American Road Trip Talk

The summer 2014 issue of American Road Magazine brought back one of our favorite family themes for the lazy, hazy days, A Night at Drive In Part 2. The best part about the more than 30 outdoor movie palaces reviewed is that the majority of them are still going strong. According to Steve Bloomer, second-generation owner of the Skyview Drive In of Belleville, Illinois, things have never been better. We know you will enjoy Steve’s stories in this podcast as he describes a family business he has been involved with since the first time he watched a movie from the projection booth when he was 5 years old. The Skyview took off in the late 40’s and doesn’t look like it is going to land any time soon.

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Summertime and the living is easy or so the so went in the famous operetta Porgy and Bess. We certainly hope the arrival of our summer edition of American Road Magazine is adding to your summertime relaxation. Our Friends in the Fast Lane column made a stop at a unique exhibition at the Lincoln Highway Experience Museum in Latrobe, PA. There we met executive director, Olga Herbert, who described the Postcard Exhibit which launched in May of 2014. Thousands of postcards from destinations along the Lincoln Highway in Penn. are on display but there is one very special part of the exhibit that requires your participation! Olga explains all.

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Our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine featured an article entitled Hopping the Hippety Highway by Jillian Gurney. The author followed rabbit trails all over the country tracking down big bunnies. One of the stops was Odessa, Texas, home of the largest jackrabbit in the world. In this two-part interview with Linda Sweat of the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau we will find out about the history of the rascally native jackrabbits and even more about the surprising cultural oasis that this west Texas town has become.

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This is part 2 of our Odessa, Texas interview. Our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine featured an article entitled Hopping the Hippety Highway by Jillian Gurney. The author followed rabbit trails all over the country tracking down big bunnies. One of the stops was Odessa, Texas, home of the largest jackrabbit in the world. In this two-part interview with Linda Sweat of the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau we will find out about the history of the rascally native jackrabbits and even more about the surprising cultural oasis that this west Texas town has become.

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In the Spring 2014 issue of the magazine Tunnel Vision highlighted the birth of a new scenic roadway, the Nanticoke Heritage Byway which will eventually traverse parts of southern and western Delaware. In this podcast Dan Parsons, a historic preservationist for the Delaware, tells us about the importance of this unique byway and its link to the beginnings of our nation. To keep up with the Nanticoke Heritage Byway development, visit their Facebook page.

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The Tunnel Vision Column of our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine featured a bizarre piece of art called the “Paulverizer” in front of an auto recycler on Highway 501 in Buena Vista, VA. It is just one of dozens of huge, humorous and highly visible works of art created by Mark Cline. In our interview, I hope you will catch some of his passion for creating these merry roadside monsters that have found homes all over the country. His one regret…His may be a dying art.

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In our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine we presented the story of a three wheeled, bullet-shaped orange car called the Urbee 2 in our Friends in the Fast Lane column. The strange little car represents the vision of Jim Kor and Bruce Stewart to build an aerodynamically perfect and absolutely energy efficient vehicle. In Part 2 of the Urbee 2 story, Jim and Bruce describe how 3D Printing will give their ultra efficient vehicle the ability to cross the US on just 10 gallons of gas.

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In our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine, you’ll find a story about a three wheeled, bullet shaped orange car called the Urbee 2 in our Friends in the Fast Lane column. The strange little car represents the vision of Jim Kor and Bruce Stewart to build an aerodynamically perfect and absolutely energy efficient vehicle. In Part 1 of the Urbee 2 story, Jim and Bruce share the journey that is taking them toward an historic voyage on the American Road.

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2016 will mark the official 100th anniversary of our number highway system. Up to 1926 the process of naming, building and publicizing a stretch of roadway was very much a local affair. The results were often confusing if pleasantly familiar to the folks who drove them. The named trails served a valuable purpose in their day, but they began to pass into history when the American Association of State Highway Officials adopted the U.S. numbered highway system on November 11, 1926. The Spring 2014 issue Friends in the Fast Lane highlighted the efforts of Solomon Valley US 24 Association to rediscover one of those named highways, the Midland Trail, We spoke with Joan Nothern in an earlier podcast about those efforts. In this podcast we are going to reach back into our archives for a conversation from the Spring 2011 issue with another leader in the movement, Mike Conlin, a mapmaker by trade and one of the movers behind the recreation of the Jefferson Highway. This remarkable ribbon of highway stretched from north of the US border in Canada all the way to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

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The Think Big Column in our magazine is a regular platform for some of the most remarkable sights along the American Road. Erika Nelson is the peripatetic folk artist who chronicles kings and queens of the highway like the largest ketchup bottle or biggest baseball bat in the World’s Largest Collection of the Smallest Replicas of the World’s Largest Things. In this conversation Erika shares her most recent find: a titanic turtle that is displayed in our Spring 2014 issue. How does she find these roadside behemoths? You’ll just have to listen to our conversation to find out that and much more.

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