The Great American Road Trip
During the baby boom years the American family vacation, regardless of destination, was done primarily by car. Inexpensive gas, the rise of motels and motor courts, greatly improved roads, and an influx of new cars as the automakers retooled after World War II all boosted the automobile as the vacation vehicle of choice. Americans took to the highways, where signs urged them to SEE ROCK CITY, or VISIT LURAY CAVERNS. Towns began to install road signs informing motorists of the attractions to be found within their limits or nearby.
At service stations, which were called that because attendants serviced the vehicle while the motorist relaxed, free maps were available and information regarding local attractions could be had. Roadside stops and souvenir stands offered games to amuse children who had tired of the scenery passing by. Some were designed to encourage watching the scenery, having them keep count of hay stacks, tractors, fire stations, and other roadside sights. Others were of an educational nature over the region being traveled. Some games involved the entire family.
Motels improved the amenities offered in response to competition and billboards provided this information to travelers. The signs proudly announced air conditioning in all rooms, heated swimming pools, and other services to lure the weary motorists and passengers. Families forced to stop for the night on the way to their ultimate destination faced an increasing number of choices, and the emergence of national chains such as Holiday Inn carried a promise of consistent quality unknown to the traveler of the years before the Second World War.
American vacations took on a wide and diverse variety. Some were still trips to a fishing cabin on a lake or stream. Others headed to the lands of the west, lured by western heroes, the Indian wars, Mount Rushmore, or Disneyland. The Great Smokey Mountains became a popular destination and tiny Gatlinburg Tennessee began a transformation still ongoing. Virginia Beach exploded from being a small, almost unknown town supported largely by the military to a major east coast resort and tourist destination, one of the most popular beach destinations in America. Myrtle Beach to the south did the same.
The Great American Road Trip is still a significant portion of the American vacation, though extended vacations have decreased in the twenty-first century, and many Americans remain connected with their work during their time off through cell phones, email, and social media. The habit of vacating the work space but not the work has emerged and taken on momentum. As a nation, Americans return or lose more vacation days than are actually taken. Whether this is part of the puritan instinct instilled in American life or simply a cultural shift is a subject of debate in the ongoing history of the American vacation.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Washington’s Journey to Barbados”, by Jack Warren, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, online
“Medicinal Springs of Virginia in the 19th Century”, by the Visitors and Rectors of the University of Virginia, University of Virginia Historical Collections, online
“American Notes for General Circulation”, by Charles Dickens, 1842
“Where the Buffalo No Longer Roamed”, by Gilbert King, Smithsonian Magazine, July 2012
“The weird origins of going to the beach”, by Ana Swanson, The Washington Post, July 3, 2016
“Save the Auto Camps”, by Stephen Mark, The Crater Lake Institute, online