Traveling Light

Travel Guidebook of the Month: Road Trip USA, by Jamie Jensen

For the past half century, an open-ended cross-country road trip has been the quintessential way to experience the breadth of the United States.  Route 66 is the two-lane highway invariably associated with the romance of the American road, but it is just one of many classic options for those hoping to get away from the Interstates and explore the quirks and corners of this massive land.  

For those long on wanderlust and short on specific ideas, Jamie Jensen's Road Trip USA is a great guide for conceptualizing and researching a cross-country journey.  Filled with travel tips, trivia, and lively retro illustrations, Road Trip USA details eleven epic routes that span the country.  The guidebook is best utilized not as a town-by-town index of services (this would require several thousand pages; better to combine it with local guidebooks or tourism-office information), but as a catalyst for road-trip daydreams.

With the fourth edition of Road Trip USA set to debut this month, I e-mailed author Jamie Jensen for his take on the consummate American journey. 

Rolf Potts: For many Americans (such as myself) the love of travel originates with the road trips of one's youth.  How did you first get hooked on American highway travel?

Jamie Jensen: If there is one single moment when I really fell in love with the road, it was a summer camping trip when I was maybe 10 years old, visiting all the western national parks with my family.  We rented this camper-shell pickup, the kind that had a bed hanging over the roof of the cab, and my brothers and I would lie down side by side and look out at the world through this narrow slit of a window. Sometimes I would wake up early and sit up front with my Dad, studying the map and pretending to help him find the way to these magical places like "Garden of the Gods" and "Painted Desert."  We saw amazing things, day after day — bears and geysers in Yellowstone, the tremendous waterfalls in Yosemite — and for sure, I was hooked.

Years later, when I finally was old enough to take off on my own, after two years of college, I started off on a summer trip, hitchhiking around the USA. Having always lived in cities, I found myself especially drawn to small, rural, middle-of-nowhere places.  I was both backpacking and hitchhiking, which turned out to be a good combo; I'd take rides as they came, but when they didn't, I would hike off into the woods or fields, pitch my tent and be happy.  They key for me was being open to the people I met, and following their suggestions — about swimming holes in old gravel quarries, about where to get the best grits, whatever.

Needless to say, I didn't make it back to college that fall.  Or the next year.  Or the year after that.  But I did eventually get back and graduate — with a degree in architecture and a lifelong interest in the "vernacular" landscape of America's highways and byways.  Which is sort of what I write about in Road Trip USA — trying to open the eyes of my fellow Americans to a rich culture we often overlook: our own.

RP: Whenever I visit places like Hungary or Korea or Brazil, I find that young people's dreams of America are invariably tied to the romance of the open road.  What is it about America that makes a road trip uniquely compelling?

JJ: I think road trips are all-American because this country is so obsessed with cars and movement, and other people notice this about us, because we spread these images around the world through movies and music.

America grew up with cars, and our towns and cities are completely defined by cars and roads — unlike many other countries, where history goes back to times before the invention of internal combustion.  In Europe, you have towns and cities where people walk around; in America, we drive. It's the difference between the passegiata (the evening promenade you see in Italy), and the weekend car cruises of American Graffiti, listening to Chuck Berry sing "Driving around in my automobile..."

It's hard to imagine America without cars, and people who come here from other countries want to have the quintessential American experience.  They don't want to see ancient ruins or monuments or works of art; they want to drive around for days and weeks on end, doing that Jack Kerouac On the Road thing.  They also want to see wild places, like the national parks of the western United States.

RP: The United States has always been pricey compared to other parts of the world, but now skyrocketing gas prices make a road trip even more expensive.  Any tips on making American travel more affordable?

JJ: Well, first off, even at $2.50 a gallon, gas in the U.S. is a pretty cheap deal — compared to Europe, say, where a gallon costs more like seven dollars.

If you are traveling on a very tight budget, one great way to save money (and maybe meet agreeable new people) is to stay at one of the many "H.I." youth hostels.  In California, for example, there are hostels in incredible locations — old lighthouses on the Pacific Ocean, remodeled Army barracks near the Golden Gate Bridge — all for under $25 a night.

And for getting around, you can save money by doing a "drive-away," where you agree to drive someone else's car across the country.  All you pay is the gas!

RP: I love it that you recommend US-83, "The Road to Nowhere," which cuts up across the seldom-traveled states of the Great Plains.  What is the appeal of traveling in this part of the country, and what might you recommend along this wide-open stretch road?

JJ: For me, the appeal of the Midwest, and of US-83 in particular, is exactly what you hint at in your question: it is a "little-traveled" route through a part of the country where tourism is rare.  So it seems natural and unselfconscious; when you visit there's no sense of having to "buy" a prepackaged image — in contrast to how tourist destinations often feel.  Places like New York's Times Square or San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf can feel like over-advertised, themed shopping centers rather than real places.  I love the Midwest because you often get the feeling that you, as a visitor, come into contact with people who actually belong there.

This in general is what I'm after wherever I go in my Road Trip USA mode: I want to meet and see and listen to local people, not people who are passing through or sightseeing.

So US-83, this "Road to Nowhere" is sort of an exaggerated version of what is appealing about all these older, two-lane highways — you stay away from the same old franchises and national chains, and you get to see and taste the "real" America, of Mom-and-Pop cafes, low-key motels, and unhyped historical sites.

RP: Route 66 is the east-west highway of lore, but its current route is often broken up by Interstate highways.  Which alternative east-west route would you recommend that best captures the spirit of old Route 66?

JJ: To be honest, some of my favorite road trips are the north-south or south-to-north ones — like the Great River Road, following the Mississippi River all the way down from Minnesota to Louisiana; or the Appalachian Trail, from New England to the Deep South, along mountain crests almost the entire way; or the Pacific Coast Highway; or US-93, which runs between the Canadian Rockies and the Southwest deserts of Arizona and Mexico.

But to answer your question about east-west routes, I'd say the choice depends on when you do the trip. In summer, I love the "Great Northern" trip along US-2, between Seattle and Maine, passing across the amazing (and little-known) Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where huge peaks rise out of the Great Lakes.  Along the way you also get Glacier National Park and the Green Mountains of Vermont.

In winter, by contrast, I'd say head where it's warmer, and take the "Southern Pacific" route along US-80, a.k.a. "The Old Spanish Trail."   This runs between San Diego and one of my favorite cities, Savannah, Georgia, passing through the Sonora Desert of Arizona, Carlsbad Caverns and the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, following historic routes blazed by Wild West stagecoaches and civil rights pioneers.  There's something for everyone, and the food is as "full spectrum" as the scenery: Tex-Mex, BBQ, Cajun, you name it.  The music, too, is world-class.

Just thinking about all this makes me want to hit the road!

Me too, Jamie!  Thanks.

Road Trip USA ($29.95) is published by Avalon Travel.