On The Road

Summer vacation is here, and you don't want to go with Mom, Dad and your little brother to Disney World. You want adventure and excitement. Two words: Road Trip. You could spend your hardearned tablewaiting money on a Euro adventure where might end up arguing with snotty French students about NATO. Or you can spend a few weeks seeing the main streets and backroads of North America for a fraction of the price. A threeweek road trip, assuming two people share expenses, will cost about $400 each, give or take a tank of gas. As long as you have a decent car, an AAA membership and can afford gas and Pringles, you're on your way to one of the greatest summer adventures of all time. Before you decide on your route, before you invite your four closest friends, before you even think of getting on the road, get your roadtripping music in order. No carbased journey is complete without the proper musical accompaniment. There is nothing worse hitting Day 7 of Road Trip '00 and being forced to listen to Grateful Dead Europe '72 for the 72nd time. I mean, it's a great album and all, but I've seen even the most hardcore Deadheads go nuts after repeated exposure. Next, figure out what you want to see. There are a few wellknown routes that are guaranteed great trips. Some of these asphalt trails avoid the long and boring Interstates. Take the time to discover the many secondary twolane roads that will get you where you want to go and show you a lot more of the country in the process. The trick is to get adventurous and figure out how to get from City A in the morning to City B at night using the fewest possible miles of major highway. Some of the better roads include: The TransCanada Highway or Canadian Route 17: the only road that runs all the way from Quebec to Vancouver, and most of it is two lanes through some of the most beautiful country in North America. You can snake along through massive alpine forests one day and be hugging the northern shore of Lake Superior the next. And you get to visit towns like Thunder Bay, Moose Jaw, and Sturgeon Falls. Simply one of the best drives on the continent. The Great River Road: Follows the Mississippi River from its headwaters in Northern Wisconsin all the way down to the delta in Louisiana (the start is actually very close to the TransCanada). I never realized that Iowa could be beautiful until I drove this route. Highway 1 From San Diego to Seattle: This is the kind of road that dreams are made of. Highway 1 hugs the Pacific Coast, rarely venturing more than a few miles inland. When it does, the road takes you through Northern California and Southern Oregon and the Redwood Forest. The New EnglandNew Orleans Express: Most of this hinges around Interstates 81 and 85, but there are enough secondary roads running parallel to the main artery that you don't have to spend a lot of time with the big rigs. Includes a stem through the Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee (Rt. 11) and some of the best biscuits and gravy on the face of the earth. The Great Northern: This used to be a steam engine route from Chicago to Seattle (more or less). Now they call it U.S. 2 or Interstate 90, and it is one of the only Interstates in the country that make the whole system worth it. From Chicago you see northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, the Black Hills and the badlands of South Dakota, the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, and the nospeed limit drivers' heaven of Montana (not to mention Yellowstone). You can drive these routes interchangeably and with infinite variations once you get off the interstates and start exploring places like Dodge City, Kansas, and Cumberland, Kentucky. A full three weeks is an ideal amount of time to see the country, driving in a giant ring starting in the north and going south, or vice versa. Realistically you can make about 600 to 700 miles per day, assuming you stop from time to time and actually see some sights. If you go fullthrottle all day, you can make maybe 900 to 1,000 miles a day. So if you blast off from San Francisco, for example, you can arrive in Boston about three and a half grueling days later. But, of course, the point of this trip is to relax and enjoy the ride. One of the major benefits of taking secondary roads is that state troopers are usually busy patroling the interstates. Once you pull off the road and drive a mile or two into the desert, forest, or mountains, you can roll out your sleeping bag and chill with impunity. One of the greatest pleasures in the world is sitting out under the stars with a good friend (or significant other) and conversing long into the night on anything and everything. I've only been awakened by an irate cop once in my travels, and it was on the heavily traveled Route 16 between Rapid City, South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore. A final note: There are a few books that make for great reading and resources for the crosscountry road tripper: the seminal "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac will have your head spinning and your senses craving everything you can get your hands on. "Road Trip USA" has detailed descriptions and mileage charts for about 10 crosscountry drives, and is well worth its price. Rough Guide USA has some great tips about places that you might not ordinarily think of visiting. (It irks me that some Aussies seemed to know more about my country than I did, but what the hey.) Finally, "The Wayward Bus" by John Steinbeck will get your imagination going when passing those beatup buses that prowl the roads of California and the Southwest. Christopher LeGras is in a state of constant motion. Like the elusive electron, you just can't tell where he is.