It is a rule of thumb during a road trip that if you want to travel at a good pace, climb aboard a multi-lane interstate highway. If you want good scenery, take the roads less traveled. Of course, that’s not entirely true. There are portions of some interstates that are truly breathtaking. I-70 through Colorado, for instance. And I-87 through New York. And I-24 through Tennessee. But yes, in general, the drive along the so-called blue highways tends to be more interesting.
Which isn’t to say that my family and I don’t traverse a good many superhighways. In fact, sometimes you don’t have much of a choice. That being the case, I’ll take this opportunity to celebrate the U.S. interstate system. I offer ten fascinating facts:
- One hundred years ago, there were less than 200 miles of paved roads in America. Today, there are roughly 43,000 miles of interstates alone.
- The total interstate miles represent just one percent of the nation’s highway miles, but superhighways carry nearly one-fourth of America’s traffic.
- For every route mile on the interstates, there are some 60,000 daily person miles.
- Since its inception more than 50 years ago, more than 20 trillion person miles have been traveled over the interstate system, enough to send one-fourth of the U.S. population to the moon.
- At the 1939 New York World’s Fair, a popular “Futurama” exhibit fantasized about 14-lane superhighways from coast to coast, with vehicles moving at more than 100 mph and the space between cars regulated by radio beams.
- When Congress green-lighted construction of the interstate system in 1956, it was perhaps the largest public works program in history.
- The interstates were created almost as much for defense as for transportation, designed to accommodate the speedy movement of military equipment and personnel during the peak of the Cold War.
- The official name: The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.
- It was said to be Eisenhower’s favorite domestic program, according to his biographer, because “more than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America.”
- A 1996 report by public policy consultants to the American Highway Users Alliance contended that the interstates have saved nearly 200,000 lives over the years by being by far the safest component of the nation’s highway system.
Of course, it may be relatively safe. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t occasionally check to see what’s coming up fast behind you:
For my eighth installment of Road Royalty, I offer a shot of the RV at Florida’s Pass-a-Grille Beach:
About ten days ago, I listed some of the quirky American places I’d still like to see. But during my cross-country journeys, I’ve met a whole bunch of quirky people, too. And frankly, memories of these folks resonate with me just as much as a view of Delicate Arch or a hike through Bryce Canyon.
Here are a few people I won’t soon forget:
Treehouse Mary: In the summer of 2008, we took our boys to see an attraction known simply as “The Big Treehouse” in Marshalltown, Iowa. I’ve described it before as Johnny Appleseed meets Donald Trump. There are twelve levels attached to a 50-year-old maple tree, each section given a name. Treetop Walk. Bird’s Eye View. The Loft. Stargazer Point. There are 140 wires running everything from lights and ceiling fans to a television and telephone. But the quirkiest part may have been Mary, our octogenarian tour guide who turned what could have been a 15-minute experience into a one-hour tour. She was particularly proud of the faux outhouse that opens up to reveal an animatronic peacock.
Outhouse Brenda: Speaking of outhouses, while researching my second American travel memoir (Small World, 2004), I found myself on the outskirts of Bozeman, Montana, staring at a collection of outdoor privies. They belonged to a part-Czech, part-Cherokee woman named Brenda Clements. She collects them – and decorates them. As an artist, she told me, “I use anything as a canvas, except a canvas.” So strewn around her yard were a half-dozen outhouses – from forest service commodes to fancy two-seaters –adorned in stars and stripes and flags and ribbons and patriotic prose like “I LOVE THE USA.” I suppose it was a statement about form and function, but at least it wasn’t performance art.
Chicken Owen: Amy and I met him during our initial RV experience, a magical 314-day journey chronicled in States of Mind (1999), during a stop in the blink-and-it’s-gone hamlet of Pride, Alabama. William “Chicken Owen” Foster was a 6-foot-8, 340-pound, 75-year-old good ol’ boy. Put some baggy overalls on the Chrysler Building, and you have Chicken Owen, who got his name from his illegal hobby – raising cockfighting roosters. As he chewed on a mangled hand-rolled cigar like it was a Tootsie Roll, he took us on a two-hour tour of Pride’s dirt roads. The three of us sat in the front seat of his dilapidated pickup, while his one-eyed dog – named “Dog” – rode in the cab. Among the lessons he tried to impart, some of them astonishing and unrepeatable: Rattlesnake meat tastes best if you cut if off below the rectum. He was a proud man, for better or worse.
Hobo Dan: I met him while traveling through northern Montana to research my upcoming travel memoir (Turn Left at the Trojan Horse, May 2010). Dan and I sat down to chat at a landing along the Missouri River, a place where Lewis and Clark had camped almost exactly 200 years earlier. To get there, I had to travel 44 miles along a gravel road. Dan may be the closest thing to a modern-day hobo. Home was where he was at the moment (in this case, paddling alone along the Missouri). He’s been in and out of jail a couple-dozen times, usually for public intoxication. Among his various odd jobs, he used to sell gopher’s-feet earrings (seriously, I saw them). His life has been one long road trip. Dan invited me to paddle the Missouri with him, and I couldn’t resist. I envisioned us as Lewis and Clark. Turns out we were more like Martin and Lewis.
I could go on, but the point is this: If you can figure out a way to go off the beaten path, you find some pretty offbeat folks there.
