I love road trips. As a child, I travelled with my family cross-country several times by car. While my memory of these events fades just a bit more every year I get older, pictures, stories and movies help me to remember those times.

A hold-over from my childhood vacations is the love of truck stops, coffee shops, rest areas, motels, tourist traps and other unique establishments. Here are a sampling of such locations I have visited, plus two I never had the chance to see.

Status: Not Visited, Demolished — Visit with Street View

Link: 80's Movie Locations
Link: Fast Rewind Filming Locations

Long abandoned before dawning new life in John Carpenter's Starman, Bowdarks was a fictional place occupying a typical roadside stop. For many years after the location was used for the film, drivers on Interstate 24 passing Exit 143 could see the building, Bowdarks neon sign and all. The structure has now been leveled—it stood just beyond the "fireworks" sign (pictured). However, the gas station/fireworks store next door, clearly visible in the movie, is still open for business.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View

Link: Official Site

Perfectly visible to drivers on I-10 for the past ten years (at least) is the glowing red neon of the Red Onion Grill sign at Jimmie's Auto/Truck Plaza. A place I enjoy on trips now and then, the Red Onion Grill is a 24-hour diner with great cheeseburgers and more. I especially like the sign that simply says "Restaurant" in a retro typeface. I was disappointed when it disappeared in late 2008 and thought that pictures were all that remained. Fortunately, Jimmie's was only remodeling and the sign, pictured below, reappeared on top of the new fuel island's roof in 2009.

I apologize that this picture sucks. I will replace it with a better one soon.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View

Link: Photograph
Link: Relevant Mount Sutro Article

Without a doubt, 20122 is my favorite rest area in Florida. Situated in the midst of the Osceola National Forest, this rest area embodies everything I remember from travelling cross-country as a kid. The look of the place, the smell, the informational signs — all so familiar.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View

Link: Photograph
Link: Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park

A close runner-up for best Florida Rest Area, 20172 is just south of Gainesville but offers the opportunity to feel as if you were in the middle of nowhere. With all due respect to Gainesville, this part of Florida is certainly no megalopolis but the nature-enriched scenery of this stop makes it worth the time. A special feature of this rest area is the ramp and observation plateau (pictured) overlooking the often fog-filled plain of the Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park. Pay attention to the signs and stay on the trail as rattlesnakes frequent the area.

Status: Not Visited, Closed/Demolished — Visit with Street View

Link: Cougertown
Link: Road Side Peek

A favorite local diner of Hawthorne residents since the 1950's, The Hawthorne Grille, formerly named Holly's is best known to the rest of the world as the coffee shop diner featured in 1994's Pulp Fiction. I would have loved the opportunity to see the classic architecture of the building and take photographs, but unfortunately the structure was razed several years ago. An Auto Zone retailer now stands on the lot.

Status: Visited, Closed/Partially Demolished — Visit with Street View

Link: Official Site (archive: page one, page two)
Link: Roadside America Article and Field Report

In the middle of Wyoming exists what many call the "baby" Grand Canyon, Hell's Half Acre. The land in this region is very flat and so the combination of high winds and the gigantic depression in the land make the area super windy. In addition to the beautiful scenic outlook, there is local business featuring a small motel, campground, gift shop, bar and cafe. The campground is a pleasant stay, especially to wake-up at dawn to watch the sun rise over colorful and jagged canyon. The motel was demolished in 2006 but the restaurant/gift shop still stands, albeit boarded up. I also remember a rest area (pictured) down the road that had a wishing well in the restroom lobby. You could drop coins down the tube and listen for them to hit the bottom, some hundred feet below.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View (road to location only)

Link: Official Site
Link: National Park Service Information

Basking in the shadow of the United States' first national monument, 1267 foot Devils Tower, this KOA is one campground that manages to maintain its integrity whilst being adjacent to a very popular tourist attraction. In the middle of Wyoming's Black Hills region, the KOA features pitch-black night skies, hay rides along the Belle Fourche River and next to Devils Tower and nightly outdoor, campfire-side showings of Close Encounters of the Third Kind which prominently features the monument.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View (road to location only)

Link: Official Site
Link: History
Link: Private Tour Photographs
Link: NASA Photographs

Also featured in the aforementioned Starman, the Meteor Crater site is more of a specific destination than a casual stop-off locale. In addition to the awesome viewing platform, there is a snack bar with decent hot dogs (since replaced by a Subway Restaurant), theatre, gift shop and a museum featuring historical documents, photographs and bits from the crater itself.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View

Just over an hour and a half west of Salt Lake City (home to the most scenic Wendy's restaurant I have visited) are the salt flats rest areas. This simple stop-off has all the standard features of any other rest area, plus an elevated viewing platform (eastbound side) and easy access to the salt flats themselves. Harder than walking on beach sand, the salt flats are deceptively large. As you start to walk out toward the mountains, those skyscraping landmarks seem to only get further away. Home to automotive racing and testing, the salt flats are an excellent stop for just about anyone.

Status: Visited, Active — Visit with Street View

Link: Official Site
Link: Roadside America Article and Field Report
Link: History and Billboard Gallery

Known to anyone who has driven Interstate 95 in the south, South of the Border seems to go out of the way to make their expansive facility as corny as possible. For hundreds of miles, cartoon mascot Pedro adorns billboards with puns and kitsch sayings inviting you to join him at his restaurant, motel, campground, gas station, amusement park, gift shops and fireworks store. Following complaints, including one by the Mexican Embassy to the United States in 1993, owner Alan Schafer gradually replaced the billboard character's stereotypical "Mexican-speak" with more politically correct messages ("…these baby boomers do not have a sense of humor," he said). I was always partial to "Chili Today, Hot Tamale!" which I am pleased to say survived the updates.

