This picture is from my 2015 Halving the Remainder trip. In 2009, I realized that I had 16 states left to reach all 50, and I began tracking my progress. By autumn of 2015, the count was down to six, and I cut it in half with this drive to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Visiting New York’s Fort Ticonderoga on the way put me in position to enter Vermont via ferry. The picture is of the climb up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire on the cog railway. I also got some cool pictures on the way down. On the day before I climbed the mountain, I photographed a super moon eclipse in Littleton, NH, and on the day after, I got a few photos in Acadia National Park just before fog and rain moved in. Visiting three new-to-me states was cool, but the drive to and from them wasn’t too shabby.

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.

This picture is from my 2023 Tracing a T to Sebring trip. My great-grandparents made two trips to Florida in their Model T Ford. Using letters written by my great-grandmother, I was able to retrace their first trip through to its return home on its centennial in 2020 (Tracing a T to Tampa Again). Only a few letters survive from their second trip from their time in Florida, and none survive from the drive back to their home in Ohio. Nonetheless, I retraced it as best I could on its 2023 centennial. The picture is from Avon Park, where Granddad and Granny spent some time while in Florida. In fact, it is where they were camping when the letters peter out. Sadly, most of the early Avon Park buildings, including at least one that Granddad is known to have worked on, are no longer standing. That makes the bandstand extra special. Originally built in 1897, it was there when my great-grandparents were in town. Among Granny’s mentions of the bandstand is a concert they listened to while seated in their Ford.

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.

This picture is from my 2024 trip to the Society for Commercial Archaeology Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I intended to go as soon as it was announced, then waited too long, and it sold out too fast. So I made other plans, although I did put my name on the waiting list. I was surprised when it reached the top, but took advantage of it and changed my plans again. I have been to Nashville multiple times, so I was familiar with many of the points of interest we visited, including the pictured Broadway, a.k.a. “neon canyon”, and Lane Motor Museum. But there were plenty of new-to-me places, too. Among them were the Willie Nelson and Friends Museum and Marathon Village.

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.

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.