The Art of Manliness - #437： Don't Make Me Pull Over! A History of the Road Trip

00:00:00.000 This episode of the Art of Manliness podcast is brought to you by The Strenuous Life.

00:00:03.660 The Strenuous Life is an online platform that we created to help you put into action all the

00:00:06.900 things we've been writing about on The Art of Manliness and talking about on the podcast for

00:00:10.140 the past 10 years. We've done that by creating 50 different badges based around 50 different

00:00:13.900 skills, hard skills like self-defense, wilderness survival, and soft skills like personal finance

00:00:18.940 and social skills and entrepreneurship. We also provide weekly challenges and also accountability

00:00:23.020 for your physical fitness and doing a good deed every day so you can start thinking outside of

00:00:27.300 yourself. We've got enrollment coming up in a few weeks, the week of June 10th. If you want to be

00:00:30.580 one of the first to know when enrollment opens up, head over to strenuouslife.co, get your email on

00:00:34.500 our list. We'll send an email out when enrollment opens up. Spots fill fast. So as soon as you get

00:00:39.000 the email, sign up and make sure our email, strenuouslife.co is whitelisted in your email

00:00:43.700 provider because sometimes it goes to spam and people miss out on the enrollment. So strenuouslife.co,

00:00:48.140 hope to see you there. This episode of The Art of Manliness podcast is brought to you in part by

00:00:51.560 Wrangler. Whether you ride a bike, a bronc, or a skateboard, Wrangler jeans are for you. Classic and

00:00:55.880 modern styles, a range of fits, all price points, vintage re-releases. Wrangler has something for

00:01:00.600 everyone. Visit wrangler.com and check out their selection of jeans, shirts, and outwear for men

00:01:05.000 and women. New styles, great fits, Wrangler, real comfortable jeans. Brett McKay here and welcome to

00:01:25.380 another edition of The Art of Manliness podcast. If you grew up in America in the 1970s and 80s,

00:01:30.160 a vacation with your family likely involved piling in a car with your parents and siblings and being

00:01:34.460 stuck with them for eight or more hours on the open road with little other than each other,

00:01:38.580 keep yourselves entertained and sane. Entire movies during this time were made about the great

00:01:42.600 American road trip, yet this world has slowly faded away without our hardly noticing thanks to

00:01:47.320 cheaper airfare and advances in technology and convenience. My guest today has set out to document

00:01:51.540 what he calls the golden age of road tripping before it vanishes from our collective memory.

00:01:55.340 His name is Rich Retay, and in his book, Don't Make Me Pull Over, he walks us through the history

00:01:59.260 of the American family road trip. Today on the show, Rich and I discuss how it was actually bicycles

00:02:03.280 that kickstarted America's interstate highway system, when automotive road tripping really started

00:02:06.940 taking off, and all the iconic businesses that built up around the nation's new pastime,

00:02:10.920 including Stucky's convenience stores, motels, and attractions like the world's largest frying pan.

00:02:15.500 Along the way, Rich shares stories from his family road trips growing up as a kid,

00:02:18.620 particularly his memories of his dad taking on the role of leader, protector, and refueling

00:02:22.760 stop minimizer during their expeditions. We end our conversation discussing the decline of the

00:02:26.960 family road trip, what we miss out when we take a plane to our destination, and why millennial

00:02:30.880 parents are ushering in the return of road trips to American culture. This episode is definitely a

00:02:35.000 nice drive down memory lane, and a great one to listen to as you hit the open road. After the show's

00:02:39.140 over, check out the show notes at aom.is slash don't make me pull over, all one word. And Rich joins me now

00:02:44.560 via clearcast.io.

00:02:48.620 All right, Rich Rattay, welcome to the show.

00:02:55.080 Thank you, Brett. Thanks for having me.

00:02:56.620 So you have a book of history out on a very important topic that I think gets overlooked

00:03:01.980 because it's part of, I think, almost every single American's upbringing. And that is the

00:03:07.960 road trip. It's called Don't Make Me Pull Over, An Informal History of the Family Road Trip.

00:03:13.440 So, I mean, what was the impetus behind this book? Were you just one day waxing nostalgic about your own

00:03:18.080 road trips as a kid and decided, I want to look into that? What happened there?

00:03:21.380 Well, kind of like that. Shockingly enough, the idea for writing a book about family vacations

00:03:27.880 actually occurred to me while on a family vacation. Now, my dirty little secret is it wasn't a road

00:03:34.340 trip that time. We'd actually flown to that particular destination. But I was sitting on a

00:03:38.880 beach chair, and I looked over at my sons, who were eight years old and six years old at that time.

00:03:44.040 And I got back to thinking about what life was like for me when I was their age and traveling

00:03:49.560 the highways of the 1970s with my own siblings and parents. I'm the youngest of four kids who grew

00:03:56.160 up in near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And it occurred to me how profound those road trip experiences really

00:04:05.140 were to me. And especially, you know, at that impressionable young age of, you know, say around

00:04:10.520 eight or 10 years old, they'd given me many of my fondest childhood memories. They'd broadened my

00:04:16.120 horizons in so many ways, you know, at that age, going to different areas of the country, trying

00:04:21.660 completely different foods, hearing the different ways that people talked, even though we were still,

00:04:27.260 you know, in the same country. And I also realized that those long hours of traveling together

00:04:33.520 really shaped my relationships with my siblings and my parents for really a lifetime. They just,

00:04:40.620 they brought us closer in so many ways. But it also occurred to me at that same time,

00:04:46.160 how little I knew about how this great American road trip experience really came to be. I had very

00:04:52.660 little idea of how America got its roads and its interstate highways, how we got things like

00:04:59.140 eight track tape decks and fuzz busters, why our station wagon had fake wood paneling on the sides.

00:05:06.900 And so when I got back from that trip, I hit the library. I did about a year's worth of research,

00:05:14.320 reading book after book and doing more research online. And I found so many interesting stories and

00:05:21.780 anecdotes and just little, little historical nuggets that I knew I had the stuff to write an

00:05:27.740 interesting book. And so I sat down and spent the next four years writing a book.

00:05:33.200 And I bet you, when you were looking at your son too, you're probably thinking

00:05:36.220 he has never experienced that world and he probably never will either.

00:05:40.540 No, no, that's right. Even though we still take many road trips and I've always traveled,

00:05:46.440 my wife and I have always taken our kids on road trips from, from a very young age,

00:05:51.580 but just the landscape has changed in so many ways. Of course, with the rise of our personal

00:05:57.240 electronic devices and the fact that there's so many more exits with restaurants and service

00:06:03.000 stations, you know, along the interstates these days, it's just not the same. It can never be.

