Road Trips
Chronological road trip stories and travel journals from our journeys across the country. These posts follow our routes day by day, sharing the experiences, stops, and memories that define each trip.
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Easy Rider Filming Locations
Opening Credits The opening credits actually contain all of the filming locations that we currently have (we don’t have them all at this point). This will be a work in progress as we travel. Here is a video of the opening credits to set the proper mood, as well as the context of the scene, which we love, with Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.” Classic. Interstate 40 East, Crossing the Colorado River at the California/Arizona Border This scene was filmed along I-40 eastbound, crossing from California into Arizona. Two bridges, which are former alignments of Route 66 are also visible. The first bridge to the right, is the Red Rock…
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Wild Hogs Filming Locations
Wild Hogs is a 2007 comedy starring John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy as middle-aged friends living in Cincinnati, Ohio who own Harleys and like to go for urban / suburban rides and hang out at the “biker” bar in the city, called “Byker’s Island”. Woody, played by John Travolta, is a (formerly) rich lawyer whose swimsuit model wife recently left him, causing him to have a breakdown, losing his job and his house too. One afternoon after a ride, he questions his friends about what they are doing with their lives and suggests a real ride – a road trip to the Pacific. The other…
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July 3-5, 2014: Route 66 – Riverton, Kansas to Amarillo, Texas
Day 1: July 3, 2014 – to St. Louis, Missouri Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. The first day of our trip was largely uneventful – we took the Interstate to St. Louis after work so we could make some progress on getting to the California border. We stopped at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard and met with our camping friends Dane & Elaine, and then headed…
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2014 Illinois Route 66 Motor Tour – 25th Anniversary
The Route.. Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. You can zoom in, or click the link above for a bigger, fullscreen map. Photographs This blog contains a sampling of the photos from our trip. To view all of the photos from our trip, view the slideshow at the bottom of the post or visit our Road Trip Memories page on Flickr at the link below. Saturday, June 14, 2014 Long story VERY short, a change in plans allowed us to be able to attend the 25th Illinois Route 66 Motor Tour. We had been on the tour several times before, but…
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Plans change; relax and go with the flow…
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans…OK, we didn’t really have an actual trip plan yet; just a general declaration that we were going to go west instead of east this year, and our destination would be South Dakota, and we’d travel in September. We’re still heading west, only now we’ve bumped up the trip to July! After talking it over, Pat and I decided that since I was planning on taking two weeks off work to watch our grandson, we might as well just take him on a road trip, rather than me just using two weeks off to stay home. Pat only has a…
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A drive like we took back in the day….
I’ve really been been itching for a road trip! For the past couple of months, we hadn’t been able to go on many road trips because we’re providing some necessary care and maintenance to our house, which has been neglected for just a little bit too long…due to so many spontaneous road trips and camping trips! So now, we have to be responsible homeowners! But regardless, I’m still itching for a road trip. LOL But, as I posted recently, our vacation has been moved up from September to July, so now I can really anticipate an upcoming road trip! But about two weeks ago, before this latest change in plans,…
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July 31-August 4, 2013: International Route 66 Festival, Joplin, Missouri
Day 1: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Today’s the big day – we’re finally hitting the road for the 2013 International Route 66 festival, to be held this year in Joplin, Missouri. While I highly believe the Route 66 festivals should be held alternating in all of the various Route 66 states, for us and work schedules it’s obviously easier for us to…
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July 7, 2013: Day 3 – US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan
Above is the trip map tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. Our final day, we left our hotel in Indiana and went back up into Michigan to complete our journey on US 12 across Michigan. We made a short side trip hoping to locate some of the elusive Amish berry pie, but it was really elusive! We visited a few non-Amish farmer’s markets, hoping for even regular Michigan berry pie, but even that proved futile! But a road trip is always fun anyway. We crossed into Indiana and spotted a couple of old motel signs in Michigan City: I…
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July 6, 2013: Day 2 – US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan
Above is the trip map tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. We started out the day by heading into Mt. Clemens for breakfast at Louie’s Ham & Corned Beef with Thomas and Becky Repp, owners of American Road Magazine. After a very filling meal, we said our goodbyes and Pat and I headed into Detroit to start our westward trek on US 12, the Heritage Trail. I’m not a big fan of unfamiliar urban environments, because the area’s quality and safety can shift from one street to the next, so with our route plan firmly in place, we followed it…
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July 5, 2013: Day 1 – US 12 Heritage Trail, Michigan
Above is the trip map tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Click the link above for a bigger map. We got an early start today (good thing, it turns out). We started out on all local roads, following US 36 from the east side of Indianapolis. I have the iOS app “Roadside Attractions” from the people at the cool website Roadside America, as well as an add on to our Garmin Nuvi. These apps feature the offbeat roadside attractions from their site. I knew it would be fun to start adding visiting some of these places to our travels. I immediately had a few attractions I wanted…