American Road Trip Talk

Over the last few years American Road Magazine has featured stories about the Hocking Hills in southeast Ohio. This beautiful part of the state is quite different from the flat farms lands of the north and east of the Buckeye state. In the Hocking Hills the land begins to roll gently as it heads southeast into the Appalachian Mountains and the Virginias. This is a two-part conversation about a time-honored tradition of the region: moonshining! While the typical homemade and very illegal distillery is still plentiful in the area around New Straitsville, OH, our guest Doug Nutter runs the completely legal and highly taxed Straisville Special Moonshie Co. Doug’s fountain of hooch became legal just in time for the 2014 New Straitsville Moonshine Festival, which has been going on for a long time. In Part 2 of our conversation with Doug Nutter, we talked more about the New Straitsville Moonshine annual festival, his own family’s recipe and a little about how to make their brand of firewater.

Over the last few years American Road Magazine has featured stories about the Hocking Hills in southeast Ohio. This beautiful part of the state is quite different from the flat farms lands of the north and east of the Buckeye state. In the Hocking Hills the land begins to roll gently as it heads southeast into the Appalachian Mountains and the Virginias. This is a two-part conversation about a time-honored tradition of the region: moonshining! While the typical homemade and very illegal distillery is still plentiful in the area around New Straitsville, OH, our guest Doug Nutter runs the completely legal and highly taxed Straisville Special Moonshie Co. Doug’s fountain of hooch became legal just in time for the 2014 New Straitsville Moonshine Festival, which has been going on for a long time. In this part 1 of our conversation, Doug Nutter shares the fascinating history of moonshining in the Appalachians where it is a survival business, family heritage and a big part of the culture.

As a reader of American Road Magazine, you know we are all about enjoying and preserving America’s Scenic Byways. They are not just great vacation destinations but are also vital economic links to a host of communities offering entertainment, opportunities to learn and appreciate our heritage and taste the wonderful variety of American cuisine; but this is a delicate ecosystem that needs support. Anaise Berry, our guest, is the chair of the National Scenic Byway Foundation, a volunteer organization formed in 2003 to support byways around the nation. Our own Becky Repp, General Manager of American Road Magazine, was recently named to this prestigious board. In our conversation Anaise will tell you more about the critical mission that the Foundation performs since Federal Funding was removed a few years ago.

There is just no better treat on a hot summer day than a scoop of ice cream. Our Friends of the Fastlane column in the Summer Edition celebrated one of America’s oldest ice cream companies, Velvet Ice Cream as they celebrated their Centennial. What adds to the charm of this family owned creamery is that is located in the heart of central Ohio’s countryside in Utica, Ohio 45 minutes north of Columbus. Andre Dager, one of the three sisters who run the company, gave us a family history and a peek at some of the special flavors created to celebrate this wonderful event.

Rebecca Repp is the General Manager of American Road Magazine which she publishes along with husband Thomas Repp. Normally Becky stays behind the scenes but in the 2014 Spring Issue she stepped from behind the headlines into our Tunnel Vision section. There we learned about her appointment to the America’s Byways Foundation. This group is a non-profit group organized years ago to help Byway committees all over the country share resources and ideas for growth. Becky Repp brings her considerable insight into the national Byway scene as a resource for this support group.

The summer 2014 issue of American Road Magazine brought back one of our favorite family themes for the lazy, hazy days, A Night at Drive In Part 2. This podcast is part 2 of a series focused on the Melody Drive In located in rural northern Indiana near the Bass Lake campground resort. Their family owned drive in is one of the few that still sport grass infield rather than asphalt or gravel and give an almost park like feel. But it has not always been nostalgic fun for the Heiss’s. Fred and his family have not only had to tackle rough economic times but also the wrath of Mother Nature. He will share the remodeling job a huge windstorm did to the big screens a few years ago.

The summer 2014 issue of American Road Magazine brought back one of our favorite family themes for the lazy, hazy days, A Night at Drive In Part 2. The best part about the more than 30 outdoor movie palaces reviewed is that the majority of them are still going strong. Being a family business seems to be one of the big factors in their survival. Families work cheap! Just ask Fred Heiss and his son Fred Jr. Three generations of their family have kept the Melody Drive In going in the beautiful countryside of Northern Indiana. In the first of two parts, father and son discuss the transition from 35 mm film to the high tech hard drives that deliver today’s box office hits and how Drive Ins are experiencing a revival.

The summer 2014 issue of American Road Magazine brought back one of our favorite family themes for the lazy, hazy days, A Night at Drive In Part 2. The best part about the more than 30 outdoor movie palaces reviewed is that the majority of them are still going strong. According to Steve Bloomer, second-generation owner of the Skyview Drive In of Belleville, Illinois, things have never been better. We know you will enjoy Steve’s stories in this podcast as he describes a family business he has been involved with since the first time he watched a movie from the projection booth when he was 5 years old. The Skyview took off in the late 40’s and doesn’t look like it is going to land any time soon.

Summertime and the living is easy or so the so went in the famous operetta Porgy and Bess. We certainly hope the arrival of our summer edition of American Road Magazine is adding to your summertime relaxation. Our Friends in the Fast Lane column made a stop at a unique exhibition at the Lincoln Highway Experience Museum in Latrobe, PA. There we met executive director, Olga Herbert, who described the Postcard Exhibit which launched in May of 2014. Thousands of postcards from destinations along the Lincoln Highway in Penn. are on display but there is one very special part of the exhibit that requires your participation! Olga explains all.

