It is said that Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer, here in the U.S. Likewise, the beginning of summer always calls forth one of those AAA press releases where the auto club sages offer a forecast of the anticipated traffic volume during the long holiday weekend. This year, there is supposed to be a 7% increase over last year in Americans traveling 50 miles or more for holiday festivities. I guess if you’re one of the people on the receiving end of that travel spree, it might be a good idea to stock up on extra hot dogs and potato salad.
It likely comes as no surprise that summer always puts me in the mind of thinking about road trips. While I’ll go on the record that any time of year is a fine time of year for a road trip, there’s something extra special about setting out in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster for a good old fashioned summer vacation trip.
The Griswolds had nothing over the Sun family in terms of wagon magnificence.
The summer road trip has been a fixture of my life, although I have to admit that in adult years it’s been harder and harder to achieve. But man did we do it when I was a kid.
Clearly, I shared Chop Chop the cat’s dubiousness about taking the cat on a road trip. Fortunately, my sister was eventually persuaded to leave the cat at home.
I think that a lot of this had to do with my dad’s enthusiasm for loading us up each summer and heading out somewhere. As an immigrant who was enthralled with nearly every aspect of his adopted nation, it was the vastness of the roads and the desire to see everything he could in the country that I think particularly fascinated him. He wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to indulge in a healthy dose of American highway travel; and summer was when it was most convenient to do so.
Although he and my mom seldom hesitated to pull me and my sister out of school (something that seemed much easier to do back in those days than it is now) to go somewhere. But that’s another story.
It would be 1982 before I actually made it to South of the Border.
This is not to say that anyone in my family would actually stop at something like South of the Border. Yeah, I pointed at the billboards and pleaded, but it would be a number of years before I actually got to visit Pedro or to See Rock City. All of which, I am happy to report that I’ve now done.
Childhood travel no-doubt established my life-long habit of seeking out the strange and wonderful somewhere…anywhere…along the road.
Why, just a few weeks ago I was able to preview some strange and wonderful by dragging my family to the World Famous (well….) Jell-O Museum in Le Roy, NY. This involved a 45 minute detour from our scheduled activity in Rochester, NY. But, as they say, there’s always room for the Jell-O Museum.
Plus, I’m sure that my family is now happy that I’ve been able to cross that particular attraction off my road trip list as I’ve been talking incessantly about it for most of the past 4 years. I schedule this stuff out way in advance.
What I didn’t schedule – so call this a Road Trip Lagniappe – was being directed by the nice Jell-O ladies to see Le Roy’s other major tourist attraction, the mighty Marion Steam Shovel. I’m still not sure what makes this giant rusting hunk of metal worthy of being “the only steam shovel on the National Register of Historic Places” – it’s not as if it’s the World’s Largest Shovel of John Prine fame…yes, I’ve seen that too and highly recommend Western Kentucky or anywhere in Kentucky for a road trip – but there you have it. Sometimes when it comes to road trip discoveries it’s best just to marvel and not to ask.
So, where are you headed on the roads this summer? Any special plans? Any bucket list (or in my case, dessert dish) items to cross off? What are your thoughts about Summer Road Trips as we – and apparently another 42.3 million Americans – stare down yet another travel season?
Copper Harbor, Michigan! My wife and I have been there a few times, but it never gets old. Mountain biking, canoeing, fishing, hiking, and relaxing. It’s about 600 miles from home in Ann Arbor. Our trusty little Kia Soul happily tows our Aliner Scout camper, even with the smaller 1.6l engine (we both wanted a manual transmission and that was the only way to get it).
I love that picture! An excellent color for the Kia. Goes well with the canoe.
So true. Love the lemon-lime combination!
I’ll look for your green Soul up there this summer! We’re planning on being there too (staying near Ontonagon, but heading up to the Keeweenaw for a few day trips as well).
Road trip with first stop in Lexington, KY to tour the Toyota factory. The next day down to Bowling Green, KY to tour the Corvette Factory and visit the museum. Then up to Louisville for the Street Rod Nationals. On the way back to Atlanta, a visit to the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. Stops for food and gas at Buc-cees.
I’ve not been to the Toyota factory. Please post a review of that!
I was last in Bowling Green over 20 years ago, but it was a great visit to the Corvette plant. I was touring with a friend/co-worker/employee who had recently worked there on a state literacy development grant, so we ended up “knowing” a large number of the line workers, and I got to turn the key of a ‘vette for its very first time. A truly memorable experience.
