone a lot further, but you know how Matt doesn't like to get up early and is not always the fastest in the bathroom, so our little trip out started at just gone noon. I'll not mention that Matt did his hair, didn't like it so washed it again, then styled it twice, to make it look like it did the first time before he washed it, just without the product in it, so it fell flat as soon as he got on the car. But hey, I'm not saying anything, I'm gonna bring up the subject of vanity, not in the slightest!

So off we zoomed in the little red sporty car, heading on some back roads, through American countryside, well sort of. I like to get lost, indeed many people have said exactly that to me over the years! But it's true, I like to look at the map, pick a destination and then go roughly in that general direction, getting lost along the way is part of the fun, the road less travelled by and all that. Matt however, as we are learning, is completely different, he prefers to only go places he's been before, roads that he knows, routes that he's taken time and time again. So getting him on a unknown stretch of road was a major achievement for us both!

Travelling between little towns here in America is an eye opening experience, the difference between rich and poor is easy to see, the contrasts are striking and so obvious, whole towns either look nice and well kept or shabby, flaking and uncared for. I suppose this is the same in England, where you go from the rich side of town to the run down council estate, but that's in the same town, here it seems as if the whole town is either wealthy or down at the heel! Another thing I have noticed is that the town centre, or rather the old town centres seem like they've seen better days, are less popular, for example, our own town of Carterville. We live on the outer regions of Carterville, therefore it's closers for us to go to Marion than it is the town centre of our home town, which is somewhat reminiscent of old movies, perhaps a corner block that an old PI would stand, that place that the original Superman might have saved from Lex Luther! An old motel at a crossroads in the town gave the impression of being empty and derelict, yet it wasn't, I'd not like to stay there! To Matt, the town centre of Carterville was nothing out of the ordinary, it was just another old town that doesn't have the money to be renovated, so stays the same way it has for a long time.

arterville's main street!

To me, it filled me with a slight sense of sadness, with a feeling of longing, the town's lack of funds, lack of renovation had, to my mind, left it looking like a relic from the 50's, which was somehow fitting. it may have a little sadness to it, but also a quiet, unquestionable charm, a peaceful bit of living history.

Maybe the attraction I feel for such places is my own subconscious desire to live in such a place and in such a time when worries were less and life seemed all about fun and enjoyment.

Maybe I should have been a 50's boys living in a time of cars with chrome on the front, of innocents, of denim overalls (dungarees) of straw hats, of local barn dances actually being held in barns, of the days of James Dean, of drive in movies, oh bring those days back!

Mount Vernon, a place I'd seen on the map of nearly ever weather forecast, proved to be not as exciting as thought, indeed it was pretty dull, a rather empty mall, a few strip malls and a K-mart. Obviously being an English man with a fondness for films, going to a K-mart was high on my list of activities that had to be done prior to my homeward return. We went in, looked around and bathed in the feeling of nostalgia yet again, K-Mart, I felt was reminiscent of my childhood memories of Woolworth's in a small Surrey town when I grew from child to adolescent. The same multitude of things, down different aisles, the same collection of discounted items to fulfill the needs of the masses, the low low prices, the down market reputation, it even had that Woolies smell, one that I can't describe fully, more a combination of aromas the filled the nostrils upon entry every single time, an overall aroma that has stayed with me for life, that will always be associated with Woolworth's on the London Road!

After brief pauses to take in the sights and smells that Mount Vernon had to offer we were back in the car and homeward bound. The bright sun and clear skies gave way to I bathed in the history of downtown America, Matt was looking forward to game playing on the Wii or one of the other consoles he seems to have amassed in the apartment. However, the weather had other ideas on what was going to be the evenings excitement.

An interesting feature on the local TV channels over here is the severe weather warning that appear on the bottom left hand corner of the show your watching along with warning beeps. The warning this night was red, which is, as one would expect, the worst it can be, tornado warning! Then Matt had a cal from his parents ensuring we were awear of the impeding weather nightmare. Now, I don't like to panic, but in true boy scout fashion of always being prepared, I moved a change of clothes, the battery operated TV, the batteries, the cell phones and bottles of water into the bathroom! Not because I was planning a dump of epic proportions, but that's the safest place to be during a tornado. We kept on checking on the weather, which had now taken over from normal programming and looking out of the windows. Darkness came early and then there was rain, then there was a little hail, by UK standards it would be big hail, but by US it wasn't. We lost TV and internet access as the rain continued to fall and the wind battered the outside world. No sign of tornado, no major winds, no danger, indeed it was a bit of an anti-climax, but as my old granny always used to say, "so is life, so what ya gonna do?"

