American Road Trip Talk

In the winter of 2018, American Road Magazine published a 15th Anniversary issue of the magazine to highlight the special people and places we have visited during those years. One of our favorites was Terry “Ike” Clanton, a descendant of one of the cowboy cut down in the infamous battle of the OK Corral. The story has always been seen as a paean to Old West rough justice where retribution was swift and final. Not so, says Terry Clanton. nd we invite you to listen to a very different side of the story…what famous announcer Paul Harvey used to call…the rest of the story. You can read more details in vol. 15, num. 4 of American Road Magazine.

In the rough and tumble days of the late 1800’s, the little town of Sidney, Nebraska was an important military and commercial outpost on the railroad lines that were becoming the arteries of American expansion. It was indeed the wild west, populated by such colorful characters as Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane and earned the moniker, Toughest Town on the Tracks. In 2017 what was once called Sinful Sidney is celebrating its Sesquicentennial ( that’s 150 candles) between Aug. 18-20 with a double extravaganza. One is man-made and the other is Mother Nature made and utterly unique. Our guest Heather Haussmann has all the details for both events.

One of the great American Road annual events is the Woodward Dream Cruise held each year on a stretch of Woodward Avenue in Detroit, MI that runs from Detroit city limits to the suburb of Pontiac nearly 30 miles to the north. The day features classic cars that have been lovingly cared for traversing some of the oldest paved road in the country. Hundreds of thousands of classic car enthusiasts and curious fans line the entire route. Some large parking areas a reserved for special displays by companies that serve this audience. Our show today focuses on a unique display that was part of the 2016 Woodward Cruise. The classic car insurance company Hagerty, based in Traverse City, MI, created a drive thru display called Veils, Vettes and Vows. Our guest, Rachel Flynn, the Haggerty Youth Advocacy Coordinator, will ftll you in on this fun and popular site. You won’t want to miss this interview.

After a long hiatus, we are back on the American Road with the folks who are part and parcel of the stories in our magazine. In this first edition, we meet Erika Nelson, one of the authors who has given us a unique view of the American Road’s roadside attractions for over a decade. Erika is kind of a travelling evangelist for folk art both collecting it and encouraging its creation. She has chronicled bigger than life attractions along our nation’s byways: Everything from the biggest duck on Long Island to the largest baseball bat in Louisville, Ky and an enormous catsup bottle that serves as the water tower in Collinsville, IL Erika has collected these and miniaturized them into…the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things. I caught up with Erika recently at her home base in Lucas, KS where she is now planning on establishing a world HQ for her collection. A local businessman donated an historic building as a base for her miniatures and she is going to

Credit the dedication of passionate volunteers like Rusty Davis for finding the links to Michigan's first highway, Hull's Trace. It was part of the road carved out of the wilderness called Michigan and Ohio that followed well worn Native American trails and figured in the failed attempt to hang on to fort Detroit during the War of 1812. Some of that road, also known as Hull's Trace, follows existing highways, like M125 in southeast Michigan along the western shore of Lake Erie. Other parts of the old highway can been seen poking out of the shallows of that shore when the water is low. Our guest on this American Road Trip Talk is Rusty Davis. He is a volunteer at the River Raisin Battlefield Park in southern Michigan who has dedicated himself to uncovering and recognizing this historic byway. Rusty will uncover the fascinating story of Hull2019s Trace, a road that figured into the history of the War of 1812 and the development of Ohio and Michigan.

In our recent volume 15, number 1 there was a story in the Friends in the Fast Lane column about the National Scenic Byways Program 25th anniversary. The Scenic Byways 25! event was celebrated at the US Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC. That same month in Kansas a brand-new byway was inaugurated: The Land and Sky Byway. Our guest on this American Road Trip Talk is Roxie Yonkay, byway coordinator and PR manager for the Goodland Visitors and Convention Bureau. Roxie will describe the highlights of this brand-new byway which has a unique claim to fame: it’s the only agriculturally focused byway to date in America.

Our Summer 2016 issue was dedicated to the theme of Comic Strips and the American Road. Our Memory Motel column focused on the Li’l Abner Motel in eastern Kentucky. You might imagine a rustic and rugged haven of rest that matched the cornpone antics of Al Capp’s famous characters like Mammy Yokum, Daisy Mae and Lil Abner himself. But as you will hear from Billy D. Abner, the current provider, that is far from true although the motel is still nestle in the beauty of the Red River Gorge and some of the finest rock climbing in the country. Billy’s accent may be a bit thick but I think that you will enjoy getting to know his down home hospitality and make the Lil Abner Motel a stop on your journey. The American Road TripTalk is brought to you by Marinette County in Wisconsin where you’re invited to visit the real north.

The state of Illinois has long been known as the Land of Lincoln because of the wealth of tourist attractions around the 16th President throughout the state. However, Cory Jobe, Illinois’ Director of Tourism, would like you to know that there are three other first executives who call the Prairie State their home. In this edition of Trip Talk, Chris will reveal three main locations for those sites in hopes that you will include them in the itinerary for your next Midwest road trip.

Welcome Erika Nelson, a traveling artist who has chronicled bigger than life attractions along our nation’s highways. Everything from the biggest duck on Long Island to the largest baseball bat in Louisville, Ky and an enormous catsup bottle that serves as the water tower in Collinsville, IL Erika has collected all of these and miniaturized them into…the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things. In this conversation Erika will explain her recent hiatus from the magazine to work on a project in Georgia. She will share some very special memories of former President Jimmie Carter in Planes, GA and share with us her vision of what is coming up in this year’s Think Big column. I hope you enjoy this first podcast of 2016

In the summer issue of American Road Magazine an article in our Friends in the Fastlane column featured a new byway that will thrill fans of the old west. It is called the Tracks Across Borders Byway and it traces a route from southern Colorado to northern New Mexico along the top of the continental divide. As our guest Murielle Eason, commissioner for the byway, will explain it is not the sort of hike you want to take in your prize sports car but four wheelers will delight in the rugged trails. Saddle up, and join us for a ride over the divide into the history of the Old West.

