American Road Trip Talk

Erika Nelson, roadside attraction warrior and consummate curator of The World’s Largest Things, returns to share her insights into the Big Tire in Michigan, The House on the Rock in Wisconsin and American Gods, a STARZ network series for the road-tripper in all of us. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Host Gary Mantz and his well-traveled guest Suzanne Mitchell reminisce about their “Great American Road Trip of 2017” from Sarasota to Seattle and back including details of amazing places they encountered. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Holly Barker and her partner Tully Garrett rescued and lovingly restored the legendary Launching Pad restaurant on Route 66 in Wilmington, IL. The massive Gemini Giant statue is the guardian of this grandly reopened treasure featured in the Spring, 2018 issue of American Road Magazine. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not...

Artist Tony Craig shares tales from his prolific career in Disney cartoon and digital animation/production, now entering a third decade; he also reveals a passionate gift for preservation of roadside Americana through his exceptional watercolor art. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Lecompton, Kansas is known as the “Birthplace of the Civil War and Where Slavery Began to Die.” The desperate, even vicious political and military saga of the free-state vs. slave-state division that led to the Civil War is explained in detail by Paul Bahnmeier, President of the Lecompton Historical Society. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://a...

A highly regarded artist and photographer, Jerry McClanahan shares his love for and vast experience of Route 66 dating back to the family treks of his childhood nearly six decades ago up to the present. The Mother Road is deep in his soul and lovingly rendered in his popular artwork, commissioned by people around the world. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Not...

This episode offers a decidedly peculiar assortment of The World’s Smallest Version of The World’s Largest Things, an incredible traveling roadside attraction. Special attention is given to what curator Erika Nelson calls “some of the best offbeat sites in Washington state.” Erika’s versatile brainchild fascinates crowds from coast to coast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Cali...

Greater Miami’s Coral Castle, rated one of the Top 35 museums across the U.S. by TripAdvisor, is featured. The unique complex built by Edward Leedskalnin (working alone!) comprises one of the most mystical and scientifically baffling wonders of the modern world. Ken the Tour Guide shares his expertise and some local history. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy No...

American Road Trip Talk on 1150 KKNW Seattle debuts with an interview of co-founders Thomas Arthur Repp and Becky Repp. Host Gary Mantz talks with the Repps about their partnership both in life and on the open road. Route 66 gets special attention in this episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In the winter of 2018, American Road Magazine published a 15th Anniversary issue of the magazine to highlight the special people and places we have visited during those years. One of our favorites was Terry “Ike” Clanton, a descendant of one of the cowboy cut down in the infamous battle of the OK Corral. The story has always been seen as a paean to Old West rough justice where retribution was swif...

In the rough and tumble days of the late 1800’s, the little town of Sidney, Nebraska was an important military and commercial outpost on the railroad lines that were becoming the arteries of American expansion. It was indeed the wild west, populated by such colorful characters as Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane and earned the moniker, Toughest Town on the Tracks. In 2017 what was once called Sinful...

One of the great American Road annual events is the Woodward Dream Cruise held each year on a stretch of Woodward Avenue in Detroit, MI that runs from Detroit city limits to the suburb of Pontiac nearly 30 miles to the north. The day features classic cars that have been lovingly cared for traversing some of the oldest paved road in the country. Hundreds of thousands of classic car enthusiasts and...

In our recent volume 15, number 1 there was a story in the Friends in the Fast Lane column about the National Scenic Byways Program 25th anniversary. The Scenic Byways 25! event was celebrated at the US Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC. That same month in Kansas a brand-new byway was inaugurated: The Land and Sky Byway. Our guest on this American Road Trip Talk is Roxie Yonkay, byway coor...

After a long hiatus, we are back on the American Road with the folks who are part and parcel of the stories in our magazine. In this first edition, we meet Erika Nelson, one of the authors who has given us a unique view of the American Road’s roadside attractions for over a decade. Erika is kind of a travelling evangelist for folk art both collecting it and encouraging its creation. She has chroni...

Credit the dedication of passionate volunteers like Rusty Davis for finding the links to Michigan's first highway, Hull's Trace. It was part of the road carved out of the wilderness called Michigan and Ohio that followed well worn Native American trails and figured in the failed attempt to hang on to fort Detroit during the War of 1812. Some of that road, also known as Hull's Trace, follows existi...

Our Summer 2016 issue was dedicated to the theme of Comic Strips and the American Road. Our Memory Motel column focused on the Li’l Abner Motel in eastern Kentucky. You might imagine a rustic and rugged haven of rest that matched the cornpone antics of Al Capp’s famous characters like Mammy Yokum, Daisy Mae and Lil Abner himself. But as you will hear from Billy D. Abner, the current provider, that...

The state of Illinois has long been known as the Land of Lincoln because of the wealth of tourist attractions around the 16th President throughout the state. However, Cory Jobe, Illinois’ Director of Tourism, would like you to know that there are three other first executives who call the Prairie State their home. In this edition of Trip Talk, Chris will reveal three main locations for those sites...

Welcome Erika Nelson, a traveling artist who has chronicled bigger than life attractions along our nation’s highways. Everything from the biggest duck on Long Island to the largest baseball bat in Louisville, Ky and an enormous catsup bottle that serves as the water tower in Collinsville, IL Erika has collected all of these and miniaturized them into…the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s S...

In the summer issue of American Road Magazine an article in our Friends in the Fastlane column featured a new byway that will thrill fans of the old west. It is called the Tracks Across Borders Byway and it traces a route from southern Colorado to northern New Mexico along the top of the continental divide. As our guest Murielle Eason, commissioner for the byway, will explain it is not the sort of...

This edition of American Road Trip Talks goes behind the scenes of an article and picture that appeared in our Spring 2015 issue. The focus was on a remarkable sculpture display in the town of Troy, Ohio featuring a 31’ tall sculpture of Abraham Lincoln that will delight all of you Lincoln fans. But in the course of my conversation with Katherine Hays, Executive Director of Main Street Troy I disc...

The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days....

Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty and their tour guide will be Paul Gilger who also led the mapping committee for the tour. In this fourth and final podcasts in the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour series, Pa...

The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days....

The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Henry mounted his trusty Packard I-35 and navigated the often-muddy trails that were the Lincoln Highway just two years after the route had been es...

Our Spring 2015 issue of American Road Magazine was dedicated to the Trail of the Ancients, finding some of the American Road’s oldest attractions. The Upper and Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River are one of Nature’s works of art in Southwest Wisconsin that have been a tourist attraction since just after the Civil War. It is also the site in 2015 of the 70th anniversary of its famous Duck Tours. T...