Travel the roads less traveled. The Interstate system in the US is easy and fast, but you lose the true sense of America. Convenience is wonderful, but exploring America is more interesting. Interstates take you to your destination. Taking the roads that once were main arteries for travel, built before the Interstates of the1950s, is an adventure. Traveling on such roads as US Route 13, US Route 1 and US Route 30 — part of which is/was the Lincoln Highway —gives you a real sense of America. If you are on the Interstate, you miss out on the real, quirky America: old closed gas stations that still proudly displaying their signs, farm stands selling the freshest produce, mom-and-pop places where the locals hang-out, miles of yard sales, drive-in movie theaters still waiting for darkness, small towns frozen in time, metal sculptures of larger than life candies waving, a house in the shape of a shoe, and community BBQs to benefit the local sports teams.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time in the car driving and most of which was not on Interstates. I got to experience the America I love. Not the cookie-cutter and predicable stops on the Interstate. Traveling on the “back” roads, I got to meet lots of interesting people and see beautiful scenery up close that make America a truly special place.
Next time you plan a road trip, add some roads less traveled and make the drive an adventure. You’ll have memories to share when you get to your destination. In the movie, Cars, the character Sally perhaps said it best, “Cars came across the country a whole different way… the road didn’t cut through the land like that Interstate. It moved with the land, it rose, it fell, it curved. Cars didn’t drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time.”
