RoadsideOnline

Allow me to take this opportunity to wish all the members of RoadsideOnline a happy holiday season. We've had a very good year rebuilding the brand, so to speak. Longtime readers have returned, new readers continue to discover us, and some old friends of Roadside have come back to contribute. We've not only welcomed back Teri Dunn to our masthead, but I'm happy to say that Bruce Voge III has proved himself a worthwhile addition to this effort. In the coming year, we can all look forward to contributions from Thom Ring, Doug Smith, and even more.

It remains my goal to make Roadside the preeminent online source of back-roads preservation and sustainable living information found anywhere on the Net. Yes, I of course know that you already have hundreds of other sources for bits and pieces of this information out there, but I continue to soldier on with this concept for one very simple reason: No one else does this right. No other site properly threads together the basic ideas of good living, preservation, sustainability, and cultural whimsy all in one place. No one else connects the dots.

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I can only boast taking a single cross-country road trip, and that happened over ten years ago, now. In 1998, Roadside cohort Teri Dunn and family decided to move back to New England after about three years in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and they asked me to drive back their family car. I took a route that roughly followed Louis and Clark, and arrived home full of ideas, impressions, and memories. Thanks to the fact that I had relatively few obligations at the time, I could take advantage of Teri's permission to take my sweet time, and the trip took about two weeks.

Since then, I've often dispensed with advice on how to conduct a good cross country trip, but amazingly never published anything. So, dear readers, here it is:

As summer arrives, more and more people map out their travel plans, which often include a weekend in a “tourist town.” Hailing from New England, I am all too familiar with these places. Along the coast, for instance, you’ll find one cozy seaport after another, each with its own array of curio shops, ice cream parlors, and salt-water taffy vendors. With the decline of the fishing industry, such towns have come to depend upon the tourist trade, and most locals have adjusted their attitudes regarding the summer invasions.

Our "Recipe for an American Renaissance" is slowly working its way into the public eye. In fact, we know of at least one restaurant that has begun to use it on their menus (though without our permission), and we look forward to the day we hear a politician use it in a stump speech. Yet, I grow impatient, and would like to see its practical application made while I'm still young enough to enjoy it.