Part autobiography, part history (about the history, how and what of family road travel), all interesting and often times hysterical. ( )

This book checks all the boxes: funny, informative, writer is basically the same age as me, lives in my state. Just a real gem of a book detailing "the informal history of the family road trip." Ratay uses his family's experiences to describe how Americans in the 60's and 70's took vacations. The different styles of cars they traveled in, the roads they used, the places they ate and stayed, the culture of the time, etc. Smart and witty, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in touring or the history of travel in America. ( )

Grades 3 - 5

This was a fun audiobook. The author is a just a few years younger than me so his experiences of family road trips brought back a lot of memories of my own.

It's partly about his family and their vacations when he was growing up. Interspersed in between are many detours into history. It reminded me a bit of the way Bill Bryson will take off on a tangent and go into detail about the history of something.

Ratay manages to cover the history of the automobile, building the interstate highway system, rest areas, fast food, hotel chains, etc. I enjoyed it.

If you remember the days before seat belts were mandatory or if you ever stayed in a Holiday Inn Holidome, I'd recommend this one.

I listened to the audio edition narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross. He's easy to listen to and a narrator that I'd be happy to find again. ( )

This is a fun read about the history of the great American road trip vacation as those of us who experienced it remember from the 1960;s and 1970's. Richard Ratay chronicles the history of the American road trip from the building of highways to roadside attractions to old time road maps and car travel games to the development of chain hotels and safety devices for automobiles. This is another quick and fun read for the summer. ( )