10 easy to drive road trips--not sure what happened to number 8

10 Easy to drive road trips
See America on a budget, from behind the wheel of your own car. A handful of easy, affordable itineraries


ARTHUR FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL


Which are the classic routes for a self-drive auto vacation in the summertime? My own selections—and those of most Americans—are short trips in terms of distance. Gone is the time when families would exhaust themselves on a grueling, several days’ drive to reach the places (New England, the Southwest, Florida) where they wished to tour. Today, we fly to those vacation centers, and then pick up a rental car for the two or three hundred miles of actual driving. I’ve chosen ten itineraries that seem to me ideal for a relaxed, one-week or two-week summer vacation of moderate distance.


None of them is on an immensely crowded route, even in summer. You won’t find here the popular drive between Los Angeles and San Francisco along the Pacific Coast, or those much-sought-after visits to the great national parks (Yosemite, Yellowstone) of the western states, where the job of simply finding an overnight motel can be exhausting in summer. Each of my picks is on relatively quiet highways, and only one of them—to Branson, Missouri—requires advance reservations in summer.

1. THE “ENCHANTED CIRCLE” AND THE “SANTA FE TRAIL”
Here’s a first example; since all of New Mexico has fewer people than Phoenix, Arizona, most motoring routes are pleasantly uncrowded. Starting in Albuquerque (“Old Town,” Sandia Peak Tram, San Felipe Mission,) you pick up a self-drive car and head along a sparsely-trafficked State Highway 14 (“the Turquoise Trail”) past the gold-mining towns of Golden, Madrid and Cerrillos to Santa Fe (Old Plaza, Palace of the Governors, Sans Miguel Mission, adobe-style homes). Next day, you tour the Indian pueblos on U.S. 4/285, then head for Chimayo (Spanish weavers and woodcarvers) and Taos for overnight. You tour Taos (birthplace of southwestern art) next morning, then proceed along the “Enchanted Circle” in late afternoon by driving to little Red River, a gold-mining village of the 1860s, where you can stay for, say, two nights at one of six guest ranches nearby. Next, drive past the ghost town of Elizabethtown to Eagle Nest and Angel Fire, then double back to enjoy a 23-mile drive on “Scenic U.S. 64” through Cimarron Canyon State park and to the historic, well-preserved Santa Fe Trail town of Cimarron. Next day, tour “Old Cimarron,” then head south on State Highway 21 and due east on Highway 199 to Springer, and then south on Interstate 25 to the village of Wagon Mound. Continue to Watrous, detour to Fort Union, then return to the Interstate for 18 further miles to the Victorian town of Las Vegas (New Mexico). Next day, take Interstate 25 past the Pecos National Monument to Albuquerque, ending a week of awesome vistas and cultures.



2. LAKE OF THE OZARKS
This man-made, 138-mile-long inland “sea” is a potent recreational resource in a state that is largely, pleasantly, rural and old-fashioned. From Kansas City, detour first for 55 miles to the Pony Express town of St. Joseph, then head south on Highways 7, 13 and 60 to Springfield and the nearby, new “country music capital of America,” the thriving boomtown of Branson, where you’ll want to stay for two or three days of country music shows. Or else fly initially into Springfield, from which Branson is an hour and a quarter away by car. Then, from Branson, head east and north on Highways 76 and 5 to Osage Beach on the famous lake itself, stopping for water sports, boating, public beaches, fishing—and even more country music shows. A day or two later, follow Highways 42, 17 and 44 to Rolla (re-created Stonehenge, “Memoryville Museum”) and St. James (wineries open for visits and free tastings). Then take Highways 44 and 19 to the historic, mid-1800s, German community of Herman for an overnight at a traditional, comfortable B&B. Next morning, take Highway 100 and Interstate 44 to St. Louis, and also devote two extra hours to the drive north to Hannibal (Mark Twain Museum, Becky Thatcher’s House, Tom Sawyer’s Fence) before driving back to the airport of St. Louis and home.


3. “BOUNDARY WATERS” AND THE “IRON RANGE”

Now you travel to Minnesota for one of the great outdoor experiences on a vast array of shallow lakes (“the Boundary Waters”) traversed by canoe. Fly, this time, to Minneapolis/St. Paul, pick up your rental car, tour the “twin cities,” then drive north on Interstate 35 to Duluth (Marine Museum, grain shipping), and then further north on Highway 61 along the upper shore of Lake Superior, past old-fashioned lakeside towns. An overnight motel stay near the much-photographed Split Rock Lighthouse, and then proceed on Highway 61 and Route 1 to Ely, gateway to the “Boundary Waters Canoe Area.” Stop at an “outfitter,” equip yourself with canoes, a guide, camping equipment and supplies, for a once-in-a-lifetime interlude in this largely-untouched wilderness area. Two-or-so days later, take Highway 169 south to Hibbing (“Iron World”), tour an underground mine at Tower-Soudan, then continue on Route 169 to the resort city of Grand Rapids (fishing). Later, take Highway 2 back to Duluth, passing first through the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation, then return on Interstate 35 to Minneapolis/St. Paul and home.


4. THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH
Your starting point is Atlanta, from which you first follow the route of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in 1864. After touring Atlanta itself (Cyclorama, then Stone Mountain theme park 19 miles away), you drive east on I-20 for 36 miles to Covington (antebellum homes), then on to Madison, the town “too pretty to burn.” You proceed south on Highway 29 to Eatonton (more antebellum homes) and on to Millegeville, capital of Georgia in the Civil War era. If you have a week for your trip, you then proceed from Milledgeville south on 441, east on 16, on a 150-mile run to stunning Savannah, Georgia. But if you have only three-or-so days for your Georgia adventure, you return from Milledgeville to Atlanta along Highway 212 to Monticello (many period homes), making a side excursion to the state-owned Jarrell Plantation (original cotton gin, original furniture).


5. “CUSTER’S LAST STAND”
Your theme: the westward surge of the American nation in the late 1800s and its inevitable clash with the American Indian, as at “Custer’s Last Stand” in 1876.

Your base now is Billings, Montana. Your theme: the westward surge of the American nation in the late 1800s and its inevitable clash with the American Indian, as at “Custer’s Last Stand” in 1876. From Billings, you drive east on Interstate 90 to Hardin (39 miles away) and the nearby (15 further miles south) Custer Battlefield National Monument and its visitors center. From there you follow Custer’s well-marked route through the surrounding hills, then head west on state highways to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area (boating and trout fishing on the Bighorn River), staying overnight at the motels and Ubs of Hardin. Then continue west to Red Lodge, then northward to the Yellowstone River and Columbus, on the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06. From there: I-90, then I-94, back to Billings.

6. THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH
Though your destination is the “Golden State,” your best starting point for Gold Rush sightseeing is Reno, Nevada, with its ample hotel space. From Reno, you drive to the old railroad town of Truckee, California, 35 miles away, and tour that city’s wonderfully preserved “Commercial Row” of 19th century western stores. It was near here that a party of Illinois farmers led by the Donner family sought a “short cut” for their crossing of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the “promised land” of California, and perished in the severe winter of 1846-47. All around Truckee are chilling memorials and relics of the doomed group, the valid subject for at least two days of driving. From Truckee, you then drive north to Sierraville, then northwest into the Sierra Valley and Sierra City, with its many surviving historic structures, and head north further still to Calpine, White Sulphur Springs, Plumas-Eureka State Park (an authentic mining site), Portola, the cabin of pioneer explorer James Beckworth, and Chilcoot. And after as many days as you choose to devote to the towns the miners built, the mines they dug, the springs, creeks and rivers where you can continue to “pan” for gold today, you return to Reno, and home.


7. MINUTEMEN AND MUSKETS
We all “owe ourselves” an eventual journey to the environs of Boston, Massachusetts, for the nation’s single most concentrated array of important historic attractions. The area is made for driving. After spending a first day in Boston itself, your rental car brings you to Lexington, Concord, the Minuteman National Historical Park, and Thoreau’s Walden Pond, all only 20 miles from downtown. Later you drive to Salem where “witches” were hung (House of the Seven Gables, Whaling Museum,) 16 miles away; or to Old Sturbridge Village, 50 miles away (re-created 18th century villages); or in another direction to the partially preserved, 19th-century mill town of Lowell, again 50-or-so miles away, whose industrial relics are now part of both state and U.S. national parks. You end your stay with a “pilgrimage” to the open-air “Plymouth Plantation,” an hour in still a different direction from Boston, where the life and atmosphere of the 1627 Pilgrim Village is re-created by “interpreters” who never step out of their historic roles. Depending on the number of museums, homes, and other attractions, your visit to Boston and its neighboring towns can range from three days to a week and more.


9. THE TWO COASTS OF FLORIDA
Summer is “off season” in large parts of Florida, and driving conditions ease up considerably. You’ll do well to start in Miami, and then drive north along either Interstate 95 (for speed) or U.S. Highway 1 (for seaside views) to elegant Palm Beach, and then—having seen the urbanized eastern corridor of that vacation state—head further north to Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, and the NASA/Kennedy Space Center, always a compelling visit. From there, it’s but an hour along the “Bee-Line Highway” (Route 528) to Orlando (where you’ll probably stay for three or four days), and an hour and fifteen minutes further west to Tampa and St. Petersburg. From there you proceed south along the Gulf of Mexico (Highway 41) to the less-familiar precincts of Fort Meyers (Thomas Edison Home and Museum) and the resort city and area of Naples, where deep-sea fishing offered by numerous boats is a particular highlight. From Naples, you turn sharply east on the Tamiami Trail through the swampy Everglades, past Seminole Indian trading posts, to Miami and your homeward-bound flight. In one week you’ve seen the uncrowded attractions of a tropical land that perhaps is best visited in summer, if your car is air-conditioned of course.


10. LAND OF LINCOLN
Finally, though a last driving trip is accomplished in no more than three days, I enjoy retracing the life of Abraham Lincoln in the compact region he made famous in central Illinois. In Springfield, Illinois, to which you fly, you first visit Lincoln’s home and offices, the Old State Capitol Building, the railroad depot from which he left to assume the Presidency. But your second day, the obligatory (and fascinating) visit is to the New Salem Historic Site 25 miles from Springfield, to see the re-created log cabin village where Lincoln spent his earlier years. In the same general area: the absorbing Clayville Rural Life Center devoted to the culture and lifestyles of the 1850s.
How colorful and rewarding are the attractions seen by the motoring tourist! At the lowest costs in travel today, Americans still make the self-drive summer vacation—often in a rented car—their most popular touring activity.

I have done number 7 and it is a really cool trip!!