Trip Peek #153
Trip #164
Wild and Wonderful Again

Posted on February 8, 2026 by Denny

This picture is from my 2021 Wild and Wonderful Again trip. “Wild and Wonderful” is West Virginia’s tourism slogan. When I went there for Christmas in 2013, I called the trip “Wild and Wonderful Christmas”. When I did it again in 2021, “Wild and Wonderful Again” seemed like a rather natural name. Both outings were centered around state parks, but not the same state parks. In 2013, it was North Bend State Park. In 2021, the parks involved were Chief Logan, Pipestem, and Hawk;s Nest. The picture above was taken in the town of Matoaka, which I passed through on my drive from Chief Logan to Pipestem. As I said in the journal, I was getting a little down from the near-poverty I was seeing on the way to Matoaka, and the smiles and waves there put me in a much better mood. On the way to West Virginia, I spent a night in Marietta, Ohio, and while in the state, paid a visit to New River Gorge.

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.

Trip Peek #152
Trip #180
NOTR and PPOO Part 1

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Denny

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 Peek #151
Trip #113
Lincoln Highway Centennial Caravan

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Denny

This picture is from my 2013 Lincoln Highway Centennial Caravan trip. This trip was truly epic and one that was unique in multiple ways. It is one of only two trips on which I drove a classic car, or at least a car old enough to be called a classic. The car was a 1963 Plymouth Valiant selected to be half the age of the road it traveled. The other trip happened a year earlier when I drove the same car to the Lincoln Highway Conference in Canton, OH. Of course, that in-state drive to a city around 200 miles away is not in the same class as the full-length Lincoln Highway outing of 2013. The 2013 trip also stands out as the first trip that resulted in a published travelogue. I have now published nine, but “By Mopar to the Golden Gate” was the first, and it’s all about this trip.

The 35-day, 7,300-mile trip began with a drive east to reach the eastern LH terminus in Times Square, NYC. The centennial of the founding of the original Lincoln Highway Association would be celebrated in Kearney, NE, near the road’s midpoint. Caravans from the two ends would meet there for a parade and celebration. My friend John traveled with me from New York to South Bend, IN, but returned home from there. I drove on to Kearney with the caravan, then continued to San Francisco, where I connected with my son, as part of a much smaller group. From there, I drove home through Yosemite National Park and along much of Historic Route 66. Picking a few highlights to list in this Trip Peek would be pretty much impossible. As I said, it was an epic trip. Anyone interested should page through the online journal or read the book. And drive the Lincoln Highway if you possibly can.

Trip Peek #150
Trip #120
Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Rail

Posted on December 28, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2014 Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Rail trip. It’s a Veteran’s Honor Flight from New Mexico that I encountered by chance at the World War II Monument in Washington, DC. My own travel to and from DC was neither a flight nor a drive but a train ride. I had once before attempted to reach music in Washington via Amtrak, but that train had been canceled. This train wasn’t canceled, but it was more than four and a half hours late leaving Cincinnati, which toppled the first in a series of dominoes that resulted in a sleepless night in Union Station. I did make it to the concert that the trip was built around, then spent an additional three nights in the city near the National Mall. From there, I attended a play at Ford’s Theater, visited museums and monuments, and watched in awe and appreciation as those New Mexico vets took in their monument. My train home left right on time, but still managed to be over an hour late in reaching Cincinnati.

Trip Peek #149
Trip #167
Hiwassee Loop

Posted on October 12, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2022 Hiwassee Loop trip. Railroad loops allow elevation changes in less space than switchbacks and without the need to reverse direction. The Tennessee Valley Railroad‘s Hiwassee Loop was completed in 1890. Riding the train through the loop was the whole purpose of this trip, but I drove the Tail of the Dragon, the Cherohala Skyway, and a little Dixie Highway getting there, then some US-127 and more Dixie Highway getting home. It was a three-day trip with both overnights spent in historic digs.