00:06:08.180 Right. Well, so let's get into it. Cause I mean, it's interesting that, you know,

00:06:11.260 you don't think about a history of road trips, but certain things had to have happened for

00:06:16.300 the idea of a road trip to have occurred. And like the first one is, okay, of course cars had to be

00:06:21.760 invented, but the other important aspect of that is like cars had to have something to drive over

00:06:27.280 to do a road trip. So like, when did Americans start thinking of, Hey, let's build roads that not

00:06:35.000 only go within a town or maybe within a state, but go across state lines.

00:06:40.480 So really it wasn't the automobile at all that inspired America to start building better roads.

00:06:45.860 It was the bicycle and specifically the invention of what's called the safety bicycle until the

00:06:52.480 invention of the safety bicycle. We had basically those penny farthings, those high wheeled bicycles

00:06:58.300 with the pedals fixed to a large, you know, a very tall wheel. And they were very dangerous bicycles

00:07:05.100 because if you fell off the perch of those high wheeled bicycles, you were liable to, of course,

00:07:10.360 you don't break an arm, break a collarbone. So really they were strictly the, um, uh, kind of

00:07:15.840 the domain of daring young men who used to ride those, those types of bicycles with the invention

00:07:21.820 of the safety bicycle. All of a sudden the pedals came down and were situated between two equal sized

00:07:28.420 wheels powered by a chain or a treadle. And really the safety bicycle kind of democratized bicycles.

00:07:35.460 It made it safe and easy to use for women, for older folks, and especially kids. And so that

00:07:42.080 inspired a real bicycling boom into the late 1890s and, and, and that era, many of these bicyclists

00:07:49.960 formed bicycling clubs, which petitioned lawmakers to start building better roads so that they could

00:07:57.160 ride these bikes farther out from their cities and, and, you know, enjoy the riding of their bicycles

00:08:02.800 more. This became known as the good roads movement. And then of course, you know, automobiles

00:08:08.780 started coming along in the 1890s as well. They gradually overtook bicycles and popularity.

00:08:14.660 It was the latest new thrill machine, especially for, for some of those daring young male drivers.

00:08:22.280 And so automobile clubs started overtaking bicycling cubs, clubs and popularity, and they kind of

00:08:29.080 assumed the mast, uh, of wanting to, uh, you know, help create these, these better roads in America.

00:08:37.040 So like the first road or highway made for cars, when did that happen?

00:08:44.280 Well, I mean, the first major transcontinental highway was the Lincoln highway, which was the

00:08:50.040 brainchild of a, an entrepreneur and self-made millionaire named Carl Fisher. Um, he had made

00:08:56.660 his money as the head of Presto light headlamps, which were the first gas compressed headlamps

00:09:03.380 used on automobiles. And of course he wanted to promote automobile usage and wanted to get

00:09:10.560 more people interested in buying automobiles in order to support his products. So he came

00:09:16.040 up with the idea of building this transcontinental highway, which he envisioned going from time

00:09:22.260 square in New York city, all the way to San Francisco. And so he called together a number

00:09:27.800 of his friends in the auto industry. He was very well connected, uh, and gathered them for a big

00:09:34.580 dinner party and announced this, this big idea to build a transcontinental highway. He got many of

00:09:41.320 them to contribute money from their companies and out of their own pockets among the early contributors

00:09:47.160 to the Lincoln highway project, or Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson, uh, Theodore Roosevelt,

00:09:53.140 president of Goodyear Frank Sieberling, but still the funds weren't, weren't nearly enough. So he had

00:10:00.700 to eventually come up with another idea as well. That idea was called seedling miles. And basically

00:10:06.880 he used some of the donations that were privately contributed to build improved sections of this

00:10:14.320 highway. And then travelers would be able to motorists would be able to travel over these improved

00:10:20.740 sections and compare them side by side with, you know, the unimproved sections, the dirt roads

00:10:26.760 and see how much better they were. And then this inspired demand by those motorists to enlist their

00:10:33.080 own local leaders to engage in efforts to improve those sections as well. And then connect these seedling

00:10:39.980 miles together into one unified whole. So construction of the Lincoln highway began in 1913. It was hoped

00:10:47.800 that it would be completed in time for the 1915 world's fair in San Francisco. It didn't quite turn out that

00:10:54.720 way. Portions of the Lincoln highway remained unimproved until well into the late 1920s. Of course, there was a

00:11:02.140 very famous crossing of the Lincoln highway by the 1919 motor transport convoy of which a young lieutenant by

00:11:10.600 the name of Dwight D. Eisenhower was a member. This was a huge military, U.S. Army military expedition

00:11:17.240 included 81 vehicles attempting to cross the Lincoln highway. They actually started in Washington, D.C.

00:11:24.460 and connected with the Lincoln highway at Gettysburg. And they just had, they had a devil of a time. It took

00:11:31.940 them well into the, well into the weeks to cross the Lincoln highway. They had to use a part tractor,

00:11:38.340 part truck called a militar to constantly extricate vehicles that were stuck in the mud. They often had

00:11:46.560 to get off the Lincoln highway entirely and cut through farmers fields because they found the going

00:11:53.020 easier. There was a 1916 road guide created by the Lincoln highway association that described any attempt

00:12:01.520 to cross the Lincoln highway, even at that time as something of a sporting proposition. And as a final

00:12:07.600 note of advice to anyone attempting to do so, it encouraged them to not wear new shoes.

00:12:14.980 So, I mean, at this time, so it was rough going and like, this was people who attempted it. They

00:12:19.000 weren't, they weren't taking the Lincoln highway to, you know, go visit some roadside, you know,

00:12:24.600 some attraction or visit grandma or grandpa. These are people who were like basically daredevils.

00:12:29.080 They wanted to see if they could drive a car all the way across. I mean, officially like road

00:12:32.600 tripping in America didn't start with the Lincoln highway. Like when did like to say average Americans

00:12:38.440 families decided, okay, we're going to take to the road to go visit grandma or grandpa in another

00:12:45.360 state, or we're going to go to a national park. Like when did that start happening? Was it like not

00:12:50.680 till the thirties or forties?

00:12:51.840 It was actually really in the 1920s. And that was when there was a craze called auto camping.

00:12:58.000 And really what made auto camping possible was Henry Ford and his mass production, which really

00:13:02.720 brought the price of cars down and within reach of average, you know, middle-class Americans.

