Charles Kuralt - Why we travel the Back Roads,

[Busskipper]

“You can't travel the back roads very long without discovering a multitude of gentle people doing good for others with no expectation of gain or recognition. The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. Some people out there spend their whole lives selflessly.”
-- Charles Kuralt

In the fast moving/talking climate today - this just seems to Ring True.

Just a thought this 4th of July.

I'm sure others are out there - share yours.

Happy 4th,

[2gypsies1]

We full-timed 16 years with traveling backroads - the only way!!

[vermilye]

trailertraveler wrote:
Charles Kuralt's "on the Road" TV segments and shows along with John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" sparked my interest in RVing before I could even drive. My first trips in a homemade truck camper were before some of the Interstates were completed. My first was similar to Steinbeck's following US-20 to Yellowstone National Park. Travelling as a single teen, I was adopted and treated like family even if only for a day or two by many great folks along the way. I met several that I kept in touch with over the years.

If you, like me, enjoy Travels With Charlie & Kuralt's TV adventures, check out William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways. Another great backroad travel book.

While I enjoy both books, I really learned my backroading from my father. Much of the travel was before the interstates, so backroads were the only choice. Still, we made the best of them, often stopping for hours in small towns.

When my dad got tired of driving, he would pull into the nearest factory and ask for a tour. Many didn't have "official" tours, but they always found someone to haul us around. I learned a great deal about how things are made! Too bad real factory tours have pretty much disappeared.

[fanrgs]

ken56 wrote:
A little story about a small town museum and visitor center being interesting. We live in Dandridge TN and stopped in because we hadn't been in before. The man inside told us about a German couple who stopped and asked him where Douglas Dam was because they could not find it. He told him that he had been a young officer in the German army and was tasked with taking a small group of men to blow up the dam.

. Back roads do lead to some interesting and very informative tiny museums. Two tiny towns with fascinating museums I can think of are in Granada, CO, on US 50 and Folsom, NM on NM 551.

Granada was the site of the Amache Japanese internment camp during WWII. The history teacher at Granada High School taught a class about the camp during the WWII portion of his American history class. The students got so interested that they began a years-long camp restoration project, a museum in town, and a collection of oral histories from both townspeople and internees. If you are on US 50 headed in the direction of Lamar, CO or Garden City KS be sure to stop!

Folsom Village was the site of the famous archeological dig that discovered a Pleistocene bison with a spear point still stuck in a bone. The discovery moved the date of the earliest man in North America back 7,000 years and gave a name to an entire culture. Folsom was also where Black Jack Ketchum was captured after a train robbery. He was tried and hanged in nearby Clayton, but the Folsom museum has photos and newspaper articles about both of its "claims to fame", as well as numerous antique implements and family heirlooms typical of small town museums. If you are on US 87 headed toward CO or Taos, take a short detour to Folsom and a drive to the top of the nearly perfect cinder cone at Capulin Volcano National Monument.

Happy travels!

[ken56]

A little story about a small town museum and visitor center being interesting. We live in Dandridge TN and stopped in because we hadn't been in before. The man inside told us about a German couple who stopped and asked him where Douglas Dam was because they could not find it. He told him that he had been a young officer in the German army and was tasked with taking a small group of men to blow up the dam. It never happened he said because the war ended before it could be put into motion.

There are several TVA dams in the area that were built to supply power not only to the area but to Oak Ridge, The "Secret city", that enriched the uranium for our atomic bombs that were used on Japan. The Germans Knew about everything we were doing. Interesting that he would want to see the dam he never got to blow up.

[jamesu]

We just completed 16 nights out and back to Glacier NP. Except for I-90 Missoula to Spokane the entire trip was WA-20 going and US-2. A couple of my favorite routes. No hurries, no worries. Beautiful scenery and some nice folks. I recommend this route to other Puget Sounders.

[BarabooBob]

My wife and I just got back to Wisconsin after traveling to South Carolina, back to the Blue Ridge Parkway, through most of the eastern states and along the Atlantic coast to Maine. We then went through VT, NH, and upstate NY and Ontario getting back to WI. The only Interstate Highways we traveled on were when we didn't have much of a choice. We have a great time on the US highways and state roads. We have traveled across the pains on 14, 014A,16, 20 and 30. No more interstates for us.

[doxiemom11]

Only way to travel. We avoid crowds and large cities.

[ppine]

There is no point in being in a hurry.
Many of us started out traveling long distances in a hurry to see the National Parks. After 50 years of traveling by car, truck and RV I like to avoid tourists and hang out with local people. The slower you go the more you can learn. OUtside of Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada is just one big back road. Some of the state highways are still dirt.

[trailertraveler]

Charles Kuralt's "on the Road" TV segments and shows along with John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" sparked my interest in RVing before I could even drive. My first trips in a homemade truck camper were before some of the Interstates were completed. My first was similar to Steinbeck's following US-20 to Yellowstone National Park. Travelling as a single teen, I was adopted and treated like family even if only for a day or two by many great folks along the way. I met several that I kept in touch with over the years.

[RoaminRichards]

We enjoy traveling those "Back Roads" in our RV. Just returned from a short trip to the Florida Panhandle with our 9 year old granddaughter and she loved the two lane highways as there was much to see. As Dinah Shore use to say:"See the USA in your Chevrolet, America is the greatest land of all."

[Tyler0215]

I drove 18 wheeler for 33 years. I've seen enough Interstate highways. Backroads for me now, no hurry and more to see. x2 on the small town museum, always something interesting. Many small towns have city owned campgrounds that are usually clean and uncrowded during the week, weekends are sometimes iffy.

[Old-Biscuit]

No truer words have been spoken!

Living/working in CA for 30+ years we had come to accept that folks were pretty jaded.
Then we hit the road FT traveling secondary/back roads and visiting 'small town America'

Didn't take long to realize that GOOD Folks are out there..everywhere!

[4runnerguy]

ppine wrote:
I remember traveling the dirt road from Elko, NV to Austin, NV years ago. I was working in a company pickup. It took about 2 1/2 hours. On the way I passed one other vehicle and he stopped to offer assistance when I was changing a flat tire.

Reminds me of the time we were on the dirt road south of Jiggs heading along the east side of the Diamond Range. Way out in the middle of nowhere. We run across a couple in a sedan, obviously lost. He had the map out on the roof of the car, and as we pulled up, we could see her mouth going a mile a minute while she was sitting inside the car. He was sure glad to see us. He was trying to go north on NV 278 to Carlin but had turned north a few miles too early. Oops.

[vermilye]

One of my favorite things to do is pull into a local museum (seems like every small town has one) and talk with the person running it. They have great stories to tell, know the local places to camp & eat, and ofter provide great leads for photo opportunities. Can't do that on the interstates!