Trip Peek #148
Trip #2
Packard Museum & Garage-mahal

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2000 Packard Museum & Garage-mahal day trip. It was only the second trip documented here, and the first day trip. It wasn’t documented very well, as the idea of this as a permanent website had not yet taken root. It was an Eastgate Corvette Club outing with two museum visits separated by a lunch stop. First up was America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, OH. It’s in a former Packard dealership, and may have been going by the name of that dealership, Citizens Motorcar Company, at the time. The afternoon stop was at the home and garage of Cincinnati Microwave co-founder Jim Jaeger. I have subsequently re-visited both collections with my most recent visit to the Packard Museum documented here. Apparently, other visits to Jaeger’s garage went undocumented.

Trip Peek #147
Trip #145
Route 66 Miles of Possibility Conference

Posted on August 3, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2017 trip to the Route 66 Miles of Possibility Conference in Joliet, IL. This was the third MOPCon, and my second time attending. At the time, there were still questions about whether a pay-to-attend conference could succeed in a world accustomed to free festivals, but with the tenth annual MOPCon scheduled for October 2025, those questions appear to have been answered. By coincidence, the tenth MOPCon will be right where the third one was: Joliet. My 2017 guess that the idea of a pay-to-attend conference would find no takers outside of Illinois has so far proven correct.

I drove almost no Historic Route 66 getting to and from the conference. I took US-40 through Casey, IL, and checked out some of the World’s Largest things displayed there. Then it was north on US-45 for a meal at the original Burger King in Mattoon, IL. The drive home was mostly on US-35, which I picked up at its northern terminus near Michigan City, IN. In between was the conference with plenty of presentations and a Road Crew concert at the historic Rialto Theater.

Trip Peek #146
Trip #104
Sweetheart Cruise 2012

Posted on July 27, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my Sweetheart Cruise 2012 trip. This was my second time participating in a cruise that a group of St. Louis area road fans frequently organized near Valentine’s Day. I spent the first day reaching Mitchell, IL, to check out the recently relit Luna Cafe sign which I used for the trip’s signature photo. The following day was spent cruising in a nine-car caravan from Mitchell to Carlinville, and the next two days were spent trying to follow a straight line home. A real highlight of the cruise was my one and only meeting with Bill Shea and my only time inside his museum in Springfield, IL.

Trip Peek #145
Trip #146
Thankful in Tennessee

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Denny

This picture is from my 2017 Thankful in Tennessee trip. This was in the style of my Christmas dinners in state parks but this time the holiday was Thanksgiving and the park was in Tennessee rather than Ohio or West Virginia. On Thanksgiving day, I drove straight to Natchez Trace State Park for the holiday buffet. I spent two nights at the park but drove to Brownsville for dinner and a nighttime peek at Billy Tripp’s Mind Field on the second day. I then spent two days getting home with time on US-45 and US-50 and stops in Paducah, KY, Metropolis, IL, and Vincennes, IN. The picture of Pin Oak Lake was taken near the turnaround point of a ranger-led hike I joined on the second day at the park.

Trip Peek #144
Trip #165
JHA 2022 Conference

Posted on December 29, 2024 by Denny

This picture is from my Jefferson Highway Association 2022 Conference trip. As mentioned in the previous Trip Peek, COVID-19 had put in-person conferences on hold for a couple of years. The JHA came out of the hold with this conference in Pittsburg, KS. When I drove the full length of the Jefferson Highway in 2018, I followed what I considered the primary alignment through Missouri. There was an alternate alignment on the Kansas side of the border and I welcomed the chance to drive that on this trip. The conference included presentations, museum visits, sign dedications, and, as the photo shows, a performance of a slightly modified “How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” by Loring Miller while JHA President Roger Bell tries — and fails — to keep a straight face. I managed visits to the National World War I Museum and John Brown Memorial Park on the way to the conference, then stopped at Boots Court, Gay Parita, and Uranus Fudge Factory on the way home with an overnight at Rockwood Motor Court in Springfield, MO.

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