Andrew Campbell

Monday Morning Tactician: 3 Dec 2007 - Red Highways

December 3rd, 2007 in Monday Morning Tactician.

William Least Heat-Moon, despite a wild name managed to write quite a good book in 1982 titled Blue Highways: A Journey into America. Along similar lines to Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America and best of all John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, Heat-Moon’s book describes an extended journey along the “blue highways,” the two-lane roads that apparently were labeled in blue on his particular map. All three books are great accounts filled with interviews and opinion both satirical and serious. They all discuss the state of middle-America and local culture as they meander through diners, mom-and-pop motels and stop-light filled towns in the deepest corners of this big country.

Most of the way through Heat-Moon’s book now, I am laughing at the irony of my taking exactly the opposite approach to his trans-American drive. I am sticking to solely to red highways on the map. The only stop lights I intend on seeing are when I get off the four-lane freeways to fill up my green truck with $3/gallon gasoline. The only people I intend on speaking with are sandwich-makers, gas station attendents and anonymous Super 8 or Motel 6 managers. Maybe I’ll be able to mix it up and catch a toll-booth operator, but probably unlikely.

Unfortunately, the travel schedule has been squeezed by the last three weeks of fundraisers and meet and greets throughout the Northeast and this week in San Diego. Keeping in mind that these are all very good problems to have. We had a very successful series of events this past weekend around the Georgetown v. Fairfield basketball game. We had a great pre-game test drive in two brand-new and pretty hot Cadillac CTS sedans. After spinning around the Verizon Center in downtown Washington for an hour or so with twelve or fifteen drivers that we had on hand, we made our move inside to help a big crowd cheer on the Hoyas against the Fairfield Stags.

As a ‘thank you’ to all my extremely faithful fans and friends who came up for the last few days of the Olympic Trials in October we had access to a private box and great seats for the 61-49 victory. Coach Callahan and I were spotlighted on center court during halftime in what was a great honor to receive. Best of all in my opinion was being able to pick out the pockets of Georgetown sailors in the student sections and season-ticket sections as well as the box. 

After the game we headed down the street to Gordon Biersch Brewery where we overflowed the 25-person reserved area with closer to sixty people who enjoyed some post-game refreshment and an information/shakedown session for the next ten-months of my campaign. With about 20 donations big and small we raised more than $1,000 and managed to have a great time.  Thanks have to be doled out to Mike Callahan, Ryan Costello, Michael Campbell, Jackie Schmitz, Berry Kurland and Dan Monico for helping get all the details squared away before and putting the press on donors at the event.

Now, somehow I’ve found myself just south of Cookeville, Tennessee off Interstate 40. Besides my truck being baptized in a winter rain, I figure I’m making decent time towards the west coast and should blast into town just in time for the San Diego Hall of Champions luncheon on the 5th. Three days later on Saturday afternoon is my flight for Sydney to pick up my new boat and get back to work and up to speed over 65 days in Australia. If non-stop action is what you’re looking for, Laser campaigning could be your gig. Call me tomorrow, I can talk about the campaign all day… all the way across Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona or California. I just wish I was able to take a lazy pace and seee the scenery and take on a few locals like Heat-Moon, Bryson and Steinbeck. Guess I’ll have to stick to reading the book for this trip and save the interviewing for next time.

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