America: a guide to the experience

By David Stuart Ryan

A review from the Book Exchange about
America - a guide to the experience
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"The book gives an up to date impression of America often with an emphasis on the slightly off-beat. All aspects of American life are covered, from cowboy country to the burial of the unknown soldier from Vietnam in Washington, from Dallas to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Mexico Way and Mardi Gras have attention as do the surfing beaches and Daytona speedway.

The reader will discover just how diverse the USA is and the book paints a vivid picture of the 'real' America unlike many other travel guides.

David Stuart Ryan travelled over 10,000 miles researching this book during three extended tours of America. He is one of America's prize winning poets.

The photographs in the book are truly impressive and each is an original that has never before been published. Altogether a most enjoyable book and one which it will be a pleasure to re-read.'

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"The two page spreads are well composed, the lighting is good and the pictures interesting."
Photographic Society of America Journal
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• Language: English
• Publisher: David Stuart Ryan
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301669257

David Stuart Ryan

Writer, traveller and astrologer.Inventor of a new astrological interpretation program.The writing came first, you can see the titles athttp://www.kozmikhoroscopes.com/kozmik.htmAround the eclipse of March 1968 I turned down a job writing ads for KLM airline and wenttravelling overland to India. (Didn’t everyone?) Felt a little smug about that until I meta girl on the beach in Goa who had turned down a job writing for PanAm to head off to Formenteraand then India. (beat that Ryan!).Did visit an astrologer within 5 days of arriving in an incredibly hot India ( the temperature was hitting over 120F(50C) and even the Indians were dying) who blew me away with his analysis. Even getting that I was anadvertising copywriter.So now many moons later I have a computer program that combines both East and West astrology to givesome unique, mind blowing readings.See for yourself at http://www.kozmikhoroscopes.com

Book preview

AMERICA

- a guide to the experience

Text: David Stuart Ryan

Photographs: David Stuart Ryan

Lisa Norfolk

Cover picture: A brown bear from the Colorado Rocky Mountains chain.

Copyright © 2013 David Stuart Ryan

Smashwords Edition

Published by Kozmik Press, London and Washington DC

All rights reserved.

ISBN : 13 978-1456465919

Your guide

Author David Stuart Ryan travelled more than 10,000 miles by road

researching this book during three extended tours of the USA and is a frequent visitor

to the country.

He is a prize-winning poet in America, and has previously written a 'guide to the

experience' book about India.

He read Ancient History and Philosophy at Kings College, London University

More information about Kozmik Press books is at:

www.kozmikhoroscopes.com/kozmik.htm

Also by the author and available through Amazon, Apple, Smashwords and other retailers as ebooks or printed books

Travel

India – a guide to the experience

Biography

John Lennon’s Secret

The Blue Angel – the life and films of Marlene Dietrich

Novels:

The Affair is All

Looking for Kathmandu

Taboo

The lost journal of Robyn Hood - outlaw

Poetry:

The sphere of the moon goddess – Book One of The Seven Worlds

The Conjunction of the Sun and Moon Book Two of The Seven Worlds

Postcards from around the Globe - Book Three of The Seven Worlds

New new world – the lands of Australia and islands of Fiji – Book Four of The Seven Worlds

Home - and a journey to the USA - Book Five of The Seven Worlds

CONTENTS

1. Mean Streets. Pages 12-15

American aggression. The children. A poor area of

Washington D C. Striptease on 14th St. Private affluence, public squalor.

The black migration from the South.

2. American Affluence. 16-18

The problems of assimilation for the ethnic

minorities. Americans' interest in their roots. The proportion of Catholics

to Protestants. The decline of the smokestack industries. The inheritance

of Martin Luther King. Georgetown and the rich. The downtown streets

at Sam.

3. Washington — A Capital City 19-21

The expansion of Washington. The

rights of illegal immigrants. How many are there? The burial of the

unknown soldier from Vietnam. The number of cases of post-trauma

stress and suicide. The affect on society and the young.

4. Blue Highways. 22-24

Speed limits. The dependence on the automobile. The

scene in Ocean County, New Jersey. Parking in New York City. The

Dakota Buildings. John Lennon.

5. New York, New York. 25-28

The three drawbacks to the city. The gay area.

The cost of a flat. An alleged fraud case. The price of real estate. Lawyers

and the bureaucracy. Head office splendour. A case of violence in

Maryland.

6. New England 29-31

The Puritan vision. Boston's history. The von Bulow

trial. The rich, the poor, the country club set. Whale spotting.

7. The Great Trek West 32-34

The sacred trails to Niagara Falls. Canada and

the tundra. A narrow escape in the woods. Ohio. Cleveland. Toledo.

Michigan. The racial composition of the people. A storm on the plains.

The slaughter of the bison herds.

8. Following the Pioneers 35-38

Chicago and Detroit. Reborn Christians. A

descendant of the early Americans. Nebraska and cowboy country.

Gothenburg. Ronald Reagan's birthplace. The 82-year-old basketball

champ.

9. Storm Warning 39-40

A tornado emergency alert. Precautions against

injury. Its effect. The sudden calm after the storm.

10. Cowboy Country. 41-44

The Pony Express. Walsenburg, Colorado. North

and South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado. Joe Kelley and the

Mission Motel, New Mexico. Aztec ruins. A country and western dance

in Clayton. Colorado's mountain people. A sacred Indian mountain.

11. Julie's Denver Performance. 45-48

Rebecca's music and advertising

careers. The Chrysler nightclub. Brazil's musical influence. The

nightclub circuit. Red Rock's amphitheatre.

12. Show Me The Way To Amarillo 49-51

The Texas panhandle. Oklahoma

and the land rush. Eastern Texas. Segregation and Little Rock. Fort

Smith. A bar in the Deep South. James River and the first settlers. Baptists

praising the Lord.

