Sauro Motel - The Collected Writings of Bobby Sauro.

In the days before GPS or Google Maps, known to some wild at hearts as the 1970s, you loaded up on free road maps from the service stations before you left Portland, Maine or Pawtucket, Rhode Island or Clark, New Jersey for that summer road trip vacation to Florida. But these weren’t just boring old maps. … Continue reading »

From Wired to Tired. Highway 140. Waleska, GA

This North Georgia IGA is perfect if you are on the road and need to go from “Tired to Wired.” Just watch out … Continue reading »

The Matterhorn Motel. Sedona, Arizona

August 1992. Trying to find the road into Sedona, Arizona in the pitch night. My map reading skills were lacking at the time. To the trepidation of my companions, I veered onto an unpaved, gravel road. After a tense, rocky hour-long trip, slipping past survivalist camps … Continue reading »

After study, we cut class and went down the Shore. We drove slowly, marvelling at the mansions in Deal until the cops escorted us to the Asbury line. It was too cold for the beach, but the guy at  Asbury Lanes turned on Lane No. 1 for … Continue reading »

Asbury Park Boardwalk, outside the old Howard Johnson’s

“Bones and I still go to the Jersey Shore every summer but we no longer look for our future wives. When the pretty girls pass us on the beach, we ignore their straw cowboy hats … Continue reading »

The Badlands. Interior, South Dakota. The Lakota Sioux named this desolate land the “Badlands” because it was such a difficult place to cross.

The golden sand mounds there swirl in your head with all the failures that brought you there.

Tate Train Depot

Tiny Tate, in Pickens County, is the Home of Georgia Marble. Highway 53 slows into a curve that almost makes you come to a stop and admire the abandoned train station, which sits just steps from the highway.

… Continue reading »

On a recent trip, I exited I-25 into Santa Fe onto a crowded, modern road with new, adobe-style Marriott Courtyards, Targets, and the only Starbucks I found within 100 miles of Taos.  Wondering how I might be able to find the dusty remnants of Route 66, I soon realized that I was already on the Mother Road, just the 2013 … Continue reading »

Ah, the Dunk ‘N Dine.

Or, to some, the Dine ‘N Dunk. (Once you got that in your head, there was no reversing it.)

Many Atlantans have spent a late night there fueling up on DND’s coffee, also known as Legal … Continue reading »

In the late 1970’s, there were more than 1000 Howard Johnson’s restaurants located coast to coast. As of January, 2009, only 3 remain.

Several years ago, I took a trip to see the penultimate HoJo’s restaurant in Florida, arriving as they were literally tearing up the floorboards. Along the way, memories took me back to HoJo restaurants from my youth, including … Continue reading »