As I sit here saving appointments into Yahoo! Calendar to remind me when The West Wing is going to air tonight, Thomas Newman's theme from American Beauty starts to play. Three minutes, six seconds of memory for me.

When I lived in Jacksonville, this was one of the many MP3's I listened to on a frequent basis. As time wore on, I became very unhappy there and would often listen to Thomas Newman soundtracks. At home, I would play this track over and over again. Typing now, at the same desk with the same computer, only my surroundings are different. I look to the left and see my Dilbert wall calendar in lieu of the cat candle and window I used to gaze out, a cool breeze lapping at my arm. Forward and to my right, the homely surroundings of my possessions fill my space rather than the living quarters of other people.

I would drive around town listening to Newman's The Shawshank Redemption score, a personal favourite. Sometimes getting to track seven ("Brooks Was Here"), I would almost instinctively press repeat. Over and over again, that emotion provoking track would fill my car.

Listening now, I can see why I made that jump back and forth. Track eight ("American Beauty") is very similar to Shawshank's seven, evoking the same emotional response from me.

It almost makes me want to drive up to Jacksonville tonight, see the shipyards and have a Newcastle along the river at my special spot where the only thing between you and the glimmering lights and buildings of downtown is the shimmering waters of the Saint Johns.

Of all the memories triggered by tastes, sounds and smells, I have to say the recollections and feelings that come forth as I listen to this track repeatedly are some of the strongest. At the same time, I have become such a different person since then that it is almost like looking at a fun house mirror. A vast wasteland of dreams and possibilities that never came true. But instead, I have this. And those memories help guide me every day.

I recently started carrying a small notebook with me so I could jot down ideas and make notes about things I see and hear while out and about. So far, it has proven to be an invaluable tool and something that I find allows me to actually put to paper those thoughts and ideas I have throughout a typical day, review them in the future and then assign quality values.

I just went through the notebook and started reading entries from the beginning, the wedding of my friend Jessica's brother. Between the few telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and take-away Steak 'n Shake orders there remain several ideas I am very happy to have written down. Here are some of them, in no particular order.

1. Curious to see if it is possible, I am going to send a postcard to my Post Office Box using a non-standard format. Instead of addressing the piece to the box itself, I am going to use the physical address of the Post Office and place my box number secondary, as one would do with an apartment or suite number.

2. As I was sitting in the apartment of the aforementioned Jessica and my other friend Kat, I noticed something quite visually stunning. As Jessica sat diagonally from me smoking a cigarette, the plumes of smoke rose and passed through a very thin layer of light peeking between the dark curtains that hang there. At each exhalation of smoke, I became continually more mesmerized by the stream of sunlight pouring into the room, but only visible with the smoke. Like robbers finding the security lasers in a bank by spraying chemicals into the beam.

   The images became coherent as more and more smoke filled the small space. Distinct images were brought to life and for those moments when the smoke was the thickest, the dimensionality of it all was nearly sentient. The smoke played with the ultraviolet and visible light turning and spinning like the severe atmospheric storms on Jupiter that reach for hundreds, if not thousands of miles across the surface. Or like the phenomenon I badly wish to witness for myself, the Aurora Borealis.

3. At the Peacock Lounge, a man and woman sat to my left while my companion for the evening sat to my right. She sat there content, as there was a gentle lull in our conversation, tenderly dragging on her cigarette. Just then, the man to the left turned my direction, leaned to speak behind the woman and asked my friend if she would mind giving him a smoke. She generously accepted his proposition with one caveat: they were menthol. Upon hearing this fact, the man quickly apologized, stated he was allergic to menthol and thanked her again.

   Ten minutes later, the man turned again to address us. He opened with, "Excuse me. I am not really allergic to menthol; I just do not like them." Turning to the woman I asked if she had used guilt to get him to reveal his little secret. She had. "No reason to lie about something like that," she concluded.

4. A waiter at a local restaurant likes to ask me the strangest questions whenever I am hanging out at the bar, keeping my friend company while she works. "If zombies took over the world, what one weapon would you want to have above all others?" "If you could kill one person in here, who would it be and why?" "Who is most likely to be a closet-case homosexual?"

   I entertain these musings because they adequately pass time and I certainly do not wish to be rude to him. It does leave me wondering the source of these enquiries.

5. I know the woman at the wedding. Yes, the bride. I know exactly where I know her from, too. But she denies it. I have no way to find out for sure.
6. Art in the bathroom often suffers damage from the heat and humidity of the shower. Perhaps laminating art before framing it would help seal it from the moisture.
7. I think about it every day. At least once, often more. I should act.

So simple, really. But I feel a lot better for being able to review these snippets in life and breathe just the slightest amount of animation into them. Some will become mini-projects. Others will slip further and further down this page only to become another archived idea, destined to be soon forgotten.

This is quite possibly the nicest (if not factually flawed) canned e-mail message I have ever received.

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at mail1.***.net. I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out. please contact support@***.com with questions or concerns

***@***.COM:
The users mailfolder is over the allowed quota (size). (#5.2.2)

Polite and sincere, but since when is an over quota failure permanent? I mean, even if the account holder is dead, there is a slight chance that somewhere, somehow the messages could be retrieved.

Right?