‘Road Trip USA’

road trips, why we travel — By Bob Riel on May 3, 2006 at 3:57 pm

Ah, the enchantment of the American road. Rolf Potts uses his Yahoo travel column this week to interview Jamie Jensen, author of Road Trip USA. Jensen discusses the attraction of this uniquely American journey:

In Europe, you have towns and cities where people walk around; in America, we drive. It’s the difference between the passegiata (the evening promenade you see in Italy), and the weekend car cruises of American Graffiti, listening to Chuck Berry sing “Driving around in my automobile…”

It’s hard to imagine America without cars, and people who come here from other countries want to have the quintessential American experience. They don’t want to see ancient ruins or monuments or works of art; they want to drive around for days and weeks on end, doing that Jack Kerouac On the Road thing.