Where the Humor Meets the Road

Where the Humor Meets the Road had its origins some 30,000 feet above the ground, and in airports across the country in the mid-1970’s. A series of less than enjoyable experiences, while traveling by air, resulted in the abandonment of the airways. Road trips across the highways, byways, and backroads of the country seemed the logical alternative to soaring through the clouds. Traveling by water was just too complicated a way to reach the nooks and crannies of a country that span over two thousand miles from coast to the coast and more than a thousand miles from Green Bay to Santa Fe.

In the 1950’s the Dinah Shore Variety Show was launched. It was sponsored by Chevrolet. The theme song was quite appropriate for a show sponsored by an automobile company- “See the USA in your Chevrolet……America’s the greatest land of all.” Whatever vehicle is used, there is no better way to see the beautiful, majestic landscapes of our nation, and meet the interesting, and often humorous people of the country, than on a road trip throughout the land.

The seventy-five trips recounted in this book vary greatly in length and time. Some covered some six to eight thousand miles and lasted for several weeks, while others covered a relatively short distance and took very little time, sometimes just a few hours. They stretched from the bottom of the country to the top, including parts of Canada and Mexico, and occasionally beyond. There were also trips that covered most any point on the road atlas between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Not many roads were left uncovered in the Continental United States. These trips covered all of four decades and portions of two others.

Along each of these trips something, or some things, occurred that these travelers found humorous. Some of the humorous events were obvious and hard to miss, while others were found by just paying close attention to whatever was around us. It is the hope of the author that the readers of Where the Humor Meets the Road will also find many events in this book worthy of a laugh or two, or even more.