In
the summer of 2007, Peter
Thody and his wife Carole left their home in Leeds,
England to embark on a 4,000-mile American road trip.
Hotel bookings in Chicago and San Francisco established
the bookends of the trip, a rental Jeep provided the
means of getting from A to B, but the four weeks in
between were left to write their own story. [Click
here for the Adventures]
The
history of the Lone Star State - the history before
the Kawakawa and Comanche, before the Spanish and
the settlers from the East - is engraved in stone.
Those rocks tell a turbulent story of environmental
and biological change that makes the present-day "crisis"
of global warming appear trivial. Aaron Reed takes
the family on a road trip into the geological past,
when parts of Texas now 1,500 feet above sea level
were, literally, the bottom of the ocean.[Read
the story.]
Some
road trips start out all wrong and then somehow end
up right. That's what happens when Aaron Reed sets
out on Memorial Day weekend to visit a Texas creamery
and tour a legendary brewery. Alas: no ice cream,
no tour. What he finds instead is some old-time hospitality
in a corner of Texas where German, Czech and Mexican
traditions mingle companionably over music and beer.
[Read
the story.]
Each
summer, Anne Sponholtz heads to Cedar Key for a weeklong
vacation on the Gulf Coast of north Florida. The tiny
village has its share of ghost stories and pirate
tales, and Jimmy Buffett once sang nostalgically about
it. But it wasn't until she made a midwinter visit
to the quiet island community that Anne understood
what it is about Cedar Key that keeps bringing her
back.
[Read the
story.]
On
an off-road trek along the Gulf of Mexico in southernmost
Texas, Aaron Reed encounters many memories and a mystery.
The memories are familiar -- fishing with his grandparents,
nursing the injuries of a misspent youth -- but what
is that orange stuff out in the water? [Read
the story.]
Peter
Thody visits Iowa, the state many believe provides
a window into how America used to be: a simpler, more
innocent way of life. And while credit cards are indeed
still viewed with suspicion, Thody struggles to imagine
Doris Day attending a death-metal disco or Pa Ingalls
searching for work along a climate-controlled skywalk.
Like everywhere else, the "Tall Corn State"
is changing -- and not always for the best.
[Read
the story.]
In
Death Valley National Park, in the Panamint Mountains
of eastern California, is a canyon loop road that
takes four-wheelers through a harshly beautiful landscape
and 150 years of pioneer history. Del Albright lets
some air out of his tires and heads down the trail.
[Read
the story.]
Christmas
in East Texas is scented by pine woods and coffee,
and bright lights appear in town squares and oil fields
to illuminate memories of eras long past. Aaron Reed
takes a couple of holiday road trips -- one to Marshall,
the other to Kilgore -- to discover the spirit of
the season. [Read
the story.]
In
the summer of 2007, Peter Thody and his wife Carole
left their home in Leeds, England to embark on a 4,000-mile
American road trip. Hotel bookings in Chicago and
San Francisco established the bookends of the trip,
a rental Jeep provided the means of getting from A
to B, but the four weeks in between were left to write
their own story. The first adventure took Thody to
Illinois, where he discovered some odd examples of
Americana: a 110-ton coffee bean, a 2,000-foot drill
bit and a seemingly endless supply of artistically
rusty, vintage farm implements. [Read
the story.]
Snowbirds traveling
to Florida's West Coast are treated to a 66-mile road
trip along U.S. Highway 301, an old-time road that
serves as a connector between one interstate system
and another. Anne Sponholtz traveled U.S. Highway
301 as a youngster when her family vacationed in Florida
each summer. Recently, when she set out in her RV
to see what this rural section of highway in North
Florida had in store for snowbirds, she discovered
orange juice, pigs, a county seat, horse farms and
a state park along the way. [Read
the story.]
With
a single day to explore the vastness of Alaska, Megan
Edwards skipped the package tours and picked up a
rental car. Her solitary road trip along Alaska's
Highway 1 reveals America's last great frontier in
all its autumn glory - birch trees, glaciers, moose
and all. [Read
the story.]
Sometimes
it seems that all roads lead to Austin. Once a sleepy
college town and provincial capital, Austin is now
the 17th-largest city in the country and a major center
for high-tech innovation, and it hosts 19 million
visitors a year. A good number of them are music fans
making a pilgrimage to the self-proclaimed "Live
Music Capital of the World." Aaron Reed takes
a break from the open road to lead an insider's tour
of clubs, restaurants and off-beat attractions in
his hometown city.
[Read
the story.]
Thirty-five teams of
robotic, mechanical, automotive, and artificial intelligence
engineers gathered in Victorville, California in late
October to participate in the National Qualifying
Event of the DARPA Urban Challenge. Unlike the prior
events where autonomous vehicles were challenged to
find their way around an off-highway course, this
year's event required that these specialized robots
be able to drive in an urban setting, navigate traffic
circles and stop signs, and make decisions based on
scenarios presented to them...[More]
Aaron
Reed takes a Saturday road trip up the Mexico-Canada
corridor and back in time as he explores the roadside
attractions of Waco, Texas. Here, in the shadow of
Baylor University, the frontier meets free enterprise...[Read
the story.]
Many
road trippers head into the Southwest with a single
mission: to see the Grand Canyon. They are so intent
on looking out over the Canyon's grand vistas that
they skip other attractions along the way. Suzanne
and Craig Sheumaker have a different mission: to introduce
four of the Canyon's close neighbors and give visitors
reason to pause a little longer in this extraordinary
region...[Read
the story.]
