American Road Trip Talk

The state of Illinois has long been known as the Land of Lincoln because of the wealth of tourist attractions around the 16th President throughout the state. However, Cory Jobe, Illinois’ Director of Tourism, would like you to know that there are three other first executives who call the Prairie State their home. In this edition of Trip Talk, Chris will reveal three main locations for those sites in hopes that you will include them in the itinerary for your next Midwest road trip.

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Welcome Erika Nelson, a traveling artist who has chronicled bigger than life attractions along our nation’s highways. Everything from the biggest duck on Long Island to the largest baseball bat in Louisville, Ky and an enormous catsup bottle that serves as the water tower in Collinsville, IL Erika has collected all of these and miniaturized them into…the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things. In this conversation Erika will explain her recent hiatus from the magazine to work on a project in Georgia. She will share some very special memories of former President Jimmie Carter in Planes, GA and share with us her vision of what is coming up in this year’s Think Big column. I hope you enjoy this first podcast of 2016

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In the summer issue of American Road Magazine an article in our Friends in the Fastlane column featured a new byway that will thrill fans of the old west. It is called the Tracks Across Borders Byway and it traces a route from southern Colorado to northern New Mexico along the top of the continental divide. As our guest Murielle Eason, commissioner for the byway, will explain it is not the sort of hike you want to take in your prize sports car but four wheelers will delight in the rugged trails. Saddle up, and join us for a ride over the divide into the history of the Old West.

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This edition of American Road Trip Talks goes behind the scenes of an article and picture that appeared in our Spring 2015 issue. The focus was on a remarkable sculpture display in the town of Troy, Ohio featuring a 31’ tall sculpture of Abraham Lincoln that will delight all of you Lincoln fans. But in the course of my conversation with Katherine Hays, Executive Director of Main Street Troy I discovered the really big event: the display of the Funeral Train of Abraham Lincoln, Sept. 10-13, 2015.

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Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty and their tour guide will be Paul Gilger who also led the mapping committee for the tour. In this fourth and final podcasts in the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour series, Paul Gilger shares fascinating stories about the original Lincoln Highway Tour. You will find out that there is a particularly sticky form of mud in Iowa, that the road got some urgently needed repairs after a miserable Thanksgiving and that the final stop of the Lincoln Highway was built with the ruins of the San Francisco earthquake.

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The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. Their tour guide was Paul Gilger who also led the mapping committee for the tour. In this final podcast in the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour series, Paul Gilger describes the complicated process of putting a cross country tour together. International visitors make up a large part of the traveling band, particularly the Germans who have taken a particular shine to Route 66

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The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Henry mounted his trusty Packard I-35 and navigated the often-muddy trails that were the Lincoln Highway just two years after the route had been established from New York to San Francisco. Henry’s destination was the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in the newly resurrected City by the Sea, which had risen from the rubble of a disastrous earthquake. Between the end of June 2015 and July 8, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to trace that same 2,836 mile trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty who are veterans of the route and our guests for this podcast. In this first of four podcasts, Rosemary Rubin, a veteran of a number of Lincoln Highway adventures, will start the conversation talking about the history of the highway.

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The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty. In this second of four podcasts, Bob Lichty, a veteran of a number of Lincoln Highway adventures, will talk about the tour itself and the route that will take the group 2,836 miles to the shores of the Pacific.

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Our Spring 2015 issue of American Road Magazine was dedicated to the Trail of the Ancients, finding some of the American Road’s oldest attractions. The Upper and Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River are one of Nature’s works of art in Southwest Wisconsin that have been a tourist attraction since just after the Civil War. It is also the site in 2015 of the 70th anniversary of its famous Duck Tours. No we aren’t talking about a feathery parade. These DUCKS are six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 2-ton trucks used during World War II. This podcast is the second of two conversations with Dan Gavinski, the General Manager of the original Wisconsin Ducks and Dells Boat Tours, who has risen from parking lot attendant to running the whole show. In this interview Dan talks describes the remarkable Ducks and other aspects of the high powered aquatic entertainment at the Dells and finally about the upcoming 70th Anniversary celebration.

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Our Spring 2015 issue of American Road Magazine was dedicated to the Trail of the Ancients, finding some of the American Road’s oldest attractions. The Upper and Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River are one of Nature’s works of art in Southwest Wisconsin that have been a tourist attraction since just after the Civil War. It is also the site in 2015 of the 70th anniversary of its famous Duck Tours. These amphibious vehicles called DUKW’s, or popularly known as Ducks, are six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 2-ton capacity CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military in World War II and introduced to the Dells in 1946. This podcast is the first of two conversations with Dan Gavinski, the General Manager of the original Wisconsin Ducks and Dells Boat Tours. In part one Dan tells the both the history of the Ducks at the Dells and his own rise from parking lot attendant to running the whole show. In our second podcast Dan will talk more about the Ducks themselves and the upcoming 70th Anniversary celebration.

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