This is part 2 of our Odessa, Texas interview. Our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine featured an article entitled Hopping the Hippety Highway by Jillian Gurney. The author followed rabbit trails all over the country tracking down big bunnies. One of the stops was Odessa, Texas, home of the largest jackrabbit in the world. In this two-part interview with Linda Sweat of the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau we will find out about the history of the rascally native jackrabbits and even more about the surprising cultural oasis that this west Texas town has become.

Our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine featured an article entitled Hopping the Hippety Highway by Jillian Gurney. The author followed rabbit trails all over the country tracking down big bunnies. One of the stops was Odessa, Texas, home of the largest jackrabbit in the world. In this two-part interview with Linda Sweat of the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau we will find out about the history of the rascally native jackrabbits and even more about the surprising cultural oasis that this west Texas town has become.

In the Spring 2014 issue of the magazine Tunnel Vision highlighted the birth of a new scenic roadway, the Nanticoke Heritage Byway which will eventually traverse parts of southern and western Delaware. In this podcast Dan Parsons, a historic preservationist for the Delaware, tells us about the importance of this unique byway and its link to the beginnings of our nation. To keep up with the Nanticoke Heritage Byway development, visit their Facebook page.

The Tunnel Vision Column of our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine featured a bizarre piece of art called the “Paulverizer” in front of an auto recycler on Highway 501 in Buena Vista, VA. It is just one of dozens of huge, humorous and highly visible works of art created by Mark Cline. In our interview, I hope you will catch some of his passion for creating these merry roadside monsters that have found homes all over the country. His one regret…His may be a dying art.

In our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine we presented the story of a three wheeled, bullet-shaped orange car called the Urbee 2 in our Friends in the Fast Lane column. The strange little car represents the vision of Jim Kor and Bruce Stewart to build an aerodynamically perfect and absolutely energy efficient vehicle. In Part 2 of the Urbee 2 story, Jim and Bruce describe how 3D Printing will give their ultra efficient vehicle the ability to cross the US on just 10 gallons of gas.

In our Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine, you’ll find a story about a three wheeled, bullet shaped orange car called the Urbee 2 in our Friends in the Fast Lane column. The strange little car represents the vision of Jim Kor and Bruce Stewart to build an aerodynamically perfect and absolutely energy efficient vehicle. In Part 1 of the Urbee 2 story, Jim and Bruce share the journey that is taking them toward an historic voyage on the American Road.

2016 will mark the official 100th anniversary of our number highway system. Up to 1926 the process of naming, building and publicizing a stretch of roadway was very much a local affair. The results were often confusing if pleasantly familiar to the folks who drove them. The named trails served a valuable purpose in their day, but they began to pass into history when the American Association of State Highway Officials adopted the U.S. numbered highway system on November 11, 1926. The Spring 2014 issue Friends in the Fast Lane highlighted the efforts of Solomon Valley US 24 Association to rediscover one of those named highways, the Midland Trail, We spoke with Joan Nothern in an earlier podcast about those efforts. In this podcast we are going to reach back into our archives for a conversation from the Spring 2011 issue with another leader in the movement, Mike Conlin, a mapmaker by trade and one of the movers behind the recreation of the Jefferson Highway. This remarkable ribbon of highway stretched

The Think Big Column in our magazine is a regular platform for some of the most remarkable sights along the American Road. Erika Nelson is the peripatetic folk artist who chronicles kings and queens of the highway like the largest ketchup bottle or biggest baseball bat in the World’s Largest Collection of the Smallest Replicas of the World’s Largest Things. In this conversation Erika shares her most recent find: a titanic turtle that is displayed in our Spring 2014 issue. How does she find these roadside behemoths? You’ll just have to listen to our conversation to find out that and much more.

In the Spring 2014 issue in the Friendd in the Fast Lane department, we show a Kansas artist, Dave DeArmond, who was so moved by the 1916 Midland Trail Tour guide that he began painting scenes mentioned in the book. Now people like our guest, Joan Nothern, of the Solomon Valley Hwy 24 Heritage Alliance are making that nearly century old driving guide come alive. Joan is the president of that association and right here shares the story behind their efforts to rediscover the forgotten transcontinental Midland Trail. Joan will share the vision she and her associates have for restoring the awareness of this remarkable homemade link between oceans that sprang up in the early days of touring cars. To spur that effort on, the alliance is going to showcase the historic Midland Trail Guide at the Kansas Sampler Festival on May 3-4in Wamego, KS. For more information about that festival visit http://www.kansassampler.org/festival/.

Butterflies normally conjure up beautiful images of colorful, delicate winged creatures flitting by your mind’s eye. How about throwing in a few thousand cockroaches you can play with and lots of hungry caterpillars? In the Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine in our US 40: Across the Middle Department, I described some of the Looking Glass Insects I discovered at the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. This remarkable facility is located in a beautiful park just west of St. Louis in the suburb of Chesterfield. Laura Chisholm, Living Collections Manager, takes us on a quick tour of the insides of this beautiful facility that you will want to make a must visit on your next trip to the Gateway of the West, St. Louis, MO.

In the Spring 2014 issue of American Road Magazine our Memory Motel column was all ears as we swept down into the mountain resort of Steamboat Springs to visit the Rabbit Ears Motel. Ironically, as Greg Koehler, our guest and owner of the motel will tell us, the name has more to do with geology than a certain rascally cartoon character. On the other hand the inn’s overactive sign did create something of a distraction for visitors to the famous Steamboat Springs right across the street. Greg also shares an honest look at the hard life of maintaining a motel. It’s a real labor of love.