RoadsideOnline

Hello folks, welcome both to the Backroads and to 2010. I am to assume I am most likely the last person to welcome you to the new year, but I would like to get me greeting in all the same. The holiday was busy for me, as I am sure it was for all of you, but I am happy to be back on the Backroads, and ready to examine this fine country in all its tourist trapped, odd attractioned splendor (yes I did in fact invent a word there).

Welcome back to Bruce on the Backroads, I have taken a hiatus for a week or two to adjust to the holidays, and I must say I feel very well adjusted. I have always said that even as Bruce on the Backroads has become more and more a blog about souvenirs that I have always had the intent to look at whole collections that people keep, as well as, single items I feel you might want to look out for while you are on your own adventures. I hope that this weeks item will be the first, but certainly not the last of its kind.

Welcome to this weeks edition of Bruce on the Backroads. I have to say the muse has not been with me lately. I feel like the same things that stop us all from doing the things that we love have made writing a little difficult. Work, friends, family, relationships all are great parts of your life but also cause a certain amount of stress. It has been said by many people much smarter than I that you have to block time in you life for certain things, for instance going to the gym, which is the context in which I have heard this advise the most. I would say this is also true of adventure. I believe if you are the type of person that really loves adventure, as we do here at the Backroads, you need to find a way to block time to look for adventure. Try a new restaurant, see a play, be a tourist in your own city. I feel that the best way to support local business, and help people commercially is to keep finding new people, learn about the things that go on in the areas, and most importantly find some adventure.

Well that was plenty enough time on my soapbox now time to talk about this weeks Scavenger Hunt item. On a trip to Atlanta a few months back to see my fiancées family, we heard about this place he HAD to see. We HAD to see this place so much that her aunt sent us a greeting card with a single picture on it, it was a picture of The Big Chicken. That card looked almost like this picture that my fiancee Rocki Yost took while we were there.

Welcome back to another week here on the Backroads. I have decided this week it's time once again to break up the Scavenger Hunt blogs and present you with another amazing Roadworthy Resource. I find that now when I go to bookstores I run straight to the travel section looking for anything that is not a Fodors, hoping to see something that I have not noticed. I also realize I am very new fan of a very old medium. I find that books I am discovering are new and improved 3ed editions of books that have been around for at least a decade. This weeks Roadworthy Resource is one such book.

This weeks resource (if you didn't notice in the title) is Road Trip USA Cross Country Adventures on America's Two Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen. This book is just a heck of thing even sitting on the bookshelf. Its a 900 page color coded monster with cover art that painfully similar to the mock ups of the soon to be revealed Bruce on the Backroads logo. The art (as you can see) is reminiscent of the old postcards from all over the county that would say things like “Welcome to (insert your place here)” and although it has nothing to do with the book at all, it really made me want to like it.

Hello friends, fans and anyone who happened to stumble upon this corner of the interwebs, welcome to this weeks “Bruce on the Backroads”. First I would like to apologize for not having a blog last week, I was very busy with my job, and was not near the computer enough to put together a good blog, hopefully this week will make up for that.

Of course I took an unscheduled week off at the very worst time, as I was about to announce the winner of a contest. I received a few entries for the Lighthouse envelope contest, and with the help of our friends at random.org the Internets home of randomly generated numbers I choose a winner. Donna Suchomelly of Reading, PA won the postmarked envelope from the Blackistone Lighthouse Station, and I will be sending that out by the end of the week. Congratulations Donna, and thank you to everyone who participated.