After
a late night with friends and a lazy morning recovering,
Aaron Reed had an
urge to get out of the house and go for a country
drive. The relief he sought was vertical: the lush,
shadowed valleys and craggy ridges of the Texas Hill
Country. It was a Sunday drive, and by the end of
the day his spirits were restored by the fresh air,
a collection of Burma Shave signs and a champion maple
tree decked out in its first fall finery...[Read
the story.]
When
Dennis Weaver saw the new sign, his heart sank: "Sheep
Falls-4 Miles." His favorite picnic spot, one
of the most scenic places in eastern Idaho, had been
discovered. Would the road be thronged with SUVs?
Would the falls be crowded with campers and picnickers?
Dennis headed down the little dirt track with trepidation,
and came back with this report...[Read
the story.]
Mountain
road trips are often daunting adventures, but the
La Sal Mountains, in eastern Utah, can be explored
in an easy daylong ride along the La Sal Mountain
Scenic Loop out of Moab - and all you need is an SUV.
Del Albright says
fall is the season to do it, when the brush fields
glow red alongside the stands of gold quaking aspens....[Read
the story.]
The
rain clouds looming on the horizon did, in fact materialize
into record-setting rain and floods, but not before
road tripper Aaron Reed
had a chance to look for wallabies and go kayaking
on an ancient canal in western Texas. No canned mutton,
though...[Read
the story.]
On
a recent trip to the Southeast for a summertime conference,
Megan Edwards found herself with time on her hands
and a favorite road trip calling her name. She headed
straight for Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
whose misty vistas and rhododendron-covered hillsides
attract more visitors than any other national park
in the country. Crowded? Yes. But a day spent traveling
the Newfound Gap Road, even in high summer, offered
nothing but beautiful, green forest solitude....[Read
the story.]
When
Tamara Dwyer's family settled in the Walla Walla Valley
in the early 1900s, it was best known for growing
wheat, onions, and asparagus. That changed 40 years
ago, when commercial vintners discovered an old-time
secret: The volcanic soils and watersheds of this
valley, which stretches from eastern Washington into
Oregon, produce excellent wines. On a homecoming roadtrip
last July, Tamara made a tour of three wineries and
contemplated the importance of strong roots...[Read
the story.]
A
drive south from Austin on a hot summer weekend takes
road tripper Aaron Reed
on a journey home to Rockport and Port Aransas, on
the Gulf coast of Texas. Here he paddles his kayak,
eats grilled shrimp and tuna tacos, and has a chance
encounter with a giant blue land crab. It's one of
the reasons he loves this place so well -- there's
no telling what will show up...[Read
the story.]
In New Orleans,
we don't often get to see military equipment.
We do have one really great annual air show, and an
occasional natural disaster--namely Hurrican Katrina
in 2005--brings almost every military vehicle known
to man to town. Besides these events, however, it's
necessary to take a road trip to see some military
equipment up close. I have always loved visiting the
World War II battleship USS Alabama, on display at
Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile...[More]
SEE ROCK CITY.
Big. Bold. Easy to read, even for a four-year-old.
Ever since I deciphered the command while driving
by old barns on family road trips, I've been determined
to obey. "It's just a tourist trap," my
dad would say, but that never convinced me I shouldn't
make a pilgrimage someday....[More]
My brother rolled
in. He and his wife were just completing an 11,000
mile road trip in five weeks. They live in Fairbanks,
Alaska, and had flown into Boise, Idaho where they
had rented a car-with unlimited mileage, of course.
They had driven across the Southwest, through Florida,
down to Key West, and then back and up the Appalachian
Trail. Now they were headed back to Boise and had
stopped off to see us in eastern Idaho...[More]
A road trip, in
our view, in not merely a journey that covers
the distance between point A and point B. "Roadtrip"
is a state of mind you can access any time you decide
to enter the world of adventure as opposed to routine
travel. In other articles, we have explored the concepts
of Two-Hour
RoadTrips, Cheap
RoadTrips, and The
Art of Roadtripping. We've also provided dozens
of examples of "challenge"
and "quest"
roadtrips. Recently, we've been enjoying another type
of adventure we're calling the Twenty-Hour RoadTrip....[More]
Since I have been a teenager,
I have always dreamed about kicking off the loafers
and bare footing across the Florida Keys. I am not
so certain why I have always been drawn to these little
islands at the end of the world, but I finally made
it there. A few months ago, my wife, daughter and
I climbed into my 2000 Volkswagen Jetta TDI for a
long-awaited roadtrip. It was going to be nice to
be on the open road once again. This time we had an
extra attachment in tow, our 1938 replica teardrop
camper...[More]
A side trip upon your next visit to
the Death Valley area could include a visit to
a rarely visited gold mine a few miles south of the
park. The Ruth Mine, originally called the Graham-Jones
Mine, started production in 1899 under the direction
of Doug Graham and S.S. (Smiley) Jones. Situated in
the Argus Mountain Range, it is located 14 miles north
of Trona in Homewood Canyon...[More]
Fifty miles wide and 30 miles long
of nearly undiscovered rugged landscape beauty,
the San Rafael Swell area of Utah blew off my driving
gloves! Wow, was I impressed. Formed millions of years
ago by geologic upheavals, this truly is a "swell"
in the earth's surface. Uplifted craggy rocks have
been beaten, battered and carved by erosion, wind
and water to make this off-pavement SUV road tip one
for the record book...[More]
I had to work in
Yuma, so I drove from Phoenix the night before.
The romance of a road trip is intense at night. It's
you, your thoughts, maybe a companion, the dash lights
and radio, in an electromechanical bubble shooting
along alone in the dark. There are other cars and
trucks, but they exist in their world while you are
alone in yours. I've always loved driving at night...[More]
