What does the author mean by the ties that bind are fraying?

I don't know which author you are talking about. Maybe is means that people's relationships are beginning to strain  and people are becoming farther apart.

ich statement best shows a problem in travels with charley?

one sharp difficulty presented itself. in the intervening twenty-five years my name had become reasonably well known.

this being so, my trip demanded that i leave my name and my identity at home.

i had to go alone and i had to be self-contained, a kind of casual turtle carrying his house on his back.

with all this in mind i wrote to the head office of a great corporation which manufactures trucks.

all of the statements cuz