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THE ROAD
// LESLIE KINSMAN
LESS TRAVELED
Photo illustration by Valerie Skubal
Ready for anything? Interested in taking a road trip this summer? Consider breaking away from convention by seeking out quirky tourist traps.
ast summer I found myself, and what little luggage I could manage to fit, thrown into the backseat of my friend's SUV, headed northeast.
She invited me and our mutual friend, Nikki, to road-trip back to New York with her. Little did I know that Hannah had conjured up a plan for the 20 plus-hour ride that consisted of roadside destinations full of obscure and bizarre tourist attractions. Objects such as a giant Jesus statue in the middle of a man-made lake found at the Solid Rock Church in Columbus, Ohio, or a couple of UFO guest houses found in the backyard of the middle of nowhere, next to a cornfield. The world's only drive-thru strip club found in Congratuita, Penn., was also on the list, which we later devastatingly found out to be closed.
Although we finally arrived to the early morning glow of New York City two days later hungry, irritable, sleep-deprived and annoyed with one another; we felt a sense of accomplishment wed never felt before. We had not only survived the road trip, we had taken the road less traveled.
Doug Kirby, Ken Smith and Mike Wilkins,
authors of RoadsideAmerica.com, gathered
together in New York City nearly twenty years ago with one mutual idea. With the same sense of adventure and humor, the three men agreed to tour the nooks and crannies of roadside attractions in the U.S., collect their best findings and then have them published into a manual for other roadtrippers wanting to see a different side of the country.
Since publishing Roadside America, the book has not only allowed the men to write an updated edition of the first volume, but also develop RoadsideAmerica.com, the online guide that's updated daily with roadside attractions found and submitted by Kirby and travelers alike.
"Instead of coming home and telling your friends about the corporate water park or outlet mall you stopped at, you could tell them about the beer-drinking goats in Texas or the Spam Museum in Minnesota," Kirby says. "The things that made us laugh were sometimes the same things that scared us."
graduate, says it was funny to see all the little things that the tour guides would try to make a big deal about, like the largest prairie dog in the world, (actually a concrete statue), and two five-legged cows.
Last summer, Blaine Gambrel and some of his friends managed to find a plethora of strange roadside steps on their way home from camping at Jefferson Lake in Colorado. Gambrel, Maize
"I don't think a plan would've helped much." Gambrel says. "The random-ness was most of the fun, as long as you're prepared to go to some places that might creep you out a bit."
Gambrel says it was good to do something out of the ordinary with the trip to add a couple more stories to the list. He says the stops helped split up the trip. Everything the group saw was definitely unique to the area. Gambrel says this summer he plans to hit up any odd stops on his way to vacation in Chicago.
Ryan O'Reilly never imagined quitting his job, breaking up with his fiancee and selling his house to move to Austin, all within two weeks. But after road-tripping to Austin, Texas to visit friends from college two weeks before his abrupt change of lifestyle, O'Reilly had an epiphany: He wasn't cut out for working behind a desk anymore. O'Reilly, the grandson and heir of the million dollar company, O'Reilly Auto Parts, says he can
Break away from the norm on your road trip this summer
pinpoint the same feeling he had after visiting Austin with a similar way he felt road-tripping with friends years ago, while he was in school at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.
"There's a romantic component about traveling on the road." O'Reilly says. "There's just something about being on a roadtrip that makes you feel like you're in orbit with everything else going on in the world."
After moving to Austin, O'Reilly soon found a job as a roadie, touring with a band around the country. O'Reilly says that he found time to write his novel, Snapshot, while everyone was asleep at night on the tour bus. Since then O'Reilly has written another novel. To Nourish and Consume, has canoeed the Missouri River in 45 days by himself and, this June, he plans to motorcycle alone with just a backpack from Missouri to Alaska, choosing to forgo all interstates.
"When youre outside traveling by yourself for long enough, that little voice of everyday task goes away, and youre in a semi-meditative state." O'Reilly says, "Everyone should try it. The journey becomes the experience."
Rachel Helling, Lenexa senior, is trying to squeeze as much juice out of 50 days on the road as she can. This summer, Helling and two of her companions are planning on driving in an old Winnebego for 50 days straight, all over the country, leaving their cell phones and computers behind.
"We don't hate cell phones or the internet, we just want to see what it's like on the road for that long without technology." Helling says. JP
iPHONE APPLICATIONS RoadsideAmerica.com
1. Tourist Interruptus
This application is a phony phone call that can ring mere seconds after you set it. This app, can come in handy when a tour guide has had you cornered for far too long. This is not a joke.
>> 2. Sunset Alert
This application alerts you of the sun setting far enough in advance for you to get all necessary pictures in before the inevitable darkness of nighttime arrives.
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