Rather than taking the usual east-west routes favored by those embarking on cross-continental road trips, in 2014 Charles Roamer went the other way, starting near the Canadian border and taking U.S. Route 83 due south—not stopping until he reached the Mexican border. In fact, the highway is nowhere near as featureless as the prevailing wisdom would have us believe.
The subtitle of 83 ODYSSEY is “An Adventure Down the Spine of America on U.S. Highway 83,” and one certainly gets the feel of traversing through a landscape that, though often maligned as monotonous, is surprisingly varied. Roamer begins surrounded by the oil wells and fracking fields of North Dakota, and heads through the ubiquitous cornfields, as well as the desert lands of Texas. The book is beautifully presented, and Roamer displays an interest in the cultural heritage of the regions he passes through. Many passages are supplemented by basic information on historical events and the like, though these elements do sometimes read less like travelogue and more like encyclopedia entries. There is also an avowed interest in what Roamer characterizes as small-town life. Roamer expresses something like bemusement at—and not a little affection for—the cities too small to be considered cities, the observed propensity of small-town people to return home, and so forth.
There are one or two elements that set Roamer’s trip apart from others. One was that he embarked on it without a smartphone, trusting instead in “the helpfulness of many [smartphone] users” when in a tight spot. There is also a hint of regret in his inability to get more than the odd stranger to engage in conversation instead of scrolling.
If 83 ODYSSEY falls foul of anything, it is that the narrative is not always as compelling as it sets out to be. Roamer’s travels take in some areas off the beaten track, but contain too much of the mundane—accounts of meals taken at Denny’s, lists of food bought at convenience stores—to make for sustained interest. Where the work really shines is in its documenting of ways of life gone by, or, more often, in the throes of passing: the tiny, abandoned bowling alley in a sleepy South Dakota town, its four (!) lanes marked only by the water from a leaking roof, or the innumerable towns in decline following the closing of railroads and the retreat of industry. These are where the book’s main attractions lie, and they make for a satisfying read overall.
83 ODYSSEY: An Adventure Down the Spine of America on U.S. Highway 83 shines with author Charles Roamer’s affection for the Great Plains’ landscape and people.
~Craig Jones for IndieReader