American Road Trip Talk

Discover the joy of the journey with the AMERICAN ROAD. AMERICAN ROAD with Thomas and Becky Repp, co-hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of AMERICAN ROAD, an internationally distributed magazine, which celebrates the people and places along America's two-lane jewels. The Fall 2011 issue of American Road Magazine is all about the lurid lives of America’s gangsters, their hangouts, histories and holdups. One of the most famous heists of the 1920’s was the Great Denver Mint Robbery for which no one was formally charged. Now you can try to solve the mystery yourself and have a great time getting to know Denver, Colorado with the Denver Mint Robbery Tour. Who better to tells us all about it than Mr. Big himself, Robert Cashell, the tour director.

Chiles, green and red are the state vegetable of New Mexico where they proudly serve them in everything from soups to ice cream and apple pie. But one of the outstanding uses of these gastronomic grenades is in Green Chile Cheeseburgers which can range from mild to molten. Dan Monaghan, the director of video services for the New Mexico Tourism Department tells us all about the famous Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail that stretches from north to south and east to west across the Land of Enchantment.

If you’re guarding America’s wealth, you better have a really good lock on your front door, particularly when the year is 1922. It was an era of gangsters and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland was determined to be ready for anything. That was why they installed the world’s largest bank vault door, a 100-ton lid on the nation’s cookie jar. In the fall issue of American Road Magazine Erika Nelson tells the story of the monstrous door in her Think Big column. Erika is the owner of the “World’s Largest Collection of the Smallest Replicas of the World’s Largest Things.”

He may not be Babe the Blue Ox of Paul Bunyan fame, but Ollie has one big advantage: He can be whatever color you make him! I’m talking, of course, about the friendly mascot for the Illinois National Highway Association, Ollie the Ox. You can find his smiling face and many other characters that were part of the wagon trains moving through the Illinois wilderness, in a 13 page coloring book created by the Association. This fun book and a stagecoach boarding pass were designed to help children learn about this part of American history and have been wildly successful. John Goldsmith, the Executive Director of the Illinois National Highway Association will tell us all about this wildly successful project.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Henry Ford's favorite roadway received a high tech, solar powered salute in the summer of 2011 when the National Scenic Byway conference named the Woodward Avenue Tributes the best interpretive highway project in the nation. Detroit's Woodward Avenue Action Association (WA3) helped erect the 30 ft. tall, cylindrical glass and concrete pillars that feature solar-powered LED lights, translucent art panels and integrated audio technology that offer downloadable audio tours. Plans are for 15 Tributes along the 27 miles of Woodward Avenue, part of Detroit's landscape since 1805. My guest, Heather Carmona, Executive Director of WA3 tells all about that award winning project and the other efforts to preserve this urban byway.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. The notion of a high-tech tour of Amish country is a bit of a contradiction in terms. You normally identify the Amish with horses and buggies, kerosene lamps, quaint clothing and NO electricity. However, Jackie Hughes and the folks at the Elkhart Convention and Visitors Bureau have managed to combine the two opposing concepts in one excellent package: The Heritage Trail Driving Tour. In just a moment Jackie will describe this free audio tour of northern Indiana’s Amish country.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Fred Sachtleben isn’t proud that he ignored his father’s stories of pioneer adventure, but he’s making up for it now. Fred’s dad was one of the first people to travel the then brand new Lincoln Highway from Chicago to San Francisco in 1915. That was all ancient history until just after Fred’s father passed away and he found a medal and a handwritten diary from that journey. Our interview is about that rediscovery and getting the record straight that Fred Sachtleben and his friends at the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association are doing.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. In May of 2011, a caravan of antique cars set out on a very special pilgrimage to celebrate the bicentennial birthday of one of America’s oldest roadways, the National Road. Within a generation of the Revolutionary War, President Thomas Jefferson began building the road to open up America’s new territories. Two centuries later, Mary Truitt, president of the Illinois National Road Association set out with a group of friends to retrace that roadway from its western end, Vandalia, IL, to mile 0 in Cumberland, MD. In this second part of our conversation, Mary shares stories from journey retracing the National Road to its origin in Maryland.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. In May of 2011, a caravan of antique cars set out on a very special pilgrimage to celebrate the bicentennial birthday of one of America’s oldest roadways, the National Road. Within a generation of the Revolutionary War, President Thomas Jefferson began building the road to open up America’s new territories. Two centuries later, Mary Truitt, president of the Illinois National Road Association set out with a group of friends to retrace that roadway from its western end, Vandalia, IL, to mile 0 in Cumberland, MD. In this first part of our conversation, Mary shares some fascinating stories about the building of this granddaddy of American highways.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Who in their right mind would make a public restroom look like a giant toilet? Well, the city of Lucas, Kansas of course! Almost a year ago we told you about a folk art project called Bowl Plaza. The Grassroots Art Center director Rossalyn Schultz shared their vision for an enormous outdoor restroom crafted by local artists in the shape of a toilet bowl, water tank and even toilet paper roll. We recently heard that the project had suffered a setback because of a natural disaster. So we called Rossalyn to find out about the Leaning Toilet of Lucas.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. When the Mother Road calls, few can resist her. Route 66 is a long way from Vince Cricchio’s New Jersey home, but when he got the call, he and his wife grabbed their video gear and spent 2010 travelling the heartland of America. They recorded the stories and chronicled what Vince likes to call “one long amusement park” from Chicago to Santa Monica pier in California. In this American Road TripTalk Vince will share his vision for a TV series that will take all of us down the American Road.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Double your pleasure, double your fun…and right now some of you are singing the name of a favorite gum. Actually I am talking about one of the most unique drive in theatres in North America because it’s the only place in the country where you get both a motel room and a drive in theatre all in one. My guest, George Kelloff, is the proprietor of the Best Western Movie Manor in Monte Vista, Colorado and he wil tell you all about this one of a kind experience.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. All that glittered became gold when it came from Los Angeles, California for most of the last Century. Hollywood became the hub of America’s movie, radio and TV industry turning Midwest girls, like Jean Harlow into The Blond Bombshell in the early twenties. Today we are going to visit with Donelle Dadigan, Founder and President of the Hollywood Museum. We featured her current exhibit “Harlow at 100” in our Summer issue’s Tunnel Vision section but she has news about an even bigger exhibit going on through this fall.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Some wags say the camel is a horse designed by a committee. The same might be said for the Jefferson Highway! This long forgotten but now much cherished classic American highway once stretched from the pines of Manitoba, Canada to the sultry palms of New Orleans. My guest today is Mike Conlin, a map maker by trade, who is the president of the Jefferson Highway Association with a passion for reconnecting this legendary thoroughfare. The association’s inaugural meeting was chronicled in the spring issue of American Road Magazine.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Our summer 2011 issue of American Road Magazine featured a special section highlighting 26 classic Drive In’s across North America. In today’s episode we meet Greg Greenhill who represents the second generation to run the King Drive Inn, in Russellville, AL. He and his family have found a sure fire formula for drawing families that’s as treasured as the recipe for Aunt Bea’s Sweet Tater pie. It ‘s a combination of hard work, a love for the business and a commitment to providing entertainment that the whole family can enjoy. We’ll serve up a king-sized helping of southern charm and hospitality

