The Geography of Nowhere

This roadside attraction near Modesto, California, brings to mind one of my favorite books in the 1990s: James Howard Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere."

Kunster erupted onto the scene of urban planning with his wild manifesto of criticism about the state of the "public realm" in the United States. This above is the kind of thing he called "highway crud," as he described an assault "by the chaos of gigantic, lurid plastic signs, golden arches, red-and-white-striped revolving chicken buckets, cinder-block carpet warehouses, discount marts, asphalt deserts, and a horizon slashed by utility poles." 

My wife and I occasionally stop here for a Starbucks coffee while on Highway 99. It truly typifies a kind of off-ramp soul-deadening landscape that so often greets the American traveler.

I couldn't help myself. I came out with a latte', pointed the camera and drove away.