Mark, If you love unusual and rare cars, especially European examples we rarely got, I highly recommend you plan on an entire day at the Lane Museum. You might want to talk with them in advance about the possibility of a tour of the basement too.
Long-time lurker here, time for me to jump in. Love steam shovels, love summer road trips. My enthusiasm survived a trip to New England from the Philly suburbs with six of us crammed into a two-stroke Saab 96. My younger brother was an infant, but I still don’t know how we managed.
I don’t know if they even had child safety seats in 1965. Different times.
Here and now: Next week, wife, our two French bulldogs and me are headed down to Chinqoteague, Va, about an hour south of Ocean City, Md. It’s about four hours from our home in Wynnewood, a bedroom town in the Philadelphia suburbs. Our three-year-old Acura TLX is not ideal for a road trip with dogs but it’s MUCH bigger than a Saab 96. 🙂
Any car that a dog will ride in – which pretty much opens up the entire field – is ideal for a road trip with dogs. Gotta love Frenchies!
Chingoteaque is a wonderful destination. I went there as a yout to watch the wild horses. It’s on the list as a place to go as an adult.
Jeff — yeah, I remember it as a beautiful place, I was last there some 30 years ago. Meant to get back ever since.
Our dogs are rescues from Kentucky. Luna and Ruby were dumped off by a breeder who was done with them. They are charismatic, hilarious and just a bit rough around the edges. Yeah, locking the steering wheel, yup that would be them
Chincoteague is a wonderful place, and hasn’t changed all that much (compared to so many others) in the 40+ years we’ve been going there.
It’s kind of funny, because here in central VA, the “must go” beach place is the NC Outer Banks. But we prefer the relative calm of Chincoteague. There are a lot of visitors there with PA plates, BTW.
Small world department, we used to live in Wynnewood (on Nicholson Rd). It’s been close to 40 years since I’ve been to Chinqoteage. Stopped there on my way from Norfolk to New York while I was on leave in 1984.
Small world indeed; my alma mater is Villanova University, another stop along the Main Line of Philly.
Too bad I can’t ost pictures, my 1959 VW is scattered all over the driveway, I run the wheels off it and took time out to do a while laundry list of Might As Wells before the heat kicks in .
I’m loving reading of the places you’ll go or went .
-Nate
Put that VW back together and get ye over to the Eastern Shore (do come down from Wilmington or over the ferry from Cape May and definitely avoid the Bay Bridge 4 out of 7 days of the week 😉 ). It’s pretty flat there and you ought to be fine with the VW.
Thanx Jeff ;
I *do* plan to put it back together and keep running the wheels off it.
If it’s speed gouing up the Angeles Crest Highway is any indicator it’ll do fine through the Cascades etc .
About thus window mounted swamp coolers : yes they work but *only* in the Desert where there’s very little humidity .
And, they need to be emptied out and dried when your finished or you’ll get a nasty surprise the next time out .
I like Oregon, it’s got a lot of trees and mountains, older hippies too but never forget it’s also the Pacific North West’s version of the Deep South, that can be a problem to some .
The cost there just goes on and on, fantastic scenery broken up by small towns , I spent almost a month driving it some years back and nearly lost my job because I took so long .
-Nate
I like Oregon, it’s got a lot of trees and mountains, older hippies too but never forget it’s also the Pacific North West’s version of the Deep South, that can be a problem to some .
That sounds a bit dated to me.
Fair enough Paul ;
I’m sure it depends on _where_ in Oregon you go, I’m not much of one for the University crowd, I slant more towards Blue Collar .
-Nate
I’m planning to drive from Ottawa to Timmins, Ontario, later this summer, to visit a family member. 700kms, one way. Last drove there before the pandemic, and love the rugged natural beauty of Algonquin Park, and Northern Ontario. Had a job interview there once, at Northern College. Also, the birthplace of Shania Twain.
Gas is always more expensive in the north. Expecting $1.60+ per litre. Or $6.13 per gallon. Catch the GM New Look bus as part of the city transit fleet at :22.
Driving across Canada is definitely on my list.
One can only hope to encounter Shania out there. Even if her expectations are somewhat high.
We’re heading up to Alaska later in the summer. On the road for the most part, though one leg on the way north we’ll use the Alaska Marine Highway, ie the state-run ferry. And we’re bringing our new puppy which will make things exciting. First time in the Great North for my wife, and my second time after traveling there (and back) by motorcycle in 1987. On that trip we tried to avoid paved roads as much as possible but in 2023 a lot of the route has been paved in places where there will be no choice, for example the Cassiar Highway. We’re budgeting two months. If the timing is right, we’ll stop at the Hammer Museum in Haines, AK, and we have a few extra days we’ll detour into Stewart, BC to catch the Toaster Museum.