00:13:09.440 And really all auto camping was, was trespassing with a car. You would be traveling along a back

00:13:15.180 road. And when night fell, you would simply pull over at the side of the road where there was a nice

00:13:20.020 clearing or just a farmer's field. And you would pull a tent out of the back of your truck or just

00:13:25.120 sleep in the car. Of course, this wore out its welcome with property owners along those roadways

00:13:31.080 pretty quickly. People, you know, squatting on their property at night and squatting in their bushes in

00:13:35.960 the morning. So municipalities began to set up their own campsites where, where these travelers could

00:13:42.480 set up a camp and stay the night. Other entrepreneurs saw how popular that these municipal campsites

00:13:48.500 were becoming. So they set up what were called cabin camps, which were just, you know, little

00:13:54.680 campsites with huts and very spare amenities, a stove, you know, a heater in there, maybe a mattress

00:14:01.960 where some of these travelers could stay the night. Gradually, these cabin camps kind of evolved into

00:14:08.780 more formal buildings, motor courts, and eventually then into the early motels.

00:14:14.080 We get the motel. I imagine the development of Route 66 sort of brought driving even further

00:14:20.720 into the mainstream.

00:14:22.480 Yeah, Route 66 was built predominantly during the 1930s. And in large part, as many of our highways

00:14:29.860 were during the 1930s, it was built as a work program under the Franklin Delano Roosevelt

00:14:37.540 administration. Of course, it was kind of a jobs program to get and keep people working during the

00:14:42.880 Great Depression.

00:14:44.020 So, and then along this, they started building. And the thing that we got to point out too is that,

00:14:48.020 okay, the roads were there, but there was like no infrastructure, like except for a few, maybe

00:14:52.740 municipal camps, maybe a few motels. But like, unlike today where there's, you know, roads,

00:15:00.000 an exit every 10 miles, they didn't have that. Like what'd they do for gas? What'd they do for,

00:15:05.880 like, did you have to like prepare and like really plot out and be, I don't know, strategic

00:15:10.380 about planning a road trip back in the day?

00:15:12.480 Oh, absolutely. You would commonly have gas cans with you that would have spare gas. Of course,

00:15:18.180 the only place that you could really find gas was in towns and at general stores or farm supply

00:15:25.900 stores that would commonly have gas, of course, for farmers and their tractors. But it was very

00:15:32.580 unpredictable where you might be able to find a diner to stop at to eat, where you would find a place to

00:15:39.060 stay. So, you know, you had to be much more self-reliant and prepared to deal with the

00:15:44.920 unpredictable anytime you traveled, certainly in any of the days prior to the interstates.

00:15:50.740 Right. And the development of the interstates, that happened after World War II. So I guess there

00:15:54.540 was like a lull in driving because there was rationing going on during World War II. And then

00:16:00.160 after the war, big boom in car production. Like we took all this, you know, this arsenal of

00:16:05.760 democracy built up and just unleashed it on consumer products. Tons of cars rolling off

00:16:10.580 the conveyor belts. And then also, of course, we have the interstate system that was developed

00:16:15.600 during the 1950s and 1960s. And I thought it was interesting, like we often think of, you know,

00:16:20.100 interstates being associated with the era of Eisenhower. That's where it got its genesis,

00:16:23.340 but it really, it didn't get finished until the 1980s, which I found really surprising.

00:16:28.660 Yeah. Amazingly, the interstates, of course, were begun in 1956. Originally, it was thought that

00:16:35.760 cost about $30 billion and take 10 years to build.

00:16:40.720 I love the optimism.

00:16:42.200 It goes without saying that those projections were slightly off. I think in the end, it took

00:16:46.960 about $130 billion to build the interstates. And of course, construction of the interstates did,

00:16:53.140 as you mentioned, last into the 1980s, it turned out to be the most expensive peacetime project in

00:16:59.140 history.

00:16:59.540 Yeah. And they're still working on it, right? I mean, even today, I think I-35

00:17:04.920 has been, had construction going on. That's from like, you know, goes through Texas and Oklahoma.

00:17:10.340 That's been, I think since like-

00:17:11.360 Right. Well, I mean, from the time they were first built, the interstates were really only

00:17:14.700 constructed to last about 20 to 30 years. So really, we've been rebuilding the highways even

00:17:21.260 before they were completed, you know, in the 1980s. So it has been a one long road project, I guess.

00:17:28.120 Right. So the interstate system, that really, that kicked off, I think, the road tripping

00:17:33.240 boom. Because you had lots of Americans driving cars, lots of Americans with vacation time,

00:17:38.220 with disposable income. And we've got this big, shiny interstate system that can take you from,

00:17:43.900 you know, one end of the country, either north or south, or east to west.

00:17:48.500 Yeah. And the interstates really, I mean, they fundamentally changed America, right? Because

00:17:53.200 they were a highway system that was built, you know, exclusively for high-speed travel. They,

00:17:58.820 for the first time, you had super highways that eliminated intersections via overpasses and

00:18:04.880 underpasses. Of course, most of them were built to be four-lane with broad shoulders. They were

00:18:10.260 restricted spaces. So you weren't liable to get stuck behind a tractor or a wagon being pulled by a

00:18:17.700 horse or anything like that. And they greatly reduced the travel times that it took to cross

00:18:23.500 the country. So they made America a much smaller place. For the first time, all these destinations

00:18:30.320 that people could, or that people once could only read about in newspapers and magazines,

00:18:35.680 now they could suddenly travel to, given ownership of a car, a few days off and a few dollars for

00:18:42.540 gasoline. And an entire family could travel almost as cheaply as one person. So it made America a much

00:18:50.100 smaller place. So we got the highway systems and more people were taking to the roads. But even

00:18:56.200 during this time, there weren't the like rest, there weren't like the gas stations or the, you know,

00:19:01.740 sort of mega corporate chain gas stations that we have today that are just there, like we said,

00:19:07.180 every 10, 10 miles, 20 miles. When you planned a road trip back in the 60s into the 70s,

00:19:15.140 like you had to think about, okay, I got it. I'm going to start here at seven, you know, at this,

00:19:20.960 this time I've got, I know I got this much gas, I can make it to, you know, this destination.

00:19:26.020 So like when, tell us, walk us through like the development of the infrastructure, like what did

00:19:30.840 planners think about and when they're developing the highways to ensure, you know,

00:19:36.820 travelers weren't stranded on the freeway by themselves in the middle of nowhere?

00:19:42.120 Yeah. Well, I, first of all, one of the big things that they planned to be as part of the

00:19:46.380 interstates were what were called the safety rest areas, you know, or what we just simply call today

00:19:52.320 rest areas. Of course, the purpose of these rest areas was to give motorists a place to pull over

00:19:58.280 without leaving the restricted space of the highway. It was a place for them to be able to fix their

00:20:04.080 cars in the event of mechanical breakdowns. It was also to offer families a place to,

00:20:09.800 you know, pull off the road and have a picnic and take a break from the hardships of driving.

00:20:15.600 Of course, all the rest areas offer, offered restrooms, you know, for, for, for families to

00:20:21.040 use for that purpose. And there was also a kiosk where families or especially the driver's dads could

00:20:27.220 go look for directions so that they, they knew, you know, how to proceed along the interstates.

