American Road® Magazine Spring 2009 Excerpts

• Brandywine Scenic Byway • Lady Slipper Scenic Byway • Montana Yellowstone Trail

Features

Roadside

16 TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE

4

EDITOR'S RAMBLER "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"

On a mountain in Virginia-or maybe in Tennessee, North C.rolim., or the lost State of Franklin-grow. olle mighty evergreen drive. By 1homJu Arthur lUpp

6

WRlTE-OF-WAY

7

WHO'S DRIVING?

8

FRIENDS IN THE FAST IANE

36 BRANDYWINE SCENIC BYWAY Okay. So the n.me sound. like a pbce in that Lord 4th. Ri"U movie .bout hobbiu. So get your fuzzy feet in the flower>, Frodo. By jiD;,." Gurney

44

LADYSllPPERSCENIC BYWAY Don't let the ,hort distance of

Ad.mi" i.l Th.t You? The Reemergence of US 99. Tie. Ydlow Ribbon 'Round the Old Yellow Trail. Phil Yeh Draw•• Cartoon World to Route66.

mi, Minnesota route fool you. These twenty·

eight mil", bloom with beauty both simple and

t.",.

By]od ArnoU

10 MEMORY MOTEL 51

SPUR OF 1HE MOMENT FoUow the Living'ton·to-G.rdiner, Mont.mI, spur ofm. Ydlow<tonc Trail in our .ped.JAmtrican Road miJ.·by-miJ. guide. By John 0- Alut Ridge

Shady Dell RV Park, Bi,bee, Arizona. By Timy Cmig

12 TUNNEL VISION: NEWS AROUND THE ROAD Eon of Eden. Era End, for Rivier•. Obama·Rama 101. The Mighty Menlo Man. Route 66, Italian·Style.

Departments

13 PARK PlACE YourCurb,ide Calend.r

32

42

DRIVE TIlE OLD SPANISH TRAIL Rica HiU predicted that the byp.... of US 80 through Lord,burg, New Mexico, was. "rm.d to nowhere." W.. ,he right? By Joh" 6- Kris Murphey

47 DINER DAYS

ONEID 101

55 THINK BIG!

Jennie's Diner, Ronn, Penn'ylvania. By Denny Gibson

World', Largen Egg, Winlock, W.shington. ByEriU. Nelson

Once a garb.ge dump and a burial ground for mobster., the New Jersey Meadowl.nds have gone green and legitwith "eoo·crui..,,: lry Peter GenoW.<e

48

OUR NATIONAL ROAD There wa, a time when any ro.d trip w.s taken by ho,"" or covered wagon.

The folks ofM.ryland remember-and you con ride along. By Denny Gibson

56 TIlE PLAYGROUND TRAIL The m.king of the documentary p..~ing the H!iJ took one intrepid film crew to all twdve of the origin.l Pl.yground Trail parks. By Kind,... Wdky

66 ROUlE 66 KICKS! Stopping at a ..,rvice 'tation in the petrol·rich Lone Star State will still pump your ,en.., of nostalgia. BJJohnnu V.

~

HOllYWOODBOUUWMm PI..ne.<, Tr..ins, and Automobilt.f.lryJennifer Bremer

62 INSPECTION STATION DeLorme £orthmate' PN-40, Night Vl.fion: 1he Art if' Urb..n Expkmmon, Mont..n..: Portrait if''' State, DataSafe' RFID blocking wallet, and more.

65 ADVERTISER INDEX 68 JOHN CLAAR'S HITCHING POST

70 AMERlCAN CROSSROAD

Editor's Rambler "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"

THOMAS ARTHUR REPP F.x«utiwU"",';' An Di",,<tor REBECCA REPP

-"'"""",,

ALLAN BURNS ROBERTKLARA WILLIAM ZINKUS

I

t's a jungle out there. In my backyard, I mean.

Silver bells and cockle shells and seven feet ofmean, green organic machine.

My hydrangea. Don Salad-D. I call him Salad-O because he looks like he exploded out ofthe leafbar at Sizzler. I call him

Don because I'm certain he must have a mafia connection. Somewhere.

I first noticed something was awry on my lawn during an early tiptoe through my tulips.

