Jamie Jensen - Road Trip USA (25th Anniversary Edition): Cross-Country Adventures on Americas Two-Lane Highways

On the Road Again

Some four million miles worth of roadway crisscross the USA, each with stops worthy of your dreams. All you need is a vehicle and a taste for adventure. This book gives you a network of two-lane highways that ensure you will enjoy every minute and every mile.

These journeys are as wild and varied as the landscapes they traverse. All celebrate the notion that freedom and discovery await us on the open road. American poets and artists from Walt Whitman to Muddy Waters have long sung the praises of rolling down the highway. No matter how times change, I still believe theres nothing more essentially American than hitting the road and seeing the country.

Even when America was more of an idea than a nation, it was inhabited by people on the move. Taking advantage of the internal combustion engine, Americans began to explore the country via the system of highways that developed between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The first transcontinental route, the Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco, was completed in 1915. Motor courts, diners, and other new businesses soon sprang up along the roadside to serve the passing trade. The half-century from the 1920s until the arrival of the interstate highway system was the golden age of motor travel.

While I love shiny diners and neon signs as much as anyone, this book is not especially motivated by nostalgia. Almost all of the places described town squares and soda fountains, minor league baseball teams and mom n pop motelsare happily thriving in the modern world. Better yet, they are close at hand. The simple act of avoiding the interstates, with their soggy franchises and identical chains, opens up a vastand much friendliertwo-lane world. Kitschy little souvenir stands flaunt giant dinosaurs outside their doors; inside they still sell the same postcards they have for decades. Youll chance upon places that are worth writing home about; that inspire a sincere Wish you were here and photos youll remember forever.

After 25 years and a half-million miles in search of perfect stretches of two-lane blacktop, this is the book I wish Id had with me all along. So whether youre an RV traveler or a biker, a Sunday driver or a road warrior, hop on board, turn the key, and hit the highway.

Bridge: This international icon welcomes all to the West Coast (San Francisco CA, Pacific Coast).

Geyser: Witness the drama of the earths power every hour (Yellowstone National Park, Oregon Trail).

: The spirit of the Space Age is alive and well (Seattle WA, Great Northern).

: She lifts the lamp of freedom high (New York NY, Atlantic Coast).

: Stone sentinels stand over a timeless landscape (Northern Arizona, Route 66).

The : Its the embodiment of movie magic (Los Angeles CA, Pacific Coast).

: Larger than life monuments evoke the nations contested history (Black Hills of South Dakota, Road to Nowhere).

: Let Freedom Ring! (Philadelphia PA, Appalachian Trail).

: This modernist landmark links East and West (St. Louis MO, Great River Road).

: It blends nature and culture on All-American Highway 1 (Big Sur CA, Pacific Coast).

Big in the USA

: Is it the stark landscape or the solitude? People on the Great Plains think big (Great Northern).

: Youre not seeing thingsthose really are Cadillacs upended in the Texas plains (Amarillo TX, Route 66).

: Three dozen cars are stacked on top of one another in a post-modern temple (Alliance NE, Road to Nowhere).

ME, Great Northern).

: Youll never forget her (Margate NJ, Atlantic Coast).

The : Dont call it small change (Sudbury ON, Great Northern).