American Road Trip Talk

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. After seeing his obituary in a newspaper, Mark Twain quipped, “News of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” Along these same lines, some of you may be more than a little put off by the title of this photo exhibit: Route 66: Death of an American Icon. Arnold Berkman, a retired psychologist and professional photographer, took the pictures during four trips he made along Route 66. During our conversation we discussed his perspective on a roadway where many people insist there are still plenty of places to get your kicks.

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American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. The night sky never looked brighter over central Illinois than when The Sky View Drive In Theatre in Litchfield lit up the night with Hollywood’s stars. The Sky View is the last operating drive in on Historic Route 66 in the Lincoln State. Somehow it has survived until just recently charging just $2/person for admission to a double feature. How they manage this magic is the subject of my conversation in this recording with plain talking, hard working Carol Stuttle, the long time manager of the Sky View. Carol Burke from the Litchfield Tourism Council will also describe the interactive Route 66 Wayside Marker erected outside the theatre in 2011 and we'll hear the voices of two people who grew up with the Sky View.

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American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. For nearly a decade Dave Preston has entertained readers of the American Road Magazine with reviews of travel books and other memorabilia from the heritage roadways. Recently I had an opportunity to talk to him about his passion and favorite way to see the American Road: on a motorcycle! In our story you’ll hear how Dave went from being a schoolteacher to become a motor enthusiast and learn about some of his favorite rides.

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Claude Bell was a man who could dream bigger than most men can imagine. Two enormous concrete dinosaurs that command the Mohave desert town of Cabazon, California are silent witnesses to his hard work, persistence and vision. The desert dinos were featured in our spring 2011 American Road Magazine column The World’s Largest Things. In every issue, author and artist Erika Nelson salutes the king-sized roadside attractions that adorn the American Road. Here Erika tells the story of Claude Bell’s towering dinosaurs of the desert and talks about her traveling display of miniatures of the World’s Largest Things.

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The State of Washington is building a series of rapid recharging stations that will release the electric cars from the urban grid and let them breath the air of wide open spaces. These stations are part of the West Coast Green Highway that will one day stretch from Vancouver, Canada to Baja California. Tonia Buell, Project Developer and Communications Manager with the Washington State Dept. of Transportation, explains the scope of this great green highway and the schedule for implementation starting in late 2011.

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American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Rollin Southwell personifies the area that he calls the loneliest and oldest highway in America, US 50, the Lincoln Highway. His website www.lincolnhighway.com chronicles this dusty road that makes its way through central Nevada like a rattle snake through sagebrush. I spoke with Rollin about the fall of the shoe tree near Middlegate, Nevada around Christmas 2010 and how his website is preserving the history of this wild west roadway, the Lincoln Highway.

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American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. When filmmakers want to create a dinosaur domain for our imaginations, there is one favorite place on earth that they go to create their prehistoric settings: The Hawaiian island of Kauai. Specifically, they set up their cameras in the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. Our spring issue of American Road Magazine is built around the theme of dinosaurs so I dialed up the NTBG and spoke with communications director Janet Leopold about this remarkable tropical gem. On Kauai, the westernmost of the Hawaiian islands Steven Spielberg found the perfect setting for many of the scenes in his 1993 prehistoric classic, Jurassic Park. Janet was there for the filming and has some interesting stories to share on this podcast.

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This is a special American Road TripTalk due to both the subject and the guest. Weeki Wachee Springs, is a natural wonder in northwest Florida where “mermaids” have performed under water for millions of visitors since it opened shortly after WWII. Right now the very existence of this extraordinary attraction is in danger. Like every state in the union, Florida is trying to save money by cutting costs and state services. Weeki Wachee became a Florida state park in 2008 and has been extremely successful since then. However the state of Florida is threatening to privatize services at the park which would threaten the quality of services currently being offered. Our guest, Barbara Wynns, became a mermaid at the historic park many years ago but still performs regularly as one of the “retired” mermaids. She is passionate about saving Weeki Watchee from the changes that the state of Florida wants to make.

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American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. The spring 2011 edition of the American Road Magazine is centered around dinosaurs and their many manifestations along the highways of North America. One of our articles presented The Extinction Theatre part of the Talisman Energy Fossil Exhibition housed in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada. Our guest for this American Road TripTalk is Dr. Steve Cumbaa, a paleontologist at the museum and one of the scientific advisors who helped create the Extinction Theatre. He’ll describe the show which is actually a truly unique multi-media experience that chronicles the passing of the great thunder lizards and the dawn of a new age for the earth ruled by mammals.

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American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. The stretch of desert highway between Austin and Fallon, Nevada was home to one of the rarest trees in Americana: the ”shoe tree.” Actually there are a number of these huge trees draped with Doc Martins, tennies, work boots and all manner of used shoes all across the country. Rather than being treated as smelly, eyesores, they have become beloved roadside shoe shrines. Around New Years 2011 tragedy struck the shoe tree on the loneliest stretch of highway in America highway, US 50 near Middlegate, Nevada. Dee Helming of the Austin, Nevada Chamber of Commerce tells the tragic tale.

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