I’ve been up and back on the ferry (just as far as Skagway), but I’d love to see more of the interior and drive. What are you driving?
He has a really nicely kitted-out Transit 4×4 van.
Dimitry, That’s a trip I’m itching to make. We were up there back in ’89, but a combination of flying, ferries and rental cars.
Do stop and see us on either the way up or down. I’d love to hear more about it.
A Transit 4X4 sounds like the perfect vehicle for this.
Here’s where I note that maybe the absolute genesis of my interest in road tripping came from my uncle Ed who filled single-digit-aged me with stories about his trip on the Alcan Highway in the mid/late 1960s. From Maryland to Fairbanks (and back). In his 1964 Impala SS. To this day I recall being in awe of that car (which then sat out in its field, deteriorating while he acquired newer GM vehicles) due to the fact that it had made it Alaska.
Anyhow, this was quite impressive to me at the time. I still have a few souvenirs that he brought back. I only wish that he were still around so that I could get the full story of that trip…which even as a 7 year old I understood that some aspects were not to be shared with a kid my age.
I just checked CC while taking a break from… well, planning our summer vacation. So, good timing here!
This year we’re planning on driving from our home in Virginia up to Wisconsin and to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Incidentally, those two states will be States #39 and 40 for our Kia Sedona. Yes, we like road trips.
A rival to your Jell-O Museum might be the National Mustard Museum near Madison. My daughter really wants to go there while we’re in Wisconsin, and she’s not even a big mustard fan. But I admit, the place does look neat.
The very first road trip I took as a kid was as a 10-year-old when my family drove from Philadelphia to Florida. I remember begging to stop at South of the Border, and was treated a a seemingly endless lecture about how “those places” are just tourist traps that rip people off. I still can’t bring myself to stop there – I think somehow Dad will know. But I did stop at Wall Drug in SD a few years ago… and I actually enjoyed the experience.
How is it that we wound up with the same parents?
How did they feel about the frivolity of having air conditioning in the car? 😉
My parents gave us the same lectures. It was the hidden text in those Dr Spock books or Reader’s Digest or however parents (in my our case my Mom) learned to raise kids. My parents didn’t have AC in a car until I was almost 30 years old and their new car came with it standard. But my Mom never used it. “Because then I’d have to close the windows and I like fresh air”.
That’s where our parents may differ. Dad used air conditioning a lot because he said humidity caused him headaches, or something like that.
Building a garage suite this year has left us planning extended long weekends and some weekly day trips through southern Alberta.
There are so many locations south of Calgary we have not visited. From the Frank Slide to Waterton Park. Sadly, my wife does not share my enthusiasm of driving the open road. So the next road trip will probably following flying to a location first. I’m thinking perhaps Vancouver Island in the fall when school is back in and the number of tourists have dropped off.
Going down to Philomath, OR on June 24th for the 2nd Annual Malaise Invitational for cars from 1972 to 1995. Kenmore WA to Philomath is only 275 miles, so that’s nothing too remarkable, but it’s bound to be fun. Since my luxurious 1992 Geo Prizm does not have air conditioning, I might want to invest in an old-fashioned Swamp Cooler. I may also take a trip up to Vancouver BC, but that’s extremely tentative. BTW, that family photo with Dad Sun gesturing at the camera is priceless.
I’ve always been fascinated by those swamp cooler things. If you mount one to your Prizm, you have to post pics!
Look forward to seeing you there, Mike.
Right back at ya!. Last year was a lot of fun, well worth the trip.
And yes, my Dad was always all about “Look at the Camera”. I think I uttered that phrase maybe once to my kids…and immediately felt more like my Dad than I had ever before. 🙂
CC members who live in the Washington DC/Baltimore area will understand when I say we will be planning our trips to make sure we are nowhere near our home between noon Fridays and noon Mondays, because we live 2 miles off Route 301/50 and about 2 miles from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
For those of you who don’t know about traffic and the Bay Bridge; I get the Maryland Transportation Administration text messages concerning the Bay Bridge traffic, and the most recent text was at 7pm this evening, where it mentioned a 16 MILE backup westbound. Yeah, 16 miles of stop & go traffic.
Earlier this week we visited the excellent Fire Museum of Maryland, located just off the Baltimore Beltway at the Towson Exit, Then the beautiful Evergreen Mansion in Baltimore, it was the home of the president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.
