I love taking the bus. Last night I took a two hour jaunt from Harrisburg to Reading so I can wish my mother a happy birthday today. Two main conclusions of the trip. south-central PA has serious issues and I really need to learn how to speak spanish. If I spoke spanish I could have conversed with the other two passengers on the trip. Instead I finished up Graham Ward's True Religion, listened to some music, and read a little Wendel Berry.

There are some nice downtown districts in Annville, Cleona, and Lebanon however sadly it looks as if no one cares to up keep them. Churches look old, store fronts are dirty, and buildings that once were impressive i.e. The Fred Astaire Dance studio now just seem bizarre.

After awhile we enter Berks county "Home of Redners Warehous Markets" the sign proclaimed. Can something be a warehouse and a market? Maybe it's confusing these two that is the root of many of our problems. Without fail decrepit downtowns are paired wth shiny new Wal-marts. And without fail we choose standardization over beauty convience over heritage.

as we rolled through Conrad Weiser I was listening to some Coldpaly. It was duk when "Yellow" came on so I looked for some stars. The only yellow I saw was the time and temp on the bank building.

If you want to read some good travel writing:
www.xanga.com/fromtheclovis