Michigan Every Day Book

My Dad gave this book to me (and my sister) when we drove cross-country (from Providence to Santa Fe) in 2006. He had driven us cross-country as small children in the 50s, and thought this would be the perfect book for us to read while we travelled. I think we probably privately pooh-poohed the idea a bit, but travel can be tedious, and we did turn to the book, taking turns reading to each other as we took our respective stints behind the wheel. It turned out the book was a perfect traveling companion--we would read and then talk about it as we progressed across the country, and a couple of times there were serendipitous road encounters (like the time we discovered a piece of the pretty obscure Lincoln Highway, right after reading about it).

On the surface, the book is a story about the author's trip with his family from west to east over a five day period. But he uses this structure to weave in the history of the cross-country highway system, the history of the car on the road, stories of other people who drove cross-country, a discussion of road-side coffee cups and hand-dryers in restrooms, and all kinds of other topics! Very well-written, very interesting, and a great read-aloud book.

Thanks, Daddy, for knowing us so well! (When we got to Santa Fe, and my sister returned to the East Coast, I finished the book and then mailed it to her so she could finish. But we missed the intimacy of car-reading!)