00:20:34.140 Gradually over time, the rest areas also became, they kind of developed a role in public relations

00:20:40.500 as well, because one of the things that the interstates did, of course, I mean, prior to the

00:20:45.240 interstates, you traveled on two lane highways, which took you through every town and city along the

00:20:50.960 way. You got kind of a, a taste for different areas of the country. You traveled relatively slowly

00:20:57.060 through these areas. So you got to see the, the cities around you. You got to see the products

00:21:03.860 that they made. You got to see the food they served. You got a taste of the local culture.

00:21:08.900 And what interstates did is they really avoided taking motorists into those small towns. And they

00:21:16.460 really kind of isolated motorists from the countryside around them. So what local communities began to do

00:21:23.600 in order to give motorists a taste of their local culture is they started turning these rest areas

00:21:29.280 into almost public ambassadors. And they would, they would set up plaques in these areas to tell

00:21:36.500 those who stopped at the rest areas about historic events that had taken place in the area, or they

00:21:42.780 would create elaborate murals out of tiles inside the buildings that describe some of these events or,

00:21:49.600 gave people an idea of the products that were manufactured in that particular area. So they

00:21:56.500 really began to, to fill a vital role in public relations for many of these small communities.

00:22:02.000 And of course it was also, they also, that was also reflected in the design of many of these rest area

00:22:09.140 buildings as well. They used locally sourced materials, timber and brick and stone that were specific

00:22:17.200 to that area of the country. Some of these buildings were built in the shape of teepees or oil

00:22:23.680 guernseys, things of that nature that reflected the, the local industry. So these rest areas really took

00:22:31.520 on kind of a role in public relations for, for many of these communities. Many of those, those classic

00:22:38.120 rest areas are now starting to disappear. There's just not the need for them anymore as our, our cars have

00:22:44.060 gotten more reliable. Uh, you know, we don't have to stop and, and, uh, have rest areas to fix our cars

00:22:49.960 anymore. We don't need to stop and look for directions because we have those on our, on our GPS systems or on

00:22:56.780 our smartphones. And of course there's, there's many more restaurants and exits with restaurants and service

00:23:03.440 stations for us to get off and use the restrooms. And we don't need to, to use rest areas for that purpose 0.91

00:23:10.180 anymore. So unfortunately many of those classic great rest areas are starting to disappear from

00:23:15.520 our landscape.

00:23:16.080 Yeah. I was noticing that I took a trip to New Mexico this like a couple of weeks ago. And I noticed

00:23:22.260 some of the rest stops that I'd stopped at as a kid, they were closed up and like they started,

00:23:28.040 they were taking down the structures that were there. And I was like, man, that's, that's a, it's a,

00:23:31.860 it's an end of an era there. And I mean, into your point about the food things, I remember we stopped

00:23:36.100 at those not only to go pee and just play around, but like, I remember my folks, we, part of getting

00:23:40.780 ready for a big road trip is we'd pack a cooler full of food, maybe some, you know, sandwich meats,

00:23:46.260 some bread, and we'd stop and we'd have a picnic at one of these things. But you know, nowadays you

00:23:51.220 can just stop at a, a loves or whatever and get, you know, a Southwest egg roll and, uh, be on your

00:23:57.560 way in, in 10 minutes.

00:23:59.120 Yeah. Those exits are simply much more frequent now and, you know, places to stop and, and eat are,

00:24:04.600 are much easier to find in the 1970s. And, and especially, you know, of course, before then

00:24:10.020 setting off on a family road trip was much more like, uh, uh, setting off on an, on an expedition

00:24:16.420 into the wild frontier. You didn't know when you were going to find those exits with the service

00:24:21.340 stations and you couldn't always count on restaurants and you couldn't count on finding

00:24:25.220 gas stations as frequently. So you, you did have to be prepared and take things like picnic lunches with

00:24:32.280 you. We're going to take a quick break for you. Wordsmore sponsors.

00:24:34.600 All right. We've talked about on the podcast and also on the website, every man should have

00:24:37.460 at least one suit in their wardrobe because you're going to wear this to job interviews,

00:24:41.260 weddings, funerals, or any event where a suit is required. Now you can buy off the rack and you

00:24:46.740 know, you can get a good suit, but it's not going to fit you just right. Even if you tailor

00:24:49.920 because there's certain parts of an off the rack suit, you can't tailor it. If you want a suit

00:24:52.680 that fits you just perfectly like a glove, you got to go made to measure. I probably think

00:24:56.040 in Brett made to measure is going to cost me an arm and a leg. Not so with Indochino and 1.00

00:24:59.480 Indochino.com. You can get a made to measure suit and customize it however you want and

00:25:03.300 pay about the same price as you would for an off the rack suit at a department store.

00:25:07.020 Here's how it works. You go to Indochino.com. You customize your suit however you want.

00:25:10.260 You want, you pick the fabric color, the type of fabric, how your jacket looks, how the lapels

00:25:14.180 look on your jacket, how the pockets look, pants, pleats, no pleats, cuff, no cuff, customize

00:25:18.300 it however you want. And then you follow their easy to follow video measuring guide.

00:25:22.260 You measure yourself, might need someone to help you out with some of the parts. You send them

00:25:25.640 in and in a few weeks, you got a made to measure suit sent directly to your door. It's fantastic.

00:25:29.820 I did this. Got a navy blue suit. Looks great. Fits great. I love it. If you want to try this

00:25:33.740 out, got a special offer for my podcast listeners, go to Indochino.com. And when you enter code

00:25:38.620 manliness at checkout, you can get any premium Indochino suit for just $379. That's over 50%

00:25:43.960 off the rate of the price for a premium made to measure suit. Plus shipping is free. Again,

00:25:48.040 that's Indochino.com promo code manliness to get any premium suit for just $379 plus free shipping.

00:25:53.740 Also by Casper. Casper is a sleep brand that continues to revolutionize its line of products

00:25:58.280 to create an exceptionally comfortable sleep experience one night at a time with three

00:26:01.920 mattress models, the original Casper, the wave, and the essential Casper mattresses are perfectly

00:26:06.180 designed to soothe and cradle your natural geometry. Not to mention the breathable design

00:26:10.140 helps you sleep cool and regulate your body temperature throughout the night. And it's

00:26:13.360 delivered right to your door in a small, how do they do that size box with free shipping

00:26:17.540 returns in the U S and Canada. But the best part is that you can be sure of your purchase

00:26:21.400 with Casper's 100 night risk-free sleep on it trial. Yes, you can send it, bring it to

00:26:25.860 your home, sleep on it for a hundred nights. If you don't like it, you can return it. After

00:26:29.180 all, you spend one third of your life sleeping. So you should be comfortable. Our producer Jeremy

00:26:32.900 has a Casper mattress and him and his wife both report sleeping longer, deeper, less fitfully.

