Great American Road Trip (Prematurely) Declared Dead
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 07.07.08 | 5:07 PM ET
“You want a road trip?” writes Michael Paterniti in the New York Times. “Try Google Earth.” Yeah, he’s a bit smug. He’s also wrong. We can have Google Earth—one of the Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet—and the road trip. Despite the $4 gallon of gas, the American road trip will continue to thrive for many reasons.
In response to Paterniti’s article, Paul Daniel Marriott hints at another reason the road trip should remain alive. “Far too many Americans are losing touch with the heartland of America that only a road trip can provide,” he writes. “No wonder we are devolving into a red-blue nation of intolerance because of our growing ignorance of our own geography and culture.”
World Hum contributor Sophia Dembling also has some words about Paterniti’s story: “It made me sad and annoyed because I don’t understand dichotomous thinking that says if the stay trip is good then the road trip is bad,” she writes. “I like them both.”
Related on World Hum:
* New Travel Book: ‘Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations’
* Gas Prices Threaten the Field Trip
Photo by TheFriendlyFiend, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
John Hatch 07.07.08 | 7:42 PM ET
I just drove from Connecticut to New Orleans, for Jazzfest. It cost me close to $700 for fuel for my van, but I had a blast! I had planned to travel with two friends, who chickened out at the last minute. Their loss.
Ling 07.09.08 | 1:17 AM ET
If a road trip is too hard, try a baloon trip. Read a couple of days ago about somebody who flew 200 miles across the Oregon desert sittig on an armchair attached to baloons.
Adam Williams 07.28.08 | 5:09 PM ET
I’ve been wondering for the past year or two if American road trips no longer interest Americans. Like many others I read Kerouac several years ago, read Steinbeck, Heat-Moon and so on… And finally got the chance at 31 y.o. to spend a few months living in a ‘73 VW bus while driving the country. It was a dream.
Well, half of the dream. I also am a writer and photographer and have, thus far, failed to interest publishers or agents enough to take on this book.
Sure the reasons could be many, but I’ve also wondered if one very big reason is our collective, cultural turn toward sensational, awe-striking gossip has killed the desire for an “old-fashioned” topic such as American vagabonding.
My logic was that if love stories/movies/poems/songs continue to be written and consumed, then something so stayed as roadtripping this country would be too.
I still don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that book published. But…I do know no one can ever take the experience away from me. It’s all been worth it.
Kyle 08.12.08 | 10:08 AM ET
This is an amazing roadtrip.
The Last Great American Roadtrip
http://moroadtrip.us
Check it out.
John Hatch 08.12.08 | 12:39 PM ET
For videos of my trip to New Orleans, go to: http://www.tripfilms.com/profile.do?userID=773