Colts' Irsay a Kerouac 'steward'

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jack Kerouac wrote 6,000 words a day for 20 days in composing the classic novel On the Road.

That was easy.

What is more difficult is driving a 14,000-pound RV through drifting snow and ice, which we encountered Sunday on the first day of our "March to Miami" for Super Bowl XLI.

Near Crown Point, Ind., a Mustang tried to pass me and spun around on Interstate 65, careening into an embankment. We were afraid the Mustang was going to recover by backing up into our loaned 2007 Fleetwood Tioga RV, but I cut right and avoided any excitement.

"Mysterious and mystical, that's how I describe the allure of the road," said Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay in an e-mail I received Sunday night at the Indy Lakes Campground. "Like many adolescent boys, I was influenced by Kerouac's book of adventure and daring. What amazes me is that the book is as powerful today as it was 50 years ago, when it was published."

Irsay, 47, purchased Kerouac's original 120-foot-long scroll in a 2001 auction for $2.4 million. The document has been touring America since 2004, and it will come to the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago in the fall of 2008.

"I don't consider myself the owner of the original manuscript but as a steward," Irsay said.

Irsay's message arrived on the coldest night of the year in Indianapolis. The temperature fell to 8 degrees. We were at one of the few campgrounds in the area open year-round. A majority of the people staying near Le-An-Wa Lake are workers who are building the new 70,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium, near the current Hoosier Dome. The lakes at this campground were established in 1957, making them the oldest fishing "pay lakes" in Indiana.

Kerouac wrote On the Road in 1957, his fast writing mirroring an emerging American car culture. This struck a chord with Irsay, who grew up in the 1970s in Winnetka.

Irsay also had a roadside dining tip for Chicagoans driving to Miami: "Deeter's Nasch & Nip, the 'casual side' of the Glass Chimney Restaurant [in Carmel, outside of Indianapolis]. Deeter's is quaint and comfortable, with only a four-person waitstaff. The longest tenured with 25 years, the most junior with 11 years."

That's tradition. And that's the beauty of the road.

Follow the Sun-Times to Miami at Dave Hoekstra's blog (blogs.suntimes.com/hoekstra). Detours, betting tips and roadside attractions to see are encouraged.