00:26:37.740 They don't even notice each other tossing and turning the night like they used to. Now,

00:26:40.500 if you'd like a discount on this, got an offer for you. You get $50 towards select mattresses

00:26:45.660 by visiting casper.com slash manliness and use code manliness at checkout. Again,

00:26:50.200 $50 toward select mattresses by visiting casper.com slash manliness and using code manliness terms

00:26:55.780 and conditions apply. And now back to the show. So one of the businesses that started because of

00:27:03.000 more Americans taking road trips, thanks to the interstate highway system. One that I'm familiar

00:27:08.700 with because I saw them all the time on road trips I took as a kid is Stucky's. Tell us about

00:27:14.340 the precipitous rise of Stucky's and their tragic fall.

00:27:18.880 Yes. Well, Stucky's was started by a gentleman by the name of Williamson Bill Stucky in the 1930s.

00:27:27.020 He was a pecan farmer and he found himself with a bumper crop of pecans one year. So he figured,

00:27:33.700 okay, I'm going to go out to the highway and just set up a roadside stand and sell some of these

00:27:38.180 extra pecans that I have here to all these motorists that I see passing by the highway in front of me.

00:27:44.340 And he attracted quite a few motorists. They loved picking up his pecans pretty soon. He sent his

00:27:50.560 wife into the kitchen to make some desserts with these pecans so that people would have more of a 1.00

00:27:56.320 reason to stop. And so she came up with all these pecan desserts with pecan pies and pecan divinities 0.99

00:28:04.540 and whatnot. And it became a very popular stand. So soon he added on a restaurant, you know, aspect to

00:28:13.220 it and a souvenir shop as well. His Stucky's grew in popularity and he had a very distinctive strategy

00:28:21.480 for placing or locating each one of his new Stucky's that he added onto his chain. He started out in

00:28:29.520 Atlanta, which was the biggest city near where his farm was. And he had essentially a big gulp drink

00:28:35.960 and he would sip on this drink and drive out along the interstate. And when he felt nature's urge,

00:28:42.860 he would pull off to the side of the road and get out his roadmap and make a little mark on his map

00:28:49.020 where, you know, he had to, uh, uh, respond to that urge. And then he would get back to driving,

00:28:55.540 drive further down the road until he felt, you know, when he needed to go again and he'd make

00:29:00.480 another X there. And those would become the locations for each one of his Stucky's because he

00:29:05.400 felt, you know, other drivers would, would, uh, be having that same experience. And I guess that explains

00:29:11.100 why Stucky's always had very clean restrooms too. Now, the thing with Stucky's is they would always 1.00

00:29:18.700 have multiple, multiple billboards, up to 50 billboards for each Stucky's location.

00:29:25.100 Bill Stucky was a, uh, you know, a big believer in putting out these billboards to promote, uh, his,

00:29:31.240 his locations and, and get people to stop. And that worked, uh, well and good until Stucky started

00:29:36.960 going out of business in mass in the late 1970s, mainly because of the rise of the real fast food

00:29:43.360 restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's and their convenient drive-through service. Pretty soon,

00:29:49.180 you know, motorists wanted to just stop and, or barely even stop. They wanted to drive through and

00:29:54.120 pick up their meals and keep going rather than go inside a Stucky's and have a sit down meal at a

00:30:00.080 Stucky's. So Stucky's started going out of business, uh, in mass, but those billboards remained and that

00:30:06.860 used to get my family into real problems because we would be cruising along. And my dad was one of

00:30:13.500 those dads that was a big believer in making time. He wanted to get to whatever that day's destination

00:30:19.880 was in whatever, you know, time, whatever time was humanly possible, you know? So if that meant, you

00:30:27.620 know, not stopping for meals, that was okay with him. If it meant ignoring our pleas to, to get over and

00:30:33.920 use the restroom, that was okay with him. But he would also stretch every tank full of gas to the

00:30:40.400 bitter limit. And we would see these Stucky's billboards saying, hey, great food, get gas, next Stucky's,

00:30:47.240 you know, 15 miles. So we would be kind of running on fumes as we're trying to leg it out to the next

00:30:52.820 Stucky's, following these billboards one after the other. Yep, you know, get gas at Stucky's. And we would

00:30:58.880 follow the billboard to the Stucky's location. Of course, we'd find that they had gone out of business and

00:31:03.620 then, of course, we were in a bit of a situation at that point with an empty tank and, you know,

00:31:09.780 unable to get any gas at a closed Stucky's. Did you guys run out of gas frequently on your

00:31:14.960 family road trips? You know, we, in the end, we did not. My dad, his thing was, he believed in his

00:31:23.900 heart of hearts that automobile engineers calibrated fuel gauges so that when the low fuel light came on

00:31:30.980 or the needle went to E, that there was still 40 miles worth of gas left in the tank. And this was

00:31:38.300 a theory that he put to the test many, many times. And his favorite gambit was the small town up ahead

00:31:45.320 with extra bonus. So, you know, the low fuel light would come on and my mom would, you know, kind of 0.72

00:31:51.960 be urging him, hey, Chuck, you know, it's time to get off the interstate now. Let's get some gas.

00:31:57.060 And he'd say, oh, you know, I think I know of another town down the road here, you know,

00:32:01.540 Dyersville or Bumbleburg or whatever, you know, kind of desperate sounding small town name that

00:32:07.600 he could come up with. And we would pass the exit, you know, with the clearly marked signs to a nice

00:32:14.500 Sinclair gas station where we could have filled up. And we'd continue on to try and get to Dyersville

00:32:19.720 or Bumbleburg. And of course, pretty soon we'd pass a sign listing the town that he had referenced.

00:32:25.780 And it would say, you know, it's 35 miles away. So we had many anxious moments where we were like

00:32:32.720 a tennis crowd, you know, shifting our heads from the gas gauge to the road ahead to the gas gauge

00:32:39.760 to the road ahead, looking for some sign of civilization down the interstate that there was

00:32:44.660 a gas station coming up. And more often than not, we actually made it to that small town and our

00:32:51.160 salvation until a rainy dark night in Arkansas. And I believe 1975 or 1976, when our car suddenly

00:33:01.780 started sputtering and we lost the power steering and sure enough, we were out of gas. And so my dad,

00:33:09.240 you know, pulled over to the side of the road and wound up having to hitchhike to the next exit. And

00:33:13.500 forever after that, he would have to listen to my mom when she said it was time to get gas.

00:33:18.040 Yeah. No, I, uh, I think on my one family road trip, we ran out of gas once or my dad had to

00:33:24.720 hitchhike into town and get a can of gas. I mean, that was kind of interesting, you know,

00:33:28.260 throughout the, you know, besides giving the formal history of, of road trips in America,

00:33:32.540 you, you wove in vignettes from your own family history of road trips. And I thought it was

00:33:37.080 interesting because I saw this in my own family, the dynamics, like the role of dad in road trip.

