Join Thomas and Becky Repp as they team up with Gary Mantz to bring you a new road trip adventure each week. American Road Trip Talk is your chance to discover the backroads that embody true Americana. As the owners and producers of award-winning American Road magazine, Thomas and Becky want your future road trip to be both interesting and exciting. By teaming up with veteran radio broadcaster, Gary Mantz, they offer up valuable road trip planning information.
On the 52nd annual Earth Day, we talk with chronicler Harriet Baskas about cities and sites around Seattle and Puget Sound that celebrate our planet as well as the people whose environmental stewardship sets an example for us all.
Washington’s beloved annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is back for 2022, and mainstays RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town, both visitor favorites, welcome you to feast your eyes on their gorgeous fields. Matt Shea has returned from another tour with fresh insights into a region renowned for its annual explosion of inspiring springtime colors.
Virginia Phillippi, Director of North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association, has made a career of connecting travelers with over a thousand museums under their coast-to-coast umbrella. If it has cultural or historical significance, it is important to the NARM membership. Aficionados, unite!
The wild, rustic and sometimes offbeat beauty of the Sunshine State is yours to enjoy along the system of two-lane roads that have helped to shape the destiny of Florida. For many, today’s roadtrip adventure becomes tomorrow’s nostalgia. Jamie Jensen is on hand to guide the ride.
Part nostalgia trip, part urban archeology, The Neon Museum in Las Vegas is an immense striking tableau of iconic Sin City. Aaron Berger, Executive Director of the museum, shares how neon signage and eye-popping architecture helped establish a unique patch of desert in the world consciousness.
Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Mansion in Las Vegas has been voted #1 Haunted Destination in America. With over 30 rooms of thrills and chills, visitors enter a portal to the ghoulish wonders of Sin City: a world apart from the glitzy casinos. Our correspondent Matt Shea took the tour and survived! Listen to his tales of the macabre in this eerie edition.
Planning a vacation? Don’t get ripped off! Adam K. Levin is a consumer advocate with more than 40 years of experience and is a nationally recognized expert on security, privacy, phishing schemes and identity theft. He is the founder of CyberScout and author of the book “Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves.” Before you venture out, listen to this episode for great advice on outwitting the con artists.
In West Tennessee, the adventure starts in soulful Memphis but does not end there. The rural areas beyond the famous city are uncrowded, tranquil and inextricably linked to American history. You can feel the connection in this episode.
Everyone has a favorite car from the sensational (sometimes campy) days of television in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The Batmobile, perhaps? How about that jalopy The Monkees drove around town? Or maybe The General from The Dukes of Hazzard? Geoffrey Mark visits with inside stories of the rides that brought style and muscle to TV shows of days gone by.
When “kitsch” was first considered by art critics and historians, the prevalent view was that gaudy roadside attractions were good for a laugh and a bit of banal gratification thanks to sentimentality. Motoring visitors to the Pacific Northwest, however, are inclined to perceive such icons as a quirky welcome to the neighborhood. Harriet Baskas shares her appreciation of these beckoning behemoths.