13. Nashville, Tennessee 52-54

A bar in town. George Jones, a country star.

The Gran' 0l Opry. Fan Fair Week. The Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch. The

Rodeo champion. Broadway hookers. The NASA Goddard Center. Astro-

naut Thomas Flatman.

14 Georgia, Mississippi and tales of Florida. 55-58

The run-down interior. Vicksburg and the Civil

War. Florida 50 years ago. Hawks. The French in Baton Rouge. The

Mississippi River and the frozen North.

15. Dallas. Oil And Insurance Money. 59-64

The road to Phoenix. John

Denver. Downtown area. Brownsville. The Cajuns. The Alamo. The

carpetbaggers. The White Plaza hotel. The B&J Oyster Bar.

New housing. The concepts of privacy and trespass.

American statistics on suicide, homicide, length of life. The job market.

The budget deficit. America, a debtor nation. Foreign investment. An Indian reservation.

Bruce Springsteen.

16. Mardi Gras in New Orleans 65-69

The origins of Jazz. Mardi Gras parades. Bourbon St

prices. The music places. The old Storyville red light area. Black

separatism v integration in the southern colleges.

17. The Gulf 70-72

North Lido Beach. The Florida panhandle. Nick the Greek's

failing business. Social Security and pension payments. The old — the

new rich. Negotiating the price of a room. Florida's mean temperatures.

Land booms and busts.

18. Sarasota. Florida 73-77

Tampa Bay's history. The murder rate. Key West. David

Clayton Thomas, former lead singer of Blood, Sweat and Tears. Wildlife

on the beach. The show must go on.

19. The Daytona Speedway 500. 78-81

Race practice and the scene in the pits.

John Watson, British champion. The 'g' forces on the bends. The famous

beach. Disney World. St Augustine, America's oldest town. Americans'

racial ancestry — the Germans, Irish, British.

20. From Colorado onwards through Arizona and Las Vegas to the far sea 82-88

The Suwannee River. The old South.

Ante-bellum architecture. The misery of the defeated South. The lawless years of 1860-90. The Hollywood

depiction of the Wild West.

Poem - The Wind in Your Hair.

Colorado, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas in pictures.

21.1 Left My Heart in San Francisco 89-92

The two fastest growing states. A

Vietnam War protestor. The arrival of the Chinese. Murder in the Pacific.

The Golden Dragon restaurant. Fisherman's Wharf. A launch from the

Pacific Missile Test Center. The defence industries in California.

22. No, San Francisco People Are Not Boring. 93-96

City Lights bookshop.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Nicaragua and the Great Game. John Calder.

Henry Miller. Voznesensky. Publishers Group West's party. Light as

communication.

23. Monterey and Big Sur 97-100

Cannery Row and the house of ill-repute.

Angel Press. The hospital technician. The economics of an hospital. Big

Sur and Henry Miller. Nepenthe's, honeymoon home for Orson Welles

and Rita Hayworth. The Coast road. Pfeiffer's Beach. A fatal road crash.

24. The All-American Rider of Arab Stallions 101-103

Alvia Beach, the naturists

and the seals. How to get there. Jon the ex-marine. His 30,000 miles round

America. Wild horses. Three day events.

25. Santa Barbara — Think Tank Country 104-106

The nuclear think tanks in

Santa Barbara. President Reagan's ranch. A report of a mishap with

Russia's Doomsday weapon. The welfare check. Out of the body expe-

riences. The Wild West comes to town.

26. LA. 107-111

Alice's Restaurant. Madonna's Malibu wedding. The private

fantasies of the beach houses. An arrest in LA. Sunset Strip and the clubs.

Beverly Hills. A party at the Museum of Modern Art.

27. Down Mexico Way. 112-116

Laguna Beach, LA. The Australian coast road.

The Mexican connection of the Indians. Sunburn.

The Spanish colonisation. World War II and population growth. Yuma, Arizona.

28. The Music Machine. 117-121

MTV and big money productions. The camera-

man's lifestyle. Jazz festivals. The quarter Cherokee. The pistol shots

incident. Suicides on Coronado Bridge. The dark welcoming land.

29. Everyone's Gone Surfin'. 122-124

The surfing beaches. Black's Beach. La

Jolla Cove. Silver Strand. Pacific Beach. News of the economy. Fraud.

The Bank of America scam. Reagan's tax proposal. An AIDS victim.

30. North to San Francisco. 125-127

Smog in LA. Sunset at Alvia Beach. Japanese

imports. Illegal immigrants. A cowgirl. The basis of California's wealth.

Omens. The farmers' problems. The reverberations of the crash of Lehman Brothers.

Places to go, things to do. 128-129

30 places you must visit.

How to save money, time and trouble. 130

Tips for the independent and adventurous traveler, to keep you safe.

The Sangre de Cristo mountain chain in southern Colorado, with the 14,300 foot Mount Blanca, sacred to the Navaho nation.

1. Mean Streets

Abraham Lincoln gazes sternly out from his Memorial, to remind all Americans of the costs

that were paid to maintain the Union when 1 in 5 combatants was killed.

The black man with the grey stubble on his chin, wearing a battered shapeless baseball hat, has drawn up alongside me on the highway into Washington. He is shouting and hollering, seems lost in some arcane insanity that causes him to mouth off his feverish imaginings. I don't respond, carrying on driving, content to listen to the country music coming over the airwaves from a Baltimore radio station. The pilot had said it looked like a 'really warm day' and he was right. The green trees on the edge of the highway into Washington had looked fresh and pretty, it was back to that America of the memory - long roads passing through woody country heading for a destination - with the destination not too important.

But now, as we get nearer town the man in front, who