This picture is from my 2024 NOTR and PPOO Part 1 trip. A drive on the National Old Trails Road and the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway had originally been conceived as a single trip, but it didn’t work out that way. Shifting schedules and commitments resulted in the parts of these two historic auto trails east of the Ohio-Indiana line being driven in August and the remaining parts being driven in October. This Trip Peek refers to a drive that began by heading east on the NOTR, reversed direction in the general vicinity of the Statue of Liberty, and ended on the PPOO near — but not quite at — the eastern edge of Indiana. In their final forms, both trails connected New York City with Los Angeles but managed to do it via mostly different paths. East of California, the PPOO was generally a bit north of the NOTR. In California, they were mostly one and the same. The selected picture is, of course, The Statue of Liberty. I have no evidence that the statue was a significant feature of either of the targeted trails, but it stands near the eastern terminus of the PPOO, and visiting it while “between trails” seemed a sensible thing to do.

Because I have driven the National Road, a major component of the NOTR, several times, the eastbound portion of this trip was over known territory as far as Washington, DC. East of DC, things were less familiar. Bridge closures and other new roadside items kept all of it from being boring. My oldest son lives a bit north of NYC, so I also worked in a “between-trails” visit with him and his family. Despite never having driven the actual PPOO east of Ohio, I had driven some of its components, so I had some recognition of the many small towns it passed through. But there were new things here also, so it too was not at all boring. The plan was to end Part 1 at the Indiana border, but a flat tire led to ending it about a hundred miles shy of the line, and moving that bit to Part 2.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.