There was my hydrangea-looking much livelier than he usually does at this time ofyear. His buds were a-budding, his limbs a-going green. He had that crisp confidence of a bush about town. And then I sawit: His roots were all over the poor mulberry next door.

You could have knocked me over with agarden weasel. Understand, I'd previously had ~the talk" with my hydrangea. I'd told him howirnportant itwas to respect his neighbors and keep his twigs to himself. Yet all my preaching had seemingly gone in one pistil and out the other. I pleaded. I weeded. In the end, I saw no choice.

I clipped him back and sent him to bed without his Miracle-Gro. Apparently, that was not the best course ofaction to take. One week later, I was stunned to see he'd all but strangled my helpless mailbox. I had no doubt he was seeking my BetterHomes & Gardem magazine, and he knows he's not supposed to be looking at those pictures, either.

Again, I confronted him. This time, he seeded in my face. Pnmingshears and hurtful words flew. And now, I know I've lost him. He's taken up with those ne'er-do-well willows down the street. Every time Ted Koppel talks about the greenhouse effect, I know my hydrangea is somehow intimately involved. h, I know. I'm the executive editor ofAmerican Road, not Mr. Green Jeans. I could always find solace in a road trip. I might even use my garden woes to point out there's little sense in snooping around home shrubbery when no country in the wotld is more beautiful in bloom than the good 01' US ofA. The fourth color in our national tapestry of red, white, and blue is most definitely green. I know that. I've worn Birkenstocks.

To drive the point home, I might even fashion an entire issue ofthe magazine around roads named for flowers and trees. I could seek out the legendaryTrail ofthe Lonesome Pine through four states and send two of our authors chasing Minnesota's Lady Slipper and Delaware's Brandywine Scenic Byways.John and Alice Ridge might turn their remarkable skills toward developing a new type ofAmerican Road feature-the mile-by-mile guide-so readers could trace a spur ofthe classic Yellowstone Trail all the way to Yellowstone National Park.

I could do all ofthat, certainly. But to hit the road this spring would be to miss hour upon hour ofyardwork and the chance to suffer acoronarywhile shoveling manure. No.The choice is clear. Before I go anywhere, I'd best snip, clip, and trim my own lawn, and-alas-that task includes resolving the trouble with my hydrangea.

Someone send me a few truckloads ofThousand Island dressing.

I'm going to eat fast.

o

Et/i""',

GUYCOOK W,,"",w FOSTER BRAUN ,",""",-

JOEL ARNOLD JILLIAN GURNEY ~CmsT~""",

PETER GENOVESE DENNY GIBSON JOE HURLEY JERRY McCLANAHAN JOHN aod KRIS MURPHEY ERIKA NELSON ALICEandJOHNWM. RIDGE JOHNNIEY JANE aod LEE WHITELEY v.p...",.""t EJit=

MICHAEL GASSMANN MIKE HOCKER AMBERSZEJMAN .A,,,,",," Gr"pItk DesW>en ANNA LEE BRAUNSTEIN DAVE PRESTON J'rodgd Rn-i<......, TONY CRAIG AMY C. ELLIOIT

St4fPbotop>tph<r' ROBERTC.CLAAR ~

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TRACYWAWRZYNIAK

CiTaJ4i"" LYNETTE NIELSEN Hit~R»1 &tks PAT aodJENNIFERBREMER o"/;",, ForomM""-tor,

.AL!vmiting &pn=Lttiw> RICHARD BUBLITZ dbubJi'Z@alllOricanroadmagaz.i"e.rom

MIKE JOYCE mjoy<e@ameri<:aoroad"",gozine.rom

REBECCAREPP becky@americanroadmagoz.i"e.<<XJI

SARA WILSON ..ruODJl@ameri<:aoroad"",gozine.rom

ADVERTISERS PHONE IJ77-l85-5434 fi1r she "f"<I""antl< in J"S" ...pm.

Am.ricoo Rood (ISSN 1542-4316) I, pubJI'h<dquartedy by Mock Twde Ptm. LLC. lodud,d in EBSCO PubJi,bing~ produetl.

Copyright C 2009 by Mock Twde Puss.

AU rights reserved. PJinted in the USA. Pri"ted 0Jl =yded paper.

Executive Editor

MAIN OFFICE PO Bot:46519. Mt. Clem,,,,. M148046 8n-2SS·5434. ameri<:a"road@americanroadmagoz.i"e.<"m HITCHING POST ORDERS PO Bo:<3168.L}'Il"wood, WA 98046 206-369-5782.

J"Ielseo@americanroadmagoz.i"e.<<XJI

•

ON OUR WINDSHIELD: The Edward R. T.'l1ley Bridge crossing the

ClinchRiverat Kyles Ford, Tennessee-just oneofthe many evergreen sights to be seen along the Lonesome Pine Trail.

Photo byAm.m.anRoad.

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T

he greatest round of applause I ever heard showered over a cinematic perfonnance thun-

dered through Michigan's Royal Oak: Music Theatre one night inJulyof1982.Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had hitched their hopes to a mille and headed Wd)' Out West.

The rare screeningofthe 1937 film was scheduled cocomplement the third internationalconvention oftheSons ofthe Desert-a world-wide appreciation society chartered to preserve and promote the films ofthe famous fat-and-skiImy team. In their generosity, the Sons had thrown open the doors oftheir Way Out TVestshowingto the public. Isat on the mezzanine of the movie house surrounded by newfriendswho politely tipped their bowler hats and proudly twiddled their ties.

When the lights sank and the film flickered to life I knew I was in for an enthusiastic evening. Raucous clapping accompanied every on-screen credit; laughter rang loud and long.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the emption ofapplause thar ocrurred near the end ofthe third reel-when Sun and Ollie spontaneously segued inro song with their rendition of "The Trail ofthe Lonesome Pine.~

In theBlue Ridge Mountaim o/Virginia, On the trailo/thelonesomepineIn thepale moomhine our hearts entwine, Mere she carvedher name andI carved mine The sequenceendedwithLaurelsingingin a faux bass, weathering a whack on the noggin from a mallet-wielding Hardy, finishing his verse in a woman's soprano, and rotteringfor a moment like an lUldercut rree before swooning into a spittoon.

by THOMAS ARTHUR REPP

The Lonesome Pine Trail-also known asTennessee State Route 70-crosses the Clinch River at Kyles Ford. The Edward R. Talley Bridge was built in 1928.

Itwas with that topple that the universe exploded-so mightily I feared the mezzanine might crack. Thevibration swelled up through myfeet in the same way a prairie hwnswith a stonn's rwnble before the force ofthe tempest is heard. Here was the power of nostalgia, I thought, and itwas the roar ofundiluted joy. If thatsolitarypine trulystoodsomewhere-and it could feel the smallest tremor ofchat earthquake-surely it was lonesome no more. f all early automobile routes, theTraiiof the Lonesome Pine maycarry the most homespun name. Wrapped in the sweet scent ofspruce, it's acountry crafi:, an arboretwn atlarge, a backwoods bouquet filled with posies ofdays longpast. Its roots sinkinto ourcollecrive American consciousness: The Trailofthe LonesomePinewas the title writerJohn Fox,Jr. chose to adorn his Appalachian novel of1908, penned in the heart ofmountain country at Virginia's BigStone Gap. Fox's mining-engineer-meets-mouncaingirl saga has long been regarded as a reasonably aCUifate mirror ofthe region-or at least a reflection ofan Appalachia that might have existed one hundred years ago. Modern ctit-

O

~TRAIL OF

THE LONESOME PINE"

TERMINI: Bluefield. We't Virginia. and A.heviUe, North C.ro!irul.

DISTANCE: App""'. 275 mile.

The trail'swesterndestination alsoenlivened civic debate. Early 1930s newspapers reported the formation of a Lonesome Pine Trail Association and assigned the highway a Teill1essee terminus at Cumberland Gap. For years Knoxvillewas considered theend ofthe line. Yet civic shakers in thecityofGreeneville ultimately prevailed. TheyeIWisioned a route south to Asheville, North Carolina-a path that might be grafted onto the old Dixie Highway. In the springof1929-when thirty milesofnewlyconstructed road filled the gap between Greeneville and Walnut, North Carolina-that wish became reality.

By the early 1950s any path that omitred Asheville had long been deemed counterfeit, and thegovernment offeill1essee whittled the route into the law. In April of 1953 the state legislature recognized Teill1essee State Route 70 as the Lonesome Pine Trail, sanctioning a map that, like the book on which itwas based, found its heart forever in coal country. round Bluefield, West Virginia, hospitality grows on trees. Afterward, it's squeezed, sugared, and served near the curb. ~Bluefield calls itself Nature's AirConditioned City,~ saysBeverlyWellman of Mercer County Travel & Tourism. ~Since 1941, the city has given away free lemonadewhenever the temperature reaches ninety

A

degrees.~

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Bran

â&#x20AC;˘

wIne

Okay. So it sounds like a place in that Lord ofthe Rings movie.

Now get your FUZlYFEET in the FLOWERS! by]ILLIAN GURNEY

B

randywine. There's a fantasy name ifever there was one.

Old J.R.R. Tolkien actually

used the word Baranduin interchangeably with the name Brandywine in his epic Lord ofthe Rings trilogy. He gave those names to a river that wig-

gles along the eastern edge ofthe Shire-you know, that place where men are hobbits, and everyone has hairy feet. It's unquestionably

a mystical place-filled with flower gardens and all things magical-and that means there

could scarcely be something like it found on US soil. Right?

Hold the phone, Frodo.

Sneak a peak at your atlas-preferably one that shows secondary roads etched in festive colors. Pour over the tip offielaware as itmelts

into southeastern Pennsylvania. See State Route 52? What about State Route 100 as it bobs and weavesalongBrandywine Creek? In these parts, those roads are collectively known

The historic Inn at Montchanin Village. near the Hagley Museum and library, was founded as a settlement for du Pont powder mill employees. Restored by the du Pont family-and now on the National Register of Historic Places-the Inn offers luxury cottage guest rOOffisand an on-site restaurant.

as the Brandywine Valley Scenic Byway.

Right offthe bat, you'll discover this path bears similarities to routes outlined in any Tolkien opus. To begin with, the Brandywine Scenic Byway is virrnally hobbit-sized.

A mere 12.2 miles comprise Delaware's section ofthe route; Peill1sylvania adds 20 miles to that tiny total. The Brandywine Valley has long been a place oflush gardens and lavish

estates-an earthly paradise thatsprouts lawns perfect for traversing barefoot, whether one's feet are fuzzyor not. Finally, the byway loops itselfinto several rings as it spirals northward from Wilmington to West Chester. Can any ofthese loops rightly be called a lordly ring?

You bet your Bilbo.

The wars and wizardry that shaped these environs are part of the American tapestry.

The byway passes Revolutionary War battlegrolUlds-and cOlUltryside that played a significant part in our Industrial Revolution. In fact, it was the boom ofgunpowder that led to the bloom of gardens in these hills. Both tricks came into play courtesy of a family of wunderkinds called du Pont.

Because the Brandywine Scenic Byway ties itselfin knots, there's neither an obvious beginningnorend to the route. Travelers can commence their tour at any mile that pleases, and for that purpose, Chadds Ford, Peill1sylvania, isagood starting point.

The Brandywine River Musewn is here. In many ways it's a showcase that represents the unique spirit of the road. Chadds Ford was named for ferryman, fanner, and tavern keeper John Chad-and avisit to Brandywine Battlefield Park offers a peekinto the restored homes ofBenjamin Ring and Gideon Gilpon, used as headquarters by General George Washington and General Lafayette, respectively,duringthe 1mBattleofBrandywine. Yetitwasin peaceful, post-war times that the enduring aura of the area was shaped. Artists gravitated toward the fertile landscape and nicknamed it "'Wy-

ethville, USA; in honor oflocal illustrator Newell Convers \Vyeth and his family. Perhaps the most notable artist in the clan was recently-deceased Andrew Wyeth, whose paintings were inevitably set in one of two places: Cushing, Maine, where his familyswnmered, or Chadds Ford wherehewas born and lived.

In 1963Andrew'Wyeth became the first artist

"BRANDYWINE VALLEY SCENIC BYWAY~ TERMINI: Wilmington, Delaware, .nd SR 162 near We't Chester, Penn'ylvonia DISTANCE: Approx. 32 miles

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