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Like 21 rough-cut jewels the Apostle Islands adorn the shores of western Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin. These rugged islands aren’t just pretty baubles crowning the Badger State; they have had tremendous cultural and historical significance to North America for millennia. Once the ancestral home of the Ojibwa people, and resource for a growing nation, the Apostle Islands are now once again wilderness wonderland. Neil Howk, Assistant Chief of Interpretation and Education, for Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Park will give us the full tour of the Jewels of the North.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. Our summer 2011 issue of American Road Magazine featured a special section highlighting 26 classic Drive In’s across North America. A common thread among the picture parks, like the Vali Hi Drive In Lake Elmo, Minnesota, is that they are survivors. Bob O’Neil, owner since 1978, has learned how to hang on and is now enjoying a renaissance in moonlight movie-going thanks to families who want their kids to enjoy a time they fondly remember. It also helps that Bob has the secret to picking just the right movies for this atmosphere, a secret sauce he’ll reveal shortly.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. After seeing his obituary in a newspaper, Mark Twain quipped, “News of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” Along these same lines, some of you may be more than a little put off by the title of this photo exhibit: Route 66: Death of an American Icon. Arnold Berkman, a retired psychologist and professional photographer, took the pictures during four trips he made along Route 66. During our conversation we discussed his perspective on a roadway where many people insist there are still plenty of places to get your kicks.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. The night sky never looked brighter over central Illinois than when The Sky View Drive In Theatre in Litchfield lit up the night with Hollywood’s stars. The Sky View is the last operating drive in on Historic Route 66 in the Lincoln State. Somehow it has survived until just recently charging just $2/person for admission to a double feature. How they manage this magic is the subject of my conversation in this recording with plain talking, hard working Carol Stuttle, the long time manager of the Sky View. Carol Burke from the Litchfield Tourism Council will also describe the interactive Route 66 Wayside Marker erected outside the theatre in 2011 and we'll hear the voices of two people who grew up with the Sky View.

American Road Trip Talk hosted by Foster Braun is a talk show that celebrates travel across the two-lane highways of North America. This unique broadcast is an extension of American Road Magazine. Join Foster Braun, Your host and our guide on the American Road Trip Talk Show. For nearly a decade Dave Preston has entertained readers of the American Road Magazine with reviews of travel books and other memorabilia from the heritage roadways. Recently I had an opportunity to talk to him about his passion and favorite way to see the American Road: on a motorcycle! In our story you’ll hear how Dave went from being a schoolteacher to become a motor enthusiast and learn about some of his favorite rides.