On The Go Chicago

As you know, my husband and I are on a road trip.  You can read about our tips for taking road trips with your kids and keeping your kids safe on my other two Road Trip posts.  We are still at the beach, and are loving it.  My husband and two-year-old are down playing on the beach with a shrimp boat and dolphins in the background, while my one year old is in napping.  My daughter and mother-in-law were out looking for shells first thing this morning, and my daughter found the most amazing shell.  Ahhhh…I love vacation!

One of the things I like most about road trips is experiencing Americana.  I love seeing the country and how other people live.  Our friends and family are always asking us how we find all of our weird, quirky stops, so I thought I would write a quick article on how to find Americana (e.g.. great diners, obscure monuments, and giant statues).

Here are some of the resources we use to find fun things to break-up our drive and experience our surroundings.

Travel Section – My husband reads the travel section of the Tribune each weekend and USA Today and WSJ when he is on business travel each week.  He regularly clips articles about interesting restaurants and stops, and saves them in a folder for future trips. The USA Today pointed us to the best burger in NY, The Burger Joint and the Tribune inspired our trip to the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan.

Books

• 1000 Places To See Before You Die and 1000 Places To See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die – We own both of these books, and have found countless ideas for fun weekend trips and great restaurants, attractions and hotels to check out around the world.  At the end of each trip, we write the date and our rating of each of the “1000 Things” places we went to.  It has become a family tradition.  These books make a wonderful gift too.
• James Dean Died Here – This book will tell you the locations of great pulp culture landmarks.  It includes everything from where Apple Computer was born to the sites of famous assassinations. We visited Richie Cunningham’s house in Los Angeles and the famous gym from the movie Carrie in Hermosa Beach, California.
• Off The Beaten Path- This book has great ideas for scenic drives, etc.  We’ve been on some amazing drives including Highway 1 between LA and San Francisco, Avenue of the Giants (a scenic drive through the Red Woods in Northern California) and the Blueridge Parkway in the Smokey Mountains.
• The Great American Road Trip – This book has all of the amazing little Americana stops we love so much.  If you want to know what city the largest ball of twine is in or where to find the giant dinosaurs from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, this is the book for you.

The Atlas – My husband has an unusual affinity for the atlas.  He regularly breaks out an atlas when we are home watching TV or when he is reading the paper.  The man is just plain curious!  His Atlas of choice is the Rand McNally Road Atlas.  They have little red squares that are labelled with points of interest.  He dragged me and hour and a half out of our way on our move/road trip from LA to Chicago to see the highest point in Iowa, Hawkeye Point.  We also found The Corn Palace in Mitchelle South Dakota through the Atlas, which is honestly a gem!

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network - My hubby and I love this show, and have visited a number of Guy Fieri’s recommendations.  In fact, before embarking on this trip, my husband looked up the cities we would be in or near on his website to find some great dining options.  We visited  Manci’s Antique Club yesterday, and it was delicious and had some of the most interesting decor I’ve ever seen.

For us, discovering Americana is what makes the journey so fun.  What types of stops does your family enjoy on road trips?