Road Trips

Camper under starry sky near Merritt. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/167_4035065/1/167_4035065/cite. Accessed 10 Feb 2017.

We've all had the road trip impulse, haven't we? That feeling of wanting to get the heck out of Dodge. To up sticks and seek out a change of climate. Who hasn't heard the siren song of the open road?  We are a nation of migrants, after all - whether it be immigrants coming to America, wagon trains heading west, or the Great Migration. And of course, here in Albuquerque, we live on Route 66 - the Mother Road, with all the travel magic that name invokes.

Writers from Walt Whitman to John Steinbeck to Jack Kerouac have all felt the urge to embark on that much-vaunted voyage of self-discovery, the road trip. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert took one in It Happened One Night, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper hit the road in Easy Rider, and Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise is a classic of the genre. But there are many reasons to take a road trip, many different routes, many destinations, and the journeys are all different. Take a virtual trip with one of the road trip stories listed below, and get away from it all without leaving the comfort of your armchair.Have you taken a road trip recently? Let us know in the comments!

Le Road Trip: A Traveler's Journal of Love and France by Vivian Swift

Utopia Drive: A Road Trip Through America's Most Radical Idea by Erik Reece

The Trip: Andy Warhol's Plastic Fantastic Cross-Country Adventure by Deborah Davis

Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories From the Road by William Least Heat-Moon

Love That Boy: What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent's Expectations by Ron Fournier

Almost Anywhere: Road Trip Ruminations on Love, Nature, National Parks, and Nonsense by Krista Schlyer

Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself : A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace by David Lipsky

Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo 

Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux

I Don't Care If We Never Get Back: 30 Games in 30 Days On the Best Worst Baseball Road Trip Ever by Ben Blatt and Eric Brewster

Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel For a Year For the Cost of Staying Home by Phil and Carol White

Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways

Gun Guys: A Road Trip by Dan Baum

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip [DVD]

Will Travel For Vegan Food: A Young Woman's Solo Van-Dwelling Mission to Break Free, Find Food & Make Love by Kristin M. Lajeunesse

The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America From Key West to the Arctic Ocean by Philip Caputo      

 

Sometimes we actually think we can completely move away from our troubles - that's called a geographic cure, except psychologists would argue that that's no cure at all. For those who don't want to plan a getaway, consider This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live. 😊