Our next trip is planned for the East Broadtop Railroad in central PA, it’s an original narrow gauge railroad, not a re-creation, but the actual railroad including the workshops where they made their own rolling stock. [eastbroadtop.com]
Smaller day trips are planned for the Simeone auto museum in Philly, and a double header day in Baltimore at the Baltimore Streetcar museum & The Baltimore Museum of Industry. If there is any extra time, may visit the inner harbor where they have the USS Constellation, the submarine USS Torsk, and the Chesapeake lighthouse ship. While I’ve been to all these over the last 20 years, the girls have never been to any of them, as their parents didn’t do vacations.
Oh, and almost forgot; in a couple of weeks the Rolls-Royce Owner’s Club is holding their national Meet in Gettysburg, PA.
Yeah, I’ve never understood the whole Bay Bridge traffic thing. I feel that it’s been that way for years and years, and yet while some % of travelers have developed strategies (go on different days, different times, avoid it altogether), there are clearly still an ever increasing number of drivers who throw themselves into it constantly. I just don’t get it.
I remember the epic backups back in the late ’60s when there was just the one original bridge. The second bridge made it vastly better, for a while…
I didn’t know about the Fire Museum. Must be fairly new. Now that my mother is gone, I don’t think I’m likely to find myself back there again.
The B&O Museum is excellent too.
Love the B&O museum!!
I remember five kids crammed into my father’s 1959 Peugeot 304 sedan. no A/C and we weren’t allowed to open the windows, for me this always meant puking, somehow I still have a deep love for auto travel .
I subscribed mostly for the comments .
-Nate
Hopefully will do the Old US-27 Tour again in August. That runs up the middle of Michigan’s lower peninsula, and maybe in the Fall a couple of days south through Ohio to Berea KY.
Those both sound like great trips. I drove that route in Michigan a number of years ago early Fall (probably September?) and it was beautiful. South Central KY is beautiful too. Bourbon distilleries? Mammoth Cave?
We have nothing planned at the moment, but I had to chime in with my love for old-school tourist traps. I would love to visit the Jell-O museum! I am still a little put out that Mrs. JPC would not consent to a visit to the alligator farm I saw advertised on signs along Florida’s Highway A1A many years ago.
Maybe I should seek out those little oddball museums in my own area this summer. Like the Medical History Museum located in what was a medical school started around the turn of the 20th Century that operated with little funding for years then closed down leaving an incredible time capsule of what such a place looked like over a century ago. One of my kids and I went to that one quite a few years ago and it was a cool place. I need to find more of those, and I am sure they are around.
It’s really the oddball and old-school tourist traps that make a road trip for me. Driving through beautiful landscapes is the glue that holds together the whole thing.
The slowly diminishing number of those stops along the way – due to real estate values and a lack of family members interested in/able to operate them – just makes seeking them before they’re gone all the much more fun. I will say that the Jell-O museum seems pretty secure and in sound shape. And hey, if we can drive some more visitors out that way, all the better.
That medical museum sounds like a must-see the next time I’m out your way. I do love a good medical museum. The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia and the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Walter Reed in DC are two of my favorites. Even though they’ve both been somewhat cleaned up and therefore no where near as creepy as they used to be, they’re both still worth a visit. If Mrs. JPC was hinky on the alligator farm, she may not like the anatomical and surgical “anomalies” presented at the Mutter and NMHM.
Road trip – yes and at our usual time. That is the last full week of July, when Frontier Days is on at Cheyenne. Best to get out of town when the F-350s are going the wrong way down the one way streets. So we go to the midwest.
Itinerary: Cedar Rapids (Czech & Slovak Museum for her, bike riding on nice system for me); New Glarus, WI (Swiss food & New Glarus brewery); Milwaukee suburbs (relatives, biking, walleye pike); Oshkosh (the incredible EAA for one full day and hopefully two); Albert Lea, MN (a special quilt shop); Sioux Falls (to see the quartzite used in historic buildings and in the falls, also bike trail and quilt shops).
I know most of the roads; it is boring before Cedar and after SF. Nicest parts will be SW Wisconsin west of Madison and around the Mississippi at LaCrosse.
You raise a good point about the enjoyment of traveling places that you know well. Those all sound like great destinations/stops. I’ve always wanted to see the air show in Oshkosh.
Summer?… Our whole life seems a road trip!
We bounce around much of the country between Colorado, Kansas, Cape Cod, Maine, Georgia and the Carolinas. These normal jaunts are generally in January, April, June, July, August, October and December. Occasional other trips crop up from time to time. We’re in the front, dogs in the stern, gear in the middle.
Don’t even ask if we’re candidates for an EV.
