J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 24 — NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, Part I: One of my goals for this trip was to tour a Louisiana swamp. I had it in mind to set a scene — perhaps the climax — of Campbell Young #5 in such a locale. So two mornings ago we travelled deep into Cajun country, through the [...]

J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 23 — DONALDSONVILLE, LOUISIANA:
CAMPBELL YOUNG AND PRIAM HARVEY RENT A ROOM FOR THE NIGHT
The desk clerk studied his computer screen. “I’m afraid all I have left is a handicapped room, which I can let you have for seventy-nine dollars plus tax.”
“A handicapped room?” Young said.
“Yes sir, it’s outfitted for handicapped people. Wider doors, [...]

J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 22 — OPELOUSAS, LOUISIANA: Two racetracks in one day! That’s right, folks, I was in heaven. First, Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, east of Shreveport, where I hit on my first bet of the day, a five-year-old chestnut mare named Finest Top. I love winning that first bet. It gives me confidence to make [...]

J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 21 — JEFFERSON, TEXAS: So far on our trip, we’ve stayed at inexpensive ($30-$60) motels 15 nights, pitched our tent four nights, and slept in the Jimmy once, but today we decided to spoil ourselves, so we took a room at the Excelsior House, where many luminaries have stayed, including Rutherford Hayes, Ulysses Grant [...]

J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 20 – BROKEN BOW, OKLAHOMA: Our GMC Jimmy cranked out his hundred-thousandth kilometre on Highway 19, outside Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma, just down the road from a buffalo farm. The event occurred at kilometre 8324 of our trip.

An angry, drunken young man wandered his campsite — which was uncomfortably close to ours — on the [...]

J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 19 – OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Karen and 80-year-old Dorothy Koehn played the piano for each other (‘On the Jericho Road,’ Doodily Do,’ ‘In the Garden’) at Smrcka’s Diner, in Medford, Oklahoma. The hamburger I had there was the best restaurant hamburger I’ve had in 30 years.

The great race horse, Funny Cide, whom we were [...]

J. D. Carpenter’s American Odyssey

DAY 18 — DODGE CITY, KANSAS: When Karen and I met Andres Lima, the horse trainer, on Day 11 of our trip, he encouraged us to return to Dodge City on July 15 for a special day of racing, so we did just that. In fact, we rented the same room (221) of the same [...]