This edition of American Road Trip Talks goes behind the scenes of an article and picture that appeared in our Spring 2015 issue. The focus was on a remarkable sculpture display in the town of Troy, Ohio featuring a 31’ tall sculpture of Abraham Lincoln that will delight all of you Lincoln fans. But in the course of my conversation with Katherine Hays, Executive Director of Main Street Troy I discovered the really big event: the display of the Funeral Train of Abraham Lincoln, Sept. 10-13, 2015.

The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. Their tour guide was Paul Gilger who also led the mapping committee for the tour. In this final podcast in the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour series, Paul Gilger describes the complicated process of putting a cross country tour together. International visitors make up a large part of the traveling band, particularly the Germans who have taken a particular shine to Route 66

Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty and their tour guide will be Paul Gilger who also led the mapping committee for the tour. In this fourth and final podcasts in the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour series, Paul Gilger shares fascinating stories about the original Lincoln Highway Tour. You will find out that there is a particularly sticky form of mud in Iowa, that the road got some urgently needed repairs after a miserable Thanksgiving and that the final stop of the Lincoln Highway was built with the ruins of the San Francisco earthquake.

The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Between the end of June 2015 and the first week of July, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to make that same trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty. In this second of four podcasts, Bob Lichty, a veteran of a number of Lincoln Highway adventures, will talk about the tour itself and the route that will take the group 2,836 miles to the shores of the Pacific.

The Tunnel Vision column of our Spring 2015 American Road featured an article entitled Joy to the Road about the centennial of a remarkable journey from Detroit to San Francisco by Henry B. Joy, first president of the Packard Motor Car Company in 1915. Henry mounted his trusty Packard I-35 and navigated the often-muddy trails that were the Lincoln Highway just two years after the route had been established from New York to San Francisco. Henry’s destination was the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in the newly resurrected City by the Sea, which had risen from the rubble of a disastrous earthquake. Between the end of June 2015 and July 8, another group of Lincoln Highway enthusiasts are going to trace that same 2,836 mile trip in 12 days. They will be lead by the husband and wife team of Rosemary Rubin and Bob Lichty who are veterans of the route and our guests for this podcast. In this first of four podcasts, Rosemary Rubin, a veteran of a number of Lincoln Highway adventures, will start the conversation talking

Our Spring 2015 issue of American Road Magazine was dedicated to the Trail of the Ancients, finding some of the American Road’s oldest attractions. The Upper and Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River are one of Nature’s works of art in Southwest Wisconsin that have been a tourist attraction since just after the Civil War. It is also the site in 2015 of the 70th anniversary of its famous Duck Tours. No we aren’t talking about a feathery parade. These DUCKS are six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 2-ton trucks used during World War II. This podcast is the second of two conversations with Dan Gavinski, the General Manager of the original Wisconsin Ducks and Dells Boat Tours, who has risen from parking lot attendant to running the whole show. In this interview Dan talks describes the remarkable Ducks and other aspects of the high powered aquatic entertainment at the Dells and finally about the upcoming 70th Anniversary celebration.

Our Spring 2015 issue of American Road Magazine was dedicated to the Trail of the Ancients, finding some of the American Road’s oldest attractions. The Upper and Lower Dells of the Wisconsin River are one of Nature’s works of art in Southwest Wisconsin that have been a tourist attraction since just after the Civil War. It is also the site in 2015 of the 70th anniversary of its famous Duck Tours. These amphibious vehicles called DUKW’s, or popularly known as Ducks, are six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 2-ton capacity CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military in World War II and introduced to the Dells in 1946. This podcast is the first of two conversations with Dan Gavinski, the General Manager of the original Wisconsin Ducks and Dells Boat Tours. In part one Dan tells the both the history of the Ducks at the Dells and his own rise from parking lot attendant to running the whole show. In our second podcast Dan will talk more about the Ducks themselves and the upcoming 70th Anniversary celebratio

That soft, sweet, summertime sensation better known as DQ or Dairy Queen has been a favorite diversion on the American Road for three quarters of a century. In the fall of 2013 I traveled to downtown Joliet, Illinois to visit the site of the very first DQ in America. Our Spring 2015 issue is dedicate to the oldest things along the American road and this certain fits the bill. My tour guide was former Joliet City Manager Thomas Thanas and, while our tour had to be virtual because the building no longer housed the original Dairy Queen, it was conducted alongside the very real Route 66 in downtown Joliet. Join us as we find more about the birth of this icy American Road icon.

The Spring 2015 issue of American Road Magazine was dedicated to tracking down the Ancients along the American highway. One of the stories was a fish tale about the oldest resident at the world famous Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Its name is “Granddad”, and he’s an Australian lungfish, a scaly survivor of prehistoric times found in very few places around the globe. Our guest, Mike Marselis, is one of the aquarists at the museum who has some interesting stories to tell about Granddad.

The winter issue of American Road Magazine featured an article entitled American Road’s Big Birds. The story stretched from coast to coast and the steamy south to the cold north in the search of truly large birds or to be more precise their artistic representations like the 21-ton Pheasant in Huron, S. Dakota or the Big Duck on Long Island, NY. In today’s podcast Doris Schneider, the VP of the Friends of the Big Duck is going fill us in on more of the background of this enormous replica which actually gave its name to a style of architecture. Visit the Big Duck online at www.bigduck.org and look for them on Facebook.