00:33:42.240 He's sort of like this, he was like a captain of an, of an expedition, right? Cause like I remember

00:33:47.340 being out there when we ran out of gas, it was like, there's no cell phones, there's no payphone

00:33:52.180 nearby. And like, it was like mom and dad having to take care of three kids in the middle of nowhere.

00:33:59.200 And I can imagine like now being a parent, like how like kind of, you know, frightening that would

00:34:04.200 be, you're in the middle of nowhere and you, you, what do you do in that situation?

00:34:07.900 Yeah. As you pointed out, I mean, my dad was very much captain of, of the ship and, you know,

00:34:13.120 we, we, we drove these big land yachts. So I guess it was appropriate to call him the captain,

00:34:18.120 but my dad did 90% of the driving. As I mentioned, his thing was, was making time. He wanted to get

00:34:25.280 to whatever that destination for the day was as fast as possible. I know other fathers, you know,

00:34:31.120 enjoyed stopping at every historic landmark along the way and stopping at all the great roadside

00:34:36.200 attractions along the way. My dad was not that type. He just wanted to get to whatever

00:34:41.700 destination that he set for us for that day as quickly as possible. Of course, once we got

00:34:47.220 to the motels, he was the ultimate price negotiator, I guess, you know, he would always give them some

00:34:53.820 sob story about, you know, how times were tough for middle-class families out traveling in the 1970s

00:35:00.600 and those tough economic times and try to, to haggle them down to get the, their, their best

00:35:06.020 price that they were, would be willing to give him. Or he got them to throw in rollaway beds for

00:35:11.700 my sister and I at no extra charge. So yeah, he was very much kind of the engine of our family road

00:35:18.980 trips where my mom was much more of the steering wheel kind of trying to keep us guided in the right 1.00

00:35:23.920 direction and kind of look out for the concerns of us kids as well.

00:35:26.900 So you mentioned your dad not stopping at roadside attraction. My dad was one of those make time

00:35:31.160 guys. And I'm always like, I, even then I was like, what are we making time? Like we're going

00:35:34.860 to get there and we're not going to do anything for, I mean, it's like, why, why, what's the rush?

00:35:39.280 But anyways, every now and then he would throw us a bone and we would stop at some crazy roadside

00:35:44.320 attraction because I saw the billboard for something like the one that I was pretty excited

00:35:49.460 about was the hole in the wall, just someplace in Utah. Some guy built his house inside of

00:35:55.600 like a mountain. And it was pretty cool because the bath that was like carved into stone. It was

00:36:00.720 really neat. But like you talk about, this is another part of like the road trip economy that

00:36:06.360 built up as more and more Americans started taking to the roads, like these crazy roadside attractions.

00:36:11.540 Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, you know, many private entrepreneurs saw this road travel boom going on,

00:36:18.440 saw all these motorists hitting the highways. So they came up with their own attractions to try and

00:36:23.740 entice people to get to stop over and spend some money. Among the most notable early ones were the

00:36:30.580 mystery spot in Santa Cruz, California. That was a place where, you know, supposedly the laws of

00:36:36.320 physics meant nothing. And you were led out to this, to this cabin on a, on a hillside and the ball

00:36:42.960 bearings appeared to roll uphill and people would have to stand at all these odd angles. And it looked like

00:36:50.360 they should be falling over, but they were able to, you know, to somehow maintain their balance and

00:36:55.480 stand up. And of course, all the guy had done was build a cockeyed cabin onto the side of a, of a

00:37:01.700 hillside. And there was no visible horizon for people to be able to reference. So it was all an optical

00:37:07.840 illusion, but it gained a lot of notoriety. It was featured in Life Magazine and in several television

00:37:14.120 shows and it became world famous. Another famous one was the thing in Texas Canyon, Arizona, where

00:37:21.400 there were all these billboards for hundreds of miles leading into this, not even a small town. It

00:37:27.100 was just a, you know, a roadside stop in Texas Canyon, Arizona. But these billboards would ask, you know,

00:37:32.940 what is the thing or come see the amazing thing. And, you know, I won't give away what the thing actually

00:37:41.380 was, but it was, but you know, obviously, you know, they were successful in getting a lot of families

00:37:47.780 to stop there. Down in the South, of course, they had many alligator farms trying to get you to, you 0.99

00:37:54.180 know, stop off and look at dozens of alligators and large pythons and whatnot that were kept in these

00:38:00.820 roadside farms. You also had all of these world's largest statues here in Wisconsin. You, we had the

00:38:07.640 world's largest muskie. There were multiple world's largest frying pans. I think at one point, there

00:38:13.600 were six contenders for that. There was a bunch of world's largest chairs, you know, world's largest

00:38:19.220 office chair, rocking chair, right down the line. There was even a world's largest bull weevil statue

00:38:25.460 in Enterprise, Louisiana. And of course, I think many of us have heard of the largest balls of twine,

00:38:32.040 right? And for years, for actually decades, there were two competitors for that title,

00:38:37.460 one in Darwin, Minnesota, and another in Cawker City, Kansas. And they competed back and forth for

00:38:44.020 decades for the true title holder of the world's largest ball of twine. Personally, one of my

00:38:50.720 favorites is the one that I discovered on a road trip with my family just a few years ago when we made

00:38:55.740 that classic American excursion out to Mount Rushmore. And we stopped off at the Minuteman Missile

00:39:01.820 Historic Site in South Dakota, where you can still see decommissioned Minuteman missiles in

00:39:07.480 their silos, just like they were during, you know, the Cold War of the 1970s and 80s. And I thought it

00:39:13.920 was just a fantastic museum out there. It's actually at the same exit that you get off of I-90 to go

00:39:20.340 visit the Badlands out there. But that became one of my all-time favorite roadside stops, I guess.

