The Longest Road Quotes

“What finger-shaped Florida lacks in breadth it makes up for in length; Tallahassee is 480 miles from Miami (farther than New York City is from Cleveland).”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“Someone had told me, years ago, that Key West’s latitude was the northernmost from which the Southern Cross was visible. I had glimpsed it just once, in 1980, while on a night swordfishing trip in the Gulf Stream. It hung a hand’s width above the horizon in the southwest—four stars like the points of a crystal kite. On”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“Aside from their companionship, I’d brought Sage and Sky as ambassadors, hoping they would attract attention and open the door to conversations with strangers. In a moment, they fulfilled their diplomatic function.”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“Key West has become an imitation of its former self, its eccentricities commoditized for sale to tourists. That “character” you see with a parrot on his shoulder is about as authentic as vinyl siding, employed to provide local color. Gargantuan cruise ships dock two or three times a week, disgorging passengers by the thousands to troll the cheesy T-shirt shops on the main drag, Duval Street. And with all sorts of diversions to keep visitors occupied, like parasailing and jet skiing, tourist season is year-round, clogging the streets with autos, bikes, motor scooters, and pedestrians. I”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“I had only one hard-and-fast rule: avoid interstates. They are predictable and boring, and their uniformity somehow erases changes in landscape; you can drive six hundred miles, from forests into desert, and feel that you haven’t gone anywhere. In a sense, you haven’t. You have no idea about the lives of the people in the towns and cities you’ve bypassed at seventy miles an hour. *”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“the first Airstream to roll off the assembly line, in 1936, was called the Clipper and was modeled on a design created by Hawley Bowlus, designer of Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis. An”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“The total distance—11,741 miles—gave me sticker shock. Round it up to twelve thousand. Almost halfway around the world! It seemed slightly mad, but then it might do me good. To make such an epic road trip, discovering places I’d never been, rediscovering others, never knowing what I’d find beyond the next curve or hill, would be to recapture the enchantment of youth, a sense of promise and possibility. The cicada chirped incessantly in my head. I clicked back to the first map. Looking at it brought on a mixture of eagerness and reluctance. The buzzing grew more shrill. If you don’t go now, geezer, you never will. I listened to my inner cicada, and the uneasiness subsided. If I’d learned anything, it was that the things you do never cause as much regret as the things you don’t. But”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“Dog Soldier Raid at New Scandinavia—1869,”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“Key West has become an imitation of its former self,”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean

“I really believe that when we start talking ourselves back, we'll have more to offer the world." he [Woodenkinfe] said. "I don't want a gray world."
"You mean taking back our cultures and where we come from."
"Absolutely! You want to talk about the fabric of this country, that's it."
"So rather than a melting pot, it would be a..."
"A blanket of color, all sewn in the shape of the U.S.”
― Philip Caputo, The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean