Photo Essay: The Great American Roadtrip

I find that best roadtrips often happen through necessity and are accompanied by a lot of coincidences and accidents. That was the case with the cross-continent roadtrip from Toronto to Vancouver in April 2007. At the time, I needed to move from Toronto back to Vancouver. Coincidentally, my friends Jonathan and Mike were on a trip around the world and jumped on the idea of driving across North America.

Of course, I couldn’t refuse two Aussies who knew how to drive a stick-shift car and offered great entertainment along the way. As with any group activity, roadtrips require a great deal of compromising in terms of eating preferences and more importantly music selection. In some cases that means listening to hours of Christian rock, country or Eurotrash beats. Either way, you’re stuck with the same pain in your ears for a while… In terms of eating, everyone on the trip is stuck eating the same sub-par food in road side diners. I must say that was one of the surprising things about this particular roadtrip.

Driving through the American states that practically feed the rest of the country, I was surprised to discover that it was really difficult to find a good steak or burger in all of the road side diners that we visited. With the amount of local food grown and raised, it seemed that people forgot how to make decent home cooked meals and resorted to serving heated up prepackaged frozen dinners. Unfortunately, in order to locate decent restaurants in the middle of nowhere you will either have to conduct a great deal of research or rely on the advice of locals. I can only offer you one piece of advice: Don’t expect to get a decent meal in any small American town past 9pm. Only chain fast food restaurants will be open that late. Having said that, our experience was that anywhere you stop along the way you will meet great and hospitable people who will welcome you into their communities. Well, unless that person is the local state trooper in Montana and he has just pulled you over for speeding…

Having spoken to many people who have driven across the continent, I have discovered that most of them just drive, are content in making as few stops as possible in order to get from point A to point B. Please refrain from doing that and enjoy your trip. Take the side road less traveled and explore the landscape. Just make sure that you allow yourself extra time to stop, take pictures and take in the scenery. In other words, plan on spending twice the amount of time that you would normally spend on the road.

To be quite honest, we didn’t make as many stops as I would have liked. I definitely intend to go back to Wisconsin and drive through the beautiful countryside and visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s house near Madison. I also plan to return to Yellowstone and spend a few days hiking and exploring the park, and making my way down to Jackson Hole and the Grand Teton National Park. So, get ready for the summer and plan your roadtrip. It’s the best way to see this beautiful continent!

Advice for a successful roadtrip:
1. Expect surprises and detours. Plan for an activity and then double the amount of time you think that will take.
2. Bring a spare tire and make sure that it's not flat.
3. Get an AAA membership. If your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere they will come to your rescue.
4. Bring a GPS unit. If you prefer the old fashioned way, get maps from AAA or stop at the state tourist information centers when you cross the state line.
5. Bring clothes for all sorts of weather conditions, especially if you are traveling through the Rockies (even in the summer)!
6. If you have a laptop and need internet access, find a Motel 6, pull into their parking lot and hook up to their free (and unlocked) wireless system.
7. And most importantly, make sure you bring your CD collection or iPod along.