Matt had plans for us on Tuesday, another little road trip, down the highway to the home of Superman, Metropolis! Yes, there is such a place, I know I've seen the signs as we've driven passed on the way to Paducah and always wondered if it was going to be like Metropolis as seen in the movies and the TV shows. At times the highway stretched out in front of us as far as the eye can see, ending in a tiny dot on the furthest horizon. I think the size of the country and all that space will always surprise a small town Surrey boy like me, it's just vast and there were a few moments along the road trip, especially when restroom facilities were called for that I wished we could fly, just like the superheros home we were going to see!

Trepidation, anticipation welled up as we took the exit for Metropolis and headed in the right direction, which considering Matt sense of direction is saying something. Excitement was just around the corner.

There are lengths ones heart can plummet when met with disappointment and my heart went to such depths as Metropolis not only came into view but was all around us in a matter of seconds.

It's not a jot like the movies, or the telly series or even the multitude of comics. Yes it is the home to Superman, it has the Superman convention each year. Yes it may have a kryptonite centre, it may have a convention centre but a built up, vibrant city it is not, true home of a super, super hero, me thinks not! Small American Mid-west town with faded grandure and pealing paint it is. But on the plus side, it does have a comic book store and a museum and a bloody big Superman in front of the town hall and court house in Superman Square!

Of course I had to get my photograph taken under the massive Superman and obviously I had to pose like hero who wore his undies on the outside. I'm sure this caused Matt's embarrassment, but hey you don't get to stand between Superman's legs everyday and I was going to make the most of it. Regardless of fact that Matt's face was glowing the same shade as Superman's cape! And again by Metropolis comics and collectibles, plus thought it might be a nice idea to get a snap of me holding up Anne Brooke's wonderful book Maloney's Law, which I'll review in a later post, so watch out for that, but for now let me just tell you it's a darn good read.

We headed on up to Vienna after the sights of Metropolis had reached a peak, although this wasn't without incident. Matt stopped off at a comic store on the edge of the town. I stayed in the car in order to get toward the last couple of pages of Maloney's Law. He cracked open the window slightly and toddled off storebound. I tried to open the windows when the temperature had risen passed the 90 mark, the power was off so I couldn't turn on the ac and the windows wouldn't open, I tried to open the door, it was locked. The side of my head hurt when I hit it on the side of the door frame, which I did not for fun, but because the car alarm shocked the hell out of me when it blasted the local community with honking horn when I opened the door. Matty assures me it was just force of habit that he locked the doors and set the alarm, but I'm not so sure!

This is supposed to look like me driving, which we all know is not happening, there are far too many cars in far too many lanes for that!

Dine well we sure did that night, corn on the cob, thunder & lightning, zucchini casserole, fresh salmon grilled to perfection stuffed me beyond capacity, well almost I saved room for homemade chocolate cheesecake that was to die for, seriously the best darn cheesecake my taste buds have ever had the pleasure of tasting, after a large helping and Matt's smaller helping I was then stuffed beyond capacity and we relaxed to watch the Clint Eastwood film Gran Turino on the biggest TV I've ever seen. It was much like being at a cinema, but with no strangers around snorting, rustling sweet papers, munching popcorn, plus there was a beer or two! What a good day, plus, I've been given the rest of the cheesecake to take home and nosh down at my leisure.

Another thunderstorm occurred when we got home, indeed on Wednesday and today we've had thunderstorms, which over here light up the skies as if it were daylight, at times the flashes of the lightning is almost constant, for example the other night there were as many as 100 lightning bolts a minute, which rather a lot and rather more than we see in the UK. I'm kind of liking the extreme weather here in the gateway to the Mid-west, it's interesting and just a touch scary at times!

There is more on the way so check back soon!