Jack Kerouac: On the Road

"Along about three in the afternoon after an apple pie and ice cream in a roadside stand a woman stopped for me in a little coupe. I had a twinge of hardon joy as I ran after the car. But she was a middleaged woman, actually the mother of many sons my age, and wanted someboody to help her drive to Iowa. I was all for it. Iowa! not so far from Denver, and once I got to Denver I could relax. She drove for the first few hours; at one point insisted on visiting an old church somewhere, like as if we were tourists, and then I took over the wheel, and though I'm not much of a driver drove clear through the rest of Illinois to Davenport, Iowa, via Rock Island. And here for the first time in my life I saw my beloved Mississippi River---dry in the summer haze, lowwater, with big rank smell that smells like the raw body of America itself because it washes it up. Rock Island----railroad tracks, shacks, small downtown section; and over the bridge to Davenport, same kind of town, all smelling of sawdust in the warm Midwest sun. Here the lady had to go on to her Iowa hometown by another route; and I got out. The sun was going down. I walked, after a few cold beers, to the edge of the town. and it was a long walk. All the men were driving home from work..wearing railroad hats, baseball hats, all kinds of hats, just like afterwork in any town anywhere. One of them gave me a ride up the hill and left me at a lonely crossroads on the edge of the prairie. It was beautiful there."

this is a section from "On the Road" that i really like because of its descriptiveness of the details that people notice daily but don't think is important. Jack Kerouac turns something that could be so simple into something else that is very engaging and interesting. He makes a story out of something that could be simple as this : I saw a woman who needed help getting to Iowa, so i decided to go with her, first she drove then i drove. we passed the Mississippi River and she left me to go another way into Iowa. Some guy gave me a ride up to the egde of the prairie. Instead he adds small details and his thoughts into the text which makes it interesting to read, because it helps us visualize the situations and places.