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48 °F 5 Day Forecast Friday, November 28, 2003 --> Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend November 2, 2003 Life along the‘Blue Highway’ caught on film You could say that Arlo Moss doesn’t let any moss grow under his feet. The Ashland resident is a traveling man who last month completed his goal of visiting all the counties in the 48 contiguous states. That would be 3,098 counties by his count. But what in the name of William Least Heat-Moon would possess anyone to hit the blue highways to visit all the counties in the Lower 48? "I just love to drive ... to get out and explore the back roads," he answers. Advertisement Along the way, he pulled over long enough to pore over the wonderful open-road classics of Moon’s book, "Blue Highways," and John Steinbeck’s "Travels With Charlie." To sideswipe Robert Frost, Moss’ penchant for roads less traveled made all the difference when it came to choosing his profession. Moss, 74, is a retired professor of geography from Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, where he spent 25 years at the lectern. He also taught marine biology and has a master’s degree in botany. "During that time I was teaching geography, I found I was a much better teacher if I had pictures to show students," he says. So he took pictures, lots and lots of pictures. When he was done with his drive-by shooting of this vast nation, he had 12,000 slides. After he and Dolly, his wife of 47 years, moved to Ashland nearly a decade ago, he began looking over the pictures and notes he had of his road trips. He uses the material to teach a course called "Blue Highways" in the Southern Oregon Learning in Retirement program at Southern Oregon University. "After I went through everything, I realized I’d been almost everywhere," he says. "Of course, there were a few places I had missed." That realization jump-started his interest in visiting all the counties. He promptly got a large map of the first 48 states, one with the counties clearly marked, and began coloring in the counties he had visited. His wife rode shotgun on many of the trips taken since his retirement, but their three children already had hit the road on their own. "A friend said I just had to get one wheel inside a county to make it count," he says. Yet two of his favorite counties were within a day’s drive of where he taught, including Leelanau County in northern Michigan and Door County, Wis. "Beautiful country," he says. Then there was Aroostook County in the far tip of Maine. "Maine? You really have to want to go there," he figures. But the most difficult counties to add to his list were in Georgia. "They have little ones and the borders are all creeks," he says. "If the creek changes, so does the county line. And they don’t have a lot of signs." But he relished it all, particularly when it came to chatting with local folks along rural roads. "I don’t like driving in cities," he says. "Everybody is in a god-awful hurry." When it was time to stop and eat, Moss didn’t follow Moon’s habit of seeking out restaurants with the most old calendars on the wall. "I like to go where the workers go," Moss says. "If there are some pickups there, it’s generally good." Born in Missouri but reared in Iowa and Minnesota, Moss figures traveling is in his blood. "My dad was a traveler," he says. "We moved 46 times before I left home. So I quickly learned how to pack and move and deal with new places." A hitch in the Army beginning in 1952 sealed his traveling fate, he adds. But he laments that hitting the open road behind the wheel is different now. "In the old days, I hitchhiked a lot," he says. "And I picked up a lot of hitchhikers over the years. But that’s not safe anymore." And too many automobiles on rural roads are in high gear now, he says. "Cars used to go slow," he says. "They wouldn’t go more than 35 or 45 miles an hour on an old road. You had to go slow and look at stuff. We’ve lost that. "It’s hard to find the blue highways today," he adds. But he will tell you they are still out there if you stay on the back roads and slow down a bit. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times