00:39:26.420 Another aspect of road tripping that's changed, that's no longer the case, is entertainment. Now people

00:39:33.140 have iPads, iPhones, whatever, games, you know, Nintendo Switches. But back in the day, when you were a kid

00:39:40.320 on a road trip, you had to really think about how you're going to entertain yourself for possibly eight

00:39:46.200 hours, nine hours in the car. So, I mean, tell us about the sort of the brief history of road trip

00:39:52.300 entertainment that you uncovered. Yeah, well, I mean, obviously, back then, it was much more of an

00:39:57.680 interactive experience, right? You were a family traveling together, and you had no one but each

00:40:04.660 other in order to pass the time with. And so, many families would play those great family road travel

00:40:11.240 games like license plate bingo and the alphabet game and 20 questions. One of my family's favorite

00:40:18.840 activities was to play Mad Libs, which are, you know, they're still around to this day. But my mom would also 0.91

00:40:24.680 keep something at her feet, which we affectionately came to call the game bag. And that was filled with all

00:40:32.480 sorts of games and activities like those plastic mazes where you'd have to navigate a small ball bearing, you

00:40:39.880 know, through a maze to get it to an end point. Or there'd be the magic slate writing pad where you used a

00:40:46.920 plastic stylus to write on a gray sheet of plastic. And then you could lift up that sheet and it would

00:40:54.240 erase whatever you'd drawn so that you could make a new drawing over it. Or there was Wooly Wooly,

00:41:00.060 which was a cartoon character beneath a plastic bubble. And you used a magnet to guide black metal

00:41:07.600 shavings over Wooly Wooly's face in order to create mustaches and beards. Or I'd always create an

00:41:13.820 afro on top of Wooly Wooly. We'd have those yes and no invisible ink games where you'd have these

00:41:20.340 invisible ink pens to play games of hangman or reveal mines, you know, in a minefield as you try to

00:41:29.900 navigate your ship safely through this minefield. And one of my favorite activities was one of the

00:41:35.680 first handheld electronic games. That was Mattel electronic football, which became an enormously

00:41:43.260 popular game. It was really, you know, it was, like I said, the first of the handheld electronic

00:41:48.060 games. And today, if you look at it, I mean, it's an absolutely primitive device. The game screen was

00:41:53.820 about the size of a stick of gum. You were a running back that was represented by a bright red dash.

00:42:00.700 And I think you had one other blocker that was a red dash in front of you. And you would try to

00:42:05.780 elude tacklers as you made your way towards the end zone. These tacklers were simply slightly

00:42:11.700 dimmer red dashes. So the only thing to distinguish the offensive player and the defensive player was

00:42:17.940 how bright the dash was. Well, you, you try and, you know, elude these tacklers and get to the end

00:42:23.580 zone. And as primitive as it was, it was incredibly fun, incredibly addictive. In fact, it was named one

00:42:29.620 of Time Magazine's all time 100 devices. And so I spent many hours passing time just doing that. But,

00:42:38.380 you know, most of these activities that you played in the car were very much shared experiences. And,

00:42:44.620 and that was really the thing about road travel is, you know, you had to deal with your fellow

00:42:50.420 family members for those long hours on the road, you could have fun with them, you could fight with

00:42:55.400 them. And Lord knows, we had plenty of fights in my family. But in the end, all that interaction and

00:43:00.760 all those experiences, all those discoveries that you made together, all the challenges and adversity

00:43:06.040 that you faced out on the highways together, those brought you closer together as a family.

00:43:11.740 Right. Yeah. Passing gas. That was...

00:43:13.700 Yeah. Right. Yeah. Whoever smelt it, dealt it.

00:43:17.500 Whoever smelt it, dealt it. Right. No. Yeah. The, the invisible link thing that brought back

00:43:22.120 some memories because I remember buying those at Stucky's along with some sort of, they always

00:43:26.540 sold like in New Mexico. It was always like some sort of like, you know, chintzy Native American, 1.00

00:43:31.520 you know, fake Native American stuff, like Indian drums that I thought were pretty cool.

00:43:35.820 But I knew it.

00:43:36.420 Those dream catchers.

00:43:37.860 Yeah. Dream catchers.

00:43:39.240 And drums that you would bang on with the, you know, with the little sticks, right?

00:43:43.220 Yeah. Your dad would go crazy and tell you to stop it or he's going to turn around.

00:43:47.320 Right.

00:43:47.840 So it was family, it was very interactive at the time. You'd have to talk and interact with

00:43:52.100 your siblings. You would get in fights sometimes and then your mom would turn around and like put

00:43:57.640 some sort of barrier between you so you wouldn't like mess with each other. Yeah. Or you, you take

00:44:03.300 some tape to draw the line between, you know, siblings when one was touching the other too much

00:44:08.700 or somebody had their foot, you know, too far on the other guy's side. And, you know, especially

00:44:15.160 for me, you know, I was in the backseat with two much older teenage brothers. So I finally gave up

00:44:21.480 trying to fight for my space on the backseat entirely. And I'd either retreat to the floorboard

00:44:26.580 where I'd have to deal with that big, you know, transmission housing, the big hump, you're right

00:44:31.460 on the floor. Right. Right. It always made it impossible to get into a comfortable position

00:44:36.120 to sleep. Or my favorite position would be up on the rear window shelf, you know, where I could

00:44:41.480 spread out underneath the slanted rear window and just kind of enjoy the sunshine coming in,

00:44:47.640 of course, through the antenna that was built right into the glass.

00:44:51.100 Yeah. That wouldn't fly today. You would be, your parents would be ticketed.

00:44:54.980 No. Yeah. The times have definitely changed. But back then, I mean, I can vividly remember

00:44:59.640 being up on that rear window shelf and there'd be a highway patrol officer pulling up alongside

00:45:05.020 of us and I'd wave over at him and, you know, he'd just tip his hat in return. Either that

00:45:10.680 or I'd be in the back in the rear facing, you know, pop-up seat of our Ford Country Squire

00:45:16.700 station wagon that I think was mandatory that every family own, at least, you know, at some point

00:45:22.260 during the 1970s. And I'd be back there and I'd have my own little private fort kind of set up,

00:45:27.920 you know, and I'd have my stash of candy with my candy cigarettes. And you should have seen some of

00:45:32.800 the looks that I would get from people passing us by on the highway as they're looking over at this

00:45:37.600 eight or 10-year-old kid with a, you know, what looked to be a lucky strike sticking out of his

00:45:42.680 mouth when it was just my, you know, my little candy cigarette back there.

00:45:45.820 So in your book, you make the case that the sort of the golden age of the road trip,

00:45:51.120 of the great American road trip was the 1970s. And then after that, it started fading. What changed?

