From the very beginning, I have always enjoyed the open road. Even when I was little,
the anticipation of a camping trip or vacation was due mostly to the fact that we would
have to drive there, possibly traversing a new highway or just retracing an old one. When
I received my drivers license and later my first car, this love for the road continued.
Each summer my friends and I would find ourselves embarking on another road trip.
While I was attending UC Berkeley, my travels took me up and down California as I "commuted" back and forth from home
on dreary Interstate 5, historic Route 99, or scenic US 101. Living in Northern California gave me the opportunity
to experience the roads of the rest of the state, culminating in a trip to Grant's Pass, OR via US 101 and 199.
Now that I am back in SoCal working, trips are limited to the weekend, but my new car purchase gives me more worry-free
transportation in which to drive.
My greatest road trip thus far has been a recent tour of the Eastern California with two of my best friends in the summer of 1999. We flew to Chicago and drove to Boston, NYC, Washington DC, Nashville, and back to Chicago. While the purpose was primarily sight seeing, the open road was a large component. Go to RoadTrip '99 to see pics and narrative for this latest adventure.
I am particularly interested in the various historic highways that, over time, have become obsolete due to replacement by interstate highways. Many of these highways were once the primary arteries between towns and cities throughout the state before the advent of the interstate and the freeway. Today many of these roads exist as frontage roads to major freeways or have simply been abandoned or paved over. However, hints of these roads still exist and are even being officially recognized as historic landmarks. Route 66 is the primary example but there are many other examples of historic roads, and many people on the net have devoted pages to finding and documenting these Historic Highways. My links page [coming soon] will have links to the contributions of others to the body of online highway knowledge.