Have a great summer, folks!
We are once again visiting the corners of Oregon, with occasional detours to the middle of nowhere. Next week we’re off to Wallowa County in NE Oregon to see Zumwalt Prairie in wildflower season, and Hell’s Canyon when it’s not on fire. I expect some CC spotting since the car dealer in Enterprise usually has some interesting stuff and we’re vising the tractor museum. In September we’re celebrating our 30th anniversary by heading to Burns and the Owhyee Canyon in SE Oregon, to complete our visits to all four corners of the state.
We’re also visiting Summer Lake Hot Springs in June to soak and birdwatch in a place with population density of 1 per square mile and more cows than humans.
We’ll be driving our trusty 2016 Mazda CX-5, freshly shod in Michelin Defenders after we wore out the OEM tires. It’s a good back road car with more ground clearance than the average CUV and we’ve taken it on some rugged stuff.
Oregon is a place where I’ve driven, but definitely need to see more of. Somehow though I’m afraid I’d return home towing an old Volvo to keep mine company. So I have to take that into account.
“Tractor Museum” you say?
Sunrise Iron in Enterprise Oregon is a local farmer’s winter hobby. Erl is a character and gives personally guided tours of his still growing collection https://www.opb.org/television/programs/oregon-field-guide/article/tractor-museum/ is a the Oregon Field Guide story from 2016.
Highlights include one of only two surviving Case 3 wheel tractor and Fordson with a fuel tank that says “Made in the Irish Free State”
Since Oregon doesn’t use road salt and East of the Cascades is pretty dry lot of cars survive in sunburnt but rust free condition. A Volvo is the least of your worries when Craigslist offers beater Citroens and the occasional Lloyd 400 or Subaru 360.
Perfect time for this question! I’m leaving early Friday morning on the bike for Road America to watch the MotoAmerica motorcycle races, about 120 miles. A little side trip to Green Bay and Manitowoc is getting thrown in too.
In three weeks I will be bringing my middle school daughter and 2 of her friends to Devils Lake (just south of Baraboo) for 2 days / nights of tent camping. Hoping to make it through that experience in one piece!
I find so much natural beauty and things to do here in Wisconsin that my summer trips usually remain in-state.
Baraboo is on my list on account of Circus World. Having thought about that for most of a lifetime, I kind of figure that I need to go eventually.
Your picture of your sister and Chop Chop brought back memories. Growing up in an Air Force family we frequently traveled coast to coast in the 1950s, taking weeks on the road to see the sights along the way from one military base to another. Our cat, Smoky, always traveled with us. Typically, we had a convertible. With top up, the recess behind the back seat was an excellent spot for cat napping. I have never owned a 4-door sedan, only 2-door coupes, hatchbacks, or convertibles. All had to accommodate multiple pet carriers, little box, etc. I have taken pet carriers to new car dealerships to test cargo capacity even before taking a test drive.
Now that I don’t travel much I will offer a few suggestions that I found helpful in the past. Lived in Ottawa, Canada for many years and found letting multiple cats loose in the car interior discourages both Canada and US border personnel from closely inspecting the car interior. Not saying I was trying to sneak anything cross-border, just made border inspection process faster.
Airline travel with pets a little more complicated. Worked in the Middle East for a few years and my contract included 1st class airline accommodations. My preferred flight connections from the Middle East to the US was in Amsterdam where the airport has a pet hotel for pets waiting for connecting flights. Excellent pet care for pets on long distance flights. My last trip from the ME to Dallas Texas, with five cats was a trip to remember. I was on crutches after an accident, and traveling with five cats. British Airlines kept me informed of my cat’s well-being during the entire 26-hour journey.
There’s…some other kind of spot that isn’t?
There were lots of family trips in the mini van when the kids were little. A highlight was Vancouver on the way to Whistler. Then another to Discovery Bay Washington and the ferry to Victoria.As a young man I did my travelling solo on a motorcycle, did a four week trip around the US back in ’80.
Just got back from this year’s long trip to the Oregon coast. This time we went via Klamath Falls Oregon, to Medford, and ultimately to Depoe Bay. Stops were made in Springfield antique shops and Elmers in Eugene for lunch. Later we went e/o Portland to see the Multnomah Falls. This was a 1,400 mile round trip. Later this Summer we will take some shorter trips to Sonoma, ClearLake, and maybe Tahoe, and Monterey.
We are empty nesters, but we have taken our adult children several times with us in our vehicle. Usually, we just meet them at the location.
Our multi generational vehicle was our Flex, this time it was just the Wife and I in the Navigator.