November
23 , 2007 On the Road with... James
Teitelbaum Tiki
Bar Expert & Author of Tiki
Road Trip
Silence
and Vandalism on the Loneliest Road in America Headed
east out of Reno on U.S. Route 50, James Teitelbaum
encounters a wasteland. Here, on the "Loneliest
Road in America," he ponders solitude, modern rock
art and nature's speed bumps. His venerable jalopy barely
survives the trip, and Teitelbaum counters the strange
attractions of the desert with a wild, primordial scream...[Read
the article.]
Beyond
the Grand Canyon: 4 Sensational Side Trips
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 article.]
The
Doors' Office & Recording Booth
May
20, 2007 On the Road with... Chris
Epting
Pop Culture Historian & Author of Led
Zeppelin Crashed Here
Top
Ten Rock and Roll Places
Rock and roll, despite its infamous reputation
for mayhem and property destruction, has a surprising
number of historic landmarks that didn't just survive-they
thrive. Given rock and roll's status as a genuine, homegrown
American product, like baseball it enjoys a growing
number of wanderers who love hitting the road in search
of the landmarks that define the art (myself included).
So as a sampling from my new book, here are my Top 10
hits; ten places every rock and roll connoisseur should
hit at some point in their travels…[More]
Gas
station in Santa Rosa, New Mexico
April
29, 2007 On the Road with... Troy
Paiva
Photographer & Author of Lost
America
Photo
Safari: 4,360 Miles in Five Days
At last, the mega road-trip I've been
waiting for. The run begins southbound from my suburban
San Francisco Bay Area home on a warm Saturday morning
then due east at Bakersfield. Alone, I am chasing the
ghosts of the American road, wandering the western highways
for as long as I can, covering as many miles as I can.
Before I know it, I've driven 975 miles in 14 hours...[More]
SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota
May
14, 2006 On the Road with... Chris
Epting
Author & cultural historian
A
Few of My Favorite Things...
As summer approaches, we begin the always-fun
task of looking over maps deciding where to drive off
and explore. What is it that we want to see? What do
we want the kids to experience? Will it be a return
to a favorite place, a new exploration or a combination
of the two? We all have our stories of classic must-visit
sites that we pass along to each other and so I thought
I'd take a little space here to recommend a few places
I discovered while researching and writing my latest
book, The
Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra and Einstein's Brain: The
Locations of America's Pop Culture Artifacts.
...[More]
Former site of Shibe Park in Philadelphia
April
17, 2005 On the Road with... Chris
Epting
Author & cultural historian
There
Used to Be a Ballpark...
So what if gas prices are high? To a road tripper, that
merely means being a bit more selective in where you
choose to go. So with the weather warming up, what better
time to start planning those spring and summer road
trips? For a baseball fan, there's no better time to
grab a map, a
good guidebook, and friends or family to set off
in search of baseball, both past and present...[More]
Sniffen Court, immortalized on
the Doors' "Stange Days"
album
March
13, 2005 On the Road with... Chris
Epting
Author & cultural historian
Dancing
in the Streets... of New York The birth of Rock and
Roll may have taken place in Memphis (or Cleveland),
but New York City can still claim many great landmarks
tied to what Muddy Water's referred to as "the
baby that the blues had" -- rock and roll...[More]
Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, California
December 12, 2004— On the Road with... Chris Epting Author
& cultural historian
A
Taste of Pop Culture History It's no big secret. Going out to eat can be made more of
an adventure when you opt for interesting, offbeat places. Nothing
against the big chains, but isn't it more fun to tell people you
ate a corn dog at the place where the corn dog was invented, as
opposed to a Wienershnitzel? But location plays a big part in
just how easy it is to visit such gastronomically hallowed places.
Thankfully, the country is dotted with many such spots, making
it more convenient than you might imagine. Few regions can challenge
Southern California in terms of number of places to experience
kitschy, historic eats. That's due in large part to how fast the
car culture exploded here in the '40s and '50s. Innovative, crazy
food concepts were hatched almost daily to try and sway hungry
motorists. Today...[More]
Lisa
Calvi, Garry Sowerby, Bill Rumsey, and Stew Yule unload
recycled materials to build a house in Mount Athabaska,
Quebec
September 12, 2004— On the Road with... Garry Sowerby Adventure Driver & Author ofSowerby's
Road
Mission Green on
the Move I bent down to pick up a tattered piece of Styrofoam.
"You hit the mother lode!" George, a retired IBM executive,
yelled across one of the main roads through Prince Edward County,
Ontario. My stomach heaved at the sight of hundreds of black ants
covering the underside of the crumbling piece of packing material.
I imagined the explosion of debris as the piece broke up on impact
when it had hit the ditch. I expected to be somewhat grossed out
at what I encountered as I swept the ditch for trash, but legions
of ants, I had not anticipated...[More]
Memphis to New Orleans:
More than just Graceland For the true fan of music, specifically blues, jazz, gospel,
and zydeco, there are no two cities that encompass a more exciting
and varied music scene than Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans,
Louisiana. Linking these two historic cities via highway 61 through
the fertile (both musically and agriculturally) Mississippi Delta
offers the adventurous road trip vacationer the perfect antidote
to those "all inclusive" resort packages. We begin our
adventure in Memphis, Tennessee, home of big band legend Jimmie
Lunceford, blues legend Furry Lewis, piano great Memphis Slim,
and some guy named Elvis...[More]
July
18, 2004—
On the Road with... James Teitelbaum Tiki Bar Expert &
Author of Tiki Road Trip
Tiki Wonder of the Far North: The Camelot Resort Southern Canada... 200
miles north of Toronto. North Bay residents think of their little
hamlet as being part of southern Canada (just barely: it is nicknamed
"the gateway to the north"). Aside from being a picturesque
vacation spot that gets busy during July and August, the area is probably
best known as the place where the Dionne quintuplets were born...[More]
June 20, 2004— On the Road with... Chris Epting
Cultural Historian & Author of James
Dean Died Here Are We There Yet?
Some Thoughts on Family Road Trips from a Father on Father's Day It is one of the great, if not the great American
question. Metaphorically, many of us challenge ourselves each day
to achieve what we set out to accomplish in life. Spiritually, emotionally,
financially, and on, we wonder, Are we there yet? More specifically,
it is of course the instinctive question posed by generations of
children when traveling, especially when road tripping. (Did children
in covered wagons ask this?) When on a family road trip, the question
doesn't quite affect my or my wife's nervous system the first several
times it's posed. It's when it enters triple-digits that I think
we both start to zone out. But that's okay. After all, what would
a family trip be without...[More]
