Foster Braun

The State of Washington is developing electrical charging stations all along US 5 as part of the West Coast Green Highway that will one day stretch from Vancouver, Canada to Baja California. This includes a Scenic Byway to Stevens Pass on US 2 up over the mountains.

Rollin Southwell has created www.lincolnhighway.com to preserve the history of the Lincoln Highway, US 50 as it passes through the central Nevada desert. He calls it the Oldest, Loneliest Highway in America.

The NTBG is a collection of gardens on Kaua`i, the westernmost of the Hawaiian Islands. It is a refuge for tropical plants near extinction from around the world and in Hawaii.

The famous Weeki Wachee underwater show was founded by a former navy diver following WWII in a natural spring in northwest Florida. For over 60 years generations of mermaids have entertained thousands of tourists in the underwater arena. In 2008 Florida made Weeki Wachee its 160th state park.

The Extinction Theater is a multi-media presentation of a crucial change in the world's history from the age of the dinosaurs to the age of the mammals. The Exhibit is part of the talisman energy fossil Exhibition housed in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada.

Around New Years 2011 tragedy struck the shoe tree on the loneliest stretch of highway in America highway, US 50 near Middlegate, Nevada.

Costas Schuler glued over 10,000 used pens to his 1981 Mercedes Benz and created a rolling work of art. It has made Costas "The Pen Guy" and given him the dream of one day creating a roadside attraction in California simply known as "Pentopia".

Tom Holm is a man on a mission to change the way Americans travel our favorite roadways without becoming enslaved to foreign oil based fuels. In early 2011, Tom completed a 10,000-mile Eco Trek from coast to coast and back powered solely by cellulosic ethanol. It’s a fuel derived from corn husks, stalks, and other plant byproducts and is currently produced by a company named POET (www.poet.com). You can follow Tom's entire Eco Trek journey through his blog at http://www.ecotrek.com/blog. Find out more about the Eco Trek Foundation at www.ecotrek.com.

The Museum of Neon Art is located in Los Angeles, CA and that is where the first neon sign appeared in the US in 1923. The pictures in the album represent some of the neon signs preserved by the museum. The American Road TripTalk was with Kim Koga, museum director in 2011.

Up in Cut Bank, Montana it gets mighty cold and to honor that fact, Ron Gustafson, the former owner of the Glacier Gateway Inn and Plaza built a 27' tall penguin. It was featured in the Holiday Tour Winter 2010 issue of American Road Magazine. Ron now owns an RV Park on the Gulf of Mexico. No more penguin patties for him!