Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways Paperback – April 14, 2009

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It is, in my opinion, a Goldilocks book. Not too much info, not too little. It gives you the route for 11 road trips across North America/the U.S. I didn't know it while I was doing it, but I've done 30%-45% of the Great River Road tour. I've hit a bit of a few of the other ones as well. If you just want to get out and go, and aren't sure where to go, this is worth picking up. If you just want to try something different, pick this up. It gives you an idea of what to see along the way, and even where to stay. It doesn't give you everything, otherwise it would weigh a hundred pounds. It does, however, give you a bit above the basics. I've been to some of the cities on several of the routes, and I knew about those cities, but this showed me a few things I didn't know. It's just a good read to get off the Interstates and Freeways of America and really see America.

I found this book helpful last summer during a couple of trips up and down the east coast. Particularly helpful was for traveling down US 1 down to Key West, FL--it gave us some places to check out and restaurants to try and we weren't disappointed. We were also able to use it around the Myrtle Beach/Murrels Inlet, SC area too, mainly for restaurant recommendations. Mainly I like his anti-highways philosophy--even if I don't travel his prescribed routes exactly (some of them look like they would take a month or more to do at one go!) it encourages me to take the back roads on long trips more often. We were able to travel from Chattanooga, TN to Key West, FL entirely on US 27, connecting to US 1 in Miami. It was so much fun to turn off the GPS and follow this 2-lane road past all the little town squares in Georgia, some cute parks in Tallahasee (and past nothing in particular in lower Florida...) Overall, it's just fun to read--sometimes I have to look for "virtual vacations" instead of real ones, and I love to dream about taking some of these drives! You may not agree with all of the recommendations (my older parents didn't), but as a road-trip-loving, biggest-ball-of-twine kind of gal, I found it a great place to start planning.

Prior to leaving on my spring 2012 solo cross country road trip I purchased Route 66: EZ66 Guide for Travelers, 2nd Edition byJerry Mc Clanahan (5 stars), Route 66 Adventure Handbook: Turbocharged Fourth Edition by Drew Knowles (3 stars) and Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen (4 stars) from Amazon (best prices you'll find). My plan was to drive to Chicago, IL from Providence, RI and from there to Santa Monica, CA following old RT 66.For the Providence to Chicago leg of my trip I used Road Trip USA. While this book gives you a general idea of the routes you want to take it is NOT a turn by turn guide (good driving directions would have been appreciated). It does give many sightseeing suggestions that I did use extensively. Paired with a good GPS unit or additional maps this book is idea for road trips throughout the USA.On reaching Chicago I found RT 66 and switched over to Route 66: EZ Guide and Route 66 Adventure Handbook. I found RT 66: EZ Guide to be indispensible for traveling 66. I did manage to get lost in nearly every city I drove through as I was both driver and navigator but this would have been solved with the inclusion of the street name of 66 as it passed through cities. Route 66 Adventure Handbook was less useful. It does give you great ideas for sightseeing but finding these locations can be a problem. The addition of street addresses or GPS coordinates would be helpful! Highlights along 66 were Pontiac, IL, Meramec Caverns, the Painted Desert and Grand Canyon.On reaching Santa Monica I had no plan so I pieced together several of the routes in Road Trip USA to return home. The highlights of the return trip were the Pacific Coast Highway and Yellowstone, not to be missed.

I think this book would be just fine if you were driving one of the exact routes and itineraries listed. But what I wanted from the book was a way to know the areas/sights that were worth going off an interstate and onto a 2-lane road for. The book doesn't do that (maybe an idea for a future edition?). The book focuses on set routes and I found it rather confusing to follow if you weren't on that exact route. There also wasn't any sort of priority assigned to places/attractions which would have been helpful in picking which attractions to stop and see versus which to skip. Instead of this book, I wound up mostly just using yelp and tripadvisor on my phone instead.

This book is action packed with info, pictures and old postcard art. I love it. I look at it all the time. It has trivia, facts, history and just everything you'd want to know. I carry this book with me all the time, just in case I get bored somewhere. It has inspired me to stop at places I would not have stopped at before. I have a few trips planned and I have looked things up in this book to coordinate with the driving. I'm so happy I bought this book :)

We are BIG travelers - and we especially love the two lane road trips! This book will be a great addition to our traveling library. We bought this especially for Highway 50 exploration, but found so many other great roadways to be explored across our great nation. When traveling, we want to know what makes the trip special - diners, motels, sights - the things that you may or may not find out on your own. After completing Route 66, we know Highway 50 will be equally as fun! Can't wait to pack up and get on the road!