BEDFORD, Pennsylvania — For the briefest of moments, a line of vintage Rolls-Royce automobiles chugged along the curving Cumberland Road. They passed over the Cumberland Run a handful of times and wound themselves down the mountains, away from Pennsylvania and toward the city of steeples, Cumberland. The sight gives the bystander a moment to imagine what it looked like in the early days of American road tripping.
These 1922 Rolls-Royce vehicles, which included the New Phantom and the Silver Ghost (some of the first cars designed expressly to be owner-driven rather than chauffeured), were not what any Americans owned. But they help you understand what men like Henry Ford knew: no matter what class you fell in, everyone wanted the freedom and adventure that automobiles provided.
The vintage convoy of luxury automobiles passing leisurely down the road exemplified just that. Just watching the joy the occupants had with their tops down, scarves flowing in the crisp mountain breeze, waving to farmers along the way, was a reminder that Americans still love their cars and road trips. They still do, more than 100 years after the first assembly line was introduced in 1913 and massive scaling made automobiles affordable to most people.
Since the first American road, the Lincoln Highway, opened in 1913, Americans have found that their relationship with their nation and the roads that connect us north, south, east, and west is almost patriotic in concept.
Whether you are on the road for hours or days, whether you stay in your home state or visit multiple others, there is a breadth of history, scenery, and experiences that connect all of us. Whether we stay ensconced with our families in our cars or stay in campgrounds with a community fire ring, or at a motor lodge, or if you just take a day trip to the local state park. One of the most interesting things we could do this summer is take a road trip, large or small, to experience the country for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
This is exactly what Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, his wife Rachel Compos-Duffy, and their nine children did in intervals of one to three-day trips. They began with Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the declaration was signed on July 2, 1776.
The road trip was turned into a five-part series, “The Great American Road Trip,” which will run on YouTube for free. Duffy said it was paid for by a nonprofit group of the same name and that no taxpayer dollars were spent on any of his family members.
Sponsors for the project include Boeing, Royal Caribbean, Shell, Toyota, and United Airlines. All are economic engines for the tourism and travel industry that feed into the ecosystems of diners, national and state parks, bed-and-breakfasts, hotels, chain restaurants, and local tourist attractions.
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In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Duffy noted that no one in his family received a salary.
Duffy said that road trips in his family were a great adventure, filled with awe, sibling fighting, and stays in campgrounds and motels. They began with his love of seeing the country from the ground at an early age. “When I was growing up, my parents would take us on road trips all the time, and we’d go to Florida, Arizona, California,” he explains.
As one of 11 children, Duffy said that one can imagine there were plenty of “Don’t make me turn this car around” and “Do you want to get out of this car and walk?” moments directed at the back seat.
“Probably one of the most memorable trips, which at this point had just the bottom three or four of us siblings in the car with just Mom; Dad would fly to meet us there because of work, was to the Grand Canyon,” he began. “My mom, who was really athletic, decided that we should walk down to Phