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The Great American Road Trip

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The Great American Adventure

The Great American Road Trip is a legendary part of the fabric of American culture and a richly mined source of American travel narratives, from Travels with Charlie to On the Road to Blue Highways.

The glory of the Road Trip is that while the roads Steinbeck, Kerouac and Heat Moon road may have moved, changed or closed over the years -- it's still possible to follow in their tire tracks. The road is ever new, ever changing so every journey is a new adventure of discovery. And all you need to get going is a car and a full tank of gas.

To date, I've driven cross-country four times between Boston and California. My first drive to California took place in 1995 and the journey left me hopelessly addicted to exploring America by car.

My last trip was from Los Angeles to Boston in 2005, but I will be hitting the road again in January 2008 to drive down the East Coast to Florida. Where I'll go from there I have no idea. This trip is planned to last as long as it lasts and the destinations will be whatever catches my whim.

The photo is of my car at Arches National Park :)

National Geographic's Crossing America

This is my "go to" guide for travelling cross country. Many other roadtrip books will tell you that the interstates should be avoided, but I think that's a ridiculous idea and Crossing America proves it by showing just how much there is to see right off the Interstate.

The other advantage of Interstates is that you will cover much more ground in the same amount of driving time as you would on the two lane highways. Not so important if you have a few months for your journey, but crucial if you only have a week or two.

Los Angeles to Boston, 2005

These photos were all taken on the road with either my T-Mobile Sidekick or my Holgaroid during the Fall of 2005

The Classics

On the Road Do's and Don'ts

I just wanta ride, man! I gotta go!

If you want to hit the road like Jack Kerouac and live to tell about it, you'll want to choose your inspiration from "On the Road" carefully. Jim Benning offers tips.

How to Road Trip Like Kerouac (and Stay Out of Trouble): Do: Maintain control of your vehicle.

Don't: Drive so fast, as Dean does, that you break the speedometer, then miss a turn and wind up careening into a ditch in the middle of a wild prairie, crushing the fender, and losing two hours of perfectly good travel time as your pal hikes to a farmhouse to convince the farmer to pull you out of the ditch with his tractor-even if the farmer does have a fantastically beautiful daughter with the "modesty and quickness of a wild antelope."

American Road Trip Narratives

Most of these are books that I haven't read, but they are on my wishlist. I have an endless appetite for both novels and memoirs about road tripping in America (and elsewhere). These ones look particularly good and eventually I'll get around to them.

Other Guidebooks for the American Road Trip

"Crossing America" is my favorite. It's not nearly as fat as many of the other books on Road Tripping in the US though and it doesn't cover accomodation. It's strictly about the sight-seeing, so if you want a lot more coverage, check out some of these other books.

Included here is the book that is in my opinion the best guide to the "two lane highway" type of travel on the old US Roads. In addition, I've included books that cover roadside attractions in depth and eating on the road.

Prepare for your Roadtrip Online

There are lots of great websites about roadtripping in the USA. So many in fact that you could easily get by without a guidebook. I use these sites in addition to my favorite guide books to get the freshest info for the journey.

Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions: Homepage for Roadside America, travel guide to unusual attractions, tourist traps, weird vacations, and road trips. This is a terrific site and I use it all the time. Look up your hometown and see some fun stuff you probably didn't even know about.
Road Trip America: Great site for planning your road trip. Roadtrip America has an active and helpful forum of other travellers on the American road.
ROAD TRIP USA: Road Trip USA and author Jamie Jensen help you discover and plan your road trip on over 35,000 miles of classic two-lane American roads. The companion website to his great book!
RoadFood: The only web site devoted exclusively to finding the most memorable local eateries along the highways and back roads of America. Companion to the book.
America's Byways - National Scenic Byways Online: If you're wondering just how important the road trip is to American culture, this site should give you an idea. It's sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (they run the National Scenic Byways Program).
Welcome to Hidden America: Dedicated to "On the Road" Americana