00:45:57.820 Well, it was really deregulation of the airlines in 1978 under the Carter administration that was

00:46:03.920 really the beginning of the end of the golden era of family road trips. Until then, air travel had

00:46:10.380 just been prohibitively expensive, especially for families with lots of kids. Airfares were three

00:46:16.460 to eight times the price that we would pay today. And so once the airlines were deregulated, it created

00:46:22.980 a much more competitive environment between the national carriers. You saw airfares come way down

00:46:29.060 in price. And pretty soon, families started parking their cars and wanted to take advantage of the

00:46:36.080 the convenience. And of course, the quick way to get to their family vacation destinations by getting

00:46:42.920 on airplanes. Within 10 years of deregulation of the airlines, the number of flyers in America

00:46:48.420 doubled. Today, it's triple what it was in the 1970s before deregulation. And, you know, of course,

00:46:55.780 you know, soon after deregulation, there were just, there were far more flights to far more

00:47:00.060 destinations and families wanted to take advantage of that. And that really spelled the end of the,

00:47:05.960 the golden era of the family road trip. But what do you think we're missing out by taking the plane

00:47:11.260 instead of the car to get to wherever we're going for vacation? Well, I mean, I think we've,

00:47:16.420 we've kind of lost the idea that the journey is in a way its own destination, right? We've kind of lost

00:47:22.900 some of that great opportunity that we once had to spend time together as families to interact with

00:47:29.740 each other to share discoveries, you know, even by stopping off at roadside attractions or discovering

00:47:36.980 great scenery or historic landmarks along the way that we may not have anticipated. And even some of

00:47:42.900 those occasions of overcoming adversity together, because if you suffered a mechanical breakdown on

00:47:48.980 the highways of the 1970s, I mean, families were, were kind of on their own, right? I mean, help wasn't

00:47:54.080 just a simple phone call on a cell phone away. You either had to find a way to repair the car

00:48:00.940 yourself or to hitch a ride to the next exit or find help in some way. And so I think there was

00:48:07.040 definitely a feeling back then that, that, that families were, were in it together. And all of

00:48:13.260 those things, I think kind of brought us closer. When we started getting on, on airplanes, we kind of

00:48:18.520 eliminated, eliminated that, that journey. It all became about instant gratification and getting

00:48:24.180 to that final destination as quickly as possible. So, you know, I, I lament the idea that we've kind

00:48:30.060 of left the, the journey behind. Do you still, do you try to take road trips or are you, is your

00:48:35.140 family an airplane family? No, absolutely. We still take road trips. We may not take the, the, the

00:48:41.660 lengthy trips that we took when I was growing up. I think we've stayed a little bit closer to home

00:48:47.540 for the most part, but I live in the Milwaukee area. We'll make long weekend trips, maybe four

00:48:53.340 or five days to go to St. Louis. One of our favorite recent discoveries has been the Henry

00:48:58.100 Ford museum in Detroit. And so we've gone there multiple times, but I've also made up for some

00:49:05.020 lost time. Now, when I was growing up, my dad was an avid golfer. So the point of many of our family

00:49:10.500 road trips was to get my father out of the Wisconsin winter and down to a warm, sunny golf course in the

00:49:16.800 south as fast as humanly possible. So we would particularly travel during the winter months

00:49:23.200 over Christmas break and spring break. And we would travel to the destinations predominantly along

00:49:28.320 the Gulf coast, maybe in the new Orleans area, the Florida panhandle, but almost always east of the

00:49:34.220 Mississippi river. So when my wife and kids and I do take road trips these days, it's predominantly to

00:49:41.400 the west. We've been out to Yellowstone park to Mount Rushmore, and we've just had some fantastic road

00:49:47.900 trip experiences. So I think it is possible to, to keep those, those road trips alive. And, and we do

00:49:54.200 very much make those road trips shared experiences and spend lots of quality time talking to each other

00:50:01.360 and dealing with each other and, and, you know, just recreating those magical experiences that I so

00:50:07.840 fondly remember from when I traveled the highways of the 1970s with my own parents and siblings.

00:50:13.700 And one thing I've noticed, I actually enjoy, there was a time where like I preferred flying,

00:50:18.460 but I, since I guess 9-11 and sort of the uptick in security and it's just like driving is just,

00:50:26.100 I feel so nice. I feel like I'm in charge, right? When you, when you go to the airport,

00:50:30.080 as soon as you enter the airport, like you feel like I am no longer, I no longer have any autonomy.

00:50:34.620 I'm just going to do whatever I have to do to get on this plane. But like, when you get in the car,

00:50:39.480 like no one knows where you're at. You can pull off at a, you know, a convenience store and take

00:50:45.580 your time, get out, wander around, get back in. Like there's no, and it just, it feels so good.

00:50:51.780 I don't know something about the freedom of the open road. It feels amazing.

00:50:55.260 And there is significant evidence that millennials and especially young millennial parents

00:50:59.840 are coming back to road trips in vast numbers. I saw a recent study that said in 2016, that 39%

00:51:07.760 of all family vacations were taken by road trip. And that was up 16% over just the previous year.

00:51:14.980 I think it's a sign, um, millennials in particular and, and, uh, people as a whole are getting fed up

00:51:21.780 with air travel. Obviously airfares have gone up in price. There's many more unexpected delays

00:51:27.900 and cancellations. You're shoehorned into these, you know, impossibly small seats. You can't bring

00:51:33.600 your own drinks with you into the airport. Uh, so I think people are becoming disenchanted with

00:51:39.940 air travel and they're looking for alternatives and they're turning back to road travel for the,

00:51:44.640 for the specific reasons that you mentioned that you can leave when you can, when you want,

00:51:49.160 you can stop when and where you want and for how long you want. So it, you know, it's my hope that

00:51:55.120 as people are rediscovering the practical benefits of road travel, we're also coming back to the idea

00:52:01.680 of the road trip as a shared experience that can bring us all closer and, uh, can really be the

00:52:08.980 source for creating, uh, many wonderful memories together as a family. Well, Rich, is there someplace

00:52:13.740 people can go to learn more about the book? Uh, yeah, absolutely. You can pick up the book at,

00:52:18.020 uh, on amazon.com Barnes and Noble. Uh, of course, it's always a great idea that we get out and support

00:52:23.500 those independent booksellers. You can come and visit me on my website at richardretterights.com

00:52:29.680 or we also have lots of interesting posts and discussions going on over at my Facebook page,

00:52:35.320 which is Richard Retay, King of the Road Trip. Well, Richard, thanks so much. This has been

00:52:39.460 really interesting and a lot of fun too. Thank you so much for having me on, Brett. I had fun.

00:52:43.360 I hope your listeners did too. My guest today was Richard, the author of the book,

00:52:46.940 Don't Make Me Pull Over. It's available on amazon.com. Pick it up. It's a great vacation read.

00:52:51.160 And if you want to find out more information about the book, check out our show notes at

00:52:54.760 aom.is slash don't make me pull over. We're going to find links to resources. We're going to delve

00:52:58.920 deeper into this topic. Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. For more

00:53:15.440 manly tips and advice, make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com. And if

00:53:19.400 you enjoy the show, you've gotten something out of it, I'd appreciate it if you take one minute to

00:53:22.580 give us a review on iTunes or Stitcher. It helps out a lot. And if you've done that already, thank you.

00:53:26.200 Please consider sharing the show with a friend or family member who you think would get something

00:53:29.140 out of it. As always, thank you for your continued support. Until next time, this is Brett McKay telling

00:53:32.820 you to stay manly.

The Art of Manliness - September 03, 2018

#437： Don't Make Me Pull Over! A History of the Road Trip

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript