Road Trippin'
Atlas Obscura is a nifty little site I frequent when in the mood for exploring modern ephemera. Essentially a collaborative news feed of the new, unique, and odd, AO has provided many a jumping-off point for me creatively. It's a nice tool to have in a writer's war chest.
This week while scrolling around I came across a real gem, "The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature's Most Epic Road Trips," and it is as awesome as the title implies. Crafted by mad geniuses Richard Kreitner and Steven Melendez, what we got here is a map of North America with the routes taken by characters in 12 classic road trip novels, On The Road, Roughing It, and Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance among them. Every stop, every redirection, every plot point down to the city or town is included, and the selection of titles are broad enough that every U.S. state but two (Alaska and Arkansas) get a dot denoting literature happened here.
The map allows you to see each individual route, as well as all 12 at the same time. It makes an excellent companion to any reading of the listed novels, anchoring them in our real world. And it could be a pretty rad way to spend the next dozen summers, road trippin' one route per year. Bet there's a book in that.
