GOOD NEWS FRIDAY! The American Road Trip Is Alive And Well! Where Are Your Favorite Go-To Jaunts?

I have a good buddy that I go way back with who is in Tucumcari New Mexico. I love the drive. He's also in the car business so we have a lot in common there too. His business dealings are in Albuquerque so he has a condo there, but loves the space he has in Tucumcari.

The San Diego to Laguna/Corona Del Mar/Newport run is always a fave....

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I much prefer to drive than to fly when I can as you can see so much more things and have been to 30 states so far. The nicest stretch of asphalt in Murica is Miami to Key West on US1. Such a lovely scenic drive with cute art deco homes, restaurants and the nicest rednecks in the south (and I mean that in a very good way).

I75 through the mountains in TN is very picturesque especially in fall displaying all the pretty colors of fall but that strip gives me vertigo which is a very eerie sensation indeed.

I also enjoy dirty industrial areas and recently did a road trip to Chicago for a conference and drove all around the hood and burbs without getting whacked or jacked. Going back home I spent a day in Gary IN to see some customers -what a shithole.

I still regularly do the NJ to FLorida at least twice and up to 4 times a year. Doing the Battlefields along the way is great if you have the extra time. I love driving the Skyline Drive - in Virginia - it is breathtaking. Pine Creek Gorge - AKA - the PA Grand Canyon is also the same. In the Fall - a driving trip to the Upper Northeast (Vermont - NH, Maine etc) especially during color season is one you must do at least once in your lifetime. The same can be said for Mid-to Southern NJ in the Fall- a trip down the Garden State Parkway to Cape May. Or Injun Summer in the Catskills.

I had always wanted to do the Upper States in the early Fall - doing the major National Parks - to California - and coming back through the southern west to Texas. I have seen some of the parks individually - but I want to take a tent - and my mini-van - and take at least 6 weeks. I had this planned for This September as I have said before - but I might not be able to go early enough this year. YOu really have to leave right after Labor Day.

BUT I will always remember doing the trip from La - to San Francisco - up Route One (Pacific Coast Highway) - especially the area Between the Hurst Castle and Monterey and the Big SUR. Unless you are completely comfortable with heights - do it NORTH BOUND - again early fall - and this is NOT a trip for a Mini-van - have a good handling car to enjoy the ride. BUT make INN reservations ahead of time and make sure you guarantee them. THere is limited space - and do NOT do it during the Golf Tournament - you will sleep in your car - there won't even be tent space. THere are areas you do not want to do when it is raining - so allow for extra days in the road as well - so take your Cell Phone to change reservations as well.

Once a year, I meet friends in San Francisco and we drive plastic shouty things on a loop (80 east out of San Fran, 580 north across the Richmond bridge to the 101, stop in Sausalito for lunch and then back to San Fran).

With my wife now handicapped I only have time for short joints of a couple hours twice a week and always head for the roads of back country Greenwich Ct. Lots of curves and straights, always empty week days at mid-day and Sunday morning, lots of interesting B road off shoots and multi million dollar estates everywhere. When I drive the '34 rod I think I am in the 1930's Great Gatsby era and when driving a modern machine I thank God this type of driving still exists at all, close by. Don't tell anyone.

There's a little spot in the road north of me named Woody. The road between here and there is delightful and curvy. It's a great stress reliever.

I read recently about a guy who drove his TVR Chimaera on a 23.5K mile drive from the Arctic Sea to Tierra Del Fuego with surprisingly few problems. A buddy of mine who lives in Seattle and I were going to ship TVRs to Savannah Georgia and drive back to California via the southern route, but we never got around to it.

Great windy road between Taos and Angel Fire New Mexico(St. Rd 585).

That would be fun in dueling 914-6s.