Charles Kuralt - Why we travel the Back Roads,

Charles Kuralt was a National Treasure.

I often say, get off the Interstate Highway System and travel the side roads if you want to see America.

Charles Kuralt figured it out a long time ago, he was a National Treasure.

We avoid interstates as much as possible. Mostly because they are so beat up, bumpy, and drivers are just insane, aggressive, and filled with road rage. Several years ago we decided to avoid the "fast lane" roads and travel state highways and US routes. Life has been much more pleasant.

Oh yea, we get a few more stop lights, a few more cross roads with 4 way stops, and we hit a few more small towns where the speed limits drop to 30 mph or less. Sometimes we get behind a farm tractor that simply too wide to pass and follow him for 7 miles (towing the trailer) ... which actually happened last weened end on our return home.

Sometimes we get stopped at rail road crossing and have to sit and wait! Imagine that? I suppose it could be worse, we could be sitting on an interstate in a traffic jam going zero mph too! At least at the rail road crossings, we can jump out of the truck, run back into the camper, use the bathroom, grab a drink and a snack and make it back into the truck before the train finishes crossing.

Then there's always the local yocals as I like to call them. By far, the local people who own and operate the local mom-and-pop shops, who have their own vested interest in their business are going to be nicer, calmer, and more cheerful, and will gladly take the time to talk to you about anything, it seems.

Now granted, sometimes you run into a real whac-o, who will go off on some tangent talking about his latest experience with Extra Terrestrial visitors from Mars or something, or the grandmother who just won't stop talking about her grandkids and how magnificent they are, but these come with the territory, if you venture to open a discussion.

Not to mention, almost all of those Mom-and-Pop restraunts have the best food imaginable, and usually don't cost near as much as McDonald's gut burger does these days.

Occasionally, run into Amish which are always willing to share stories with you, share their way of life, and of course, share their faith experiences too.

The USA still does have some fantastic people, lovable, friendly, and good that still care and truly do make this land a better place.

I agree completely ... take the back roads!

Our car club takes a fall tour from Denver each year called a "M.O.A.B" trip. We have been doing it for 27 years and the name comes from the first trip that went to Moab, UT. But, since subsequent trips have gone to Telluride, Yellowstone, the Black Hills, etc., we had to come up with an acronym. M.O.A.B. now means "Motoring On All Backroads" which obviously came from Kuralt.

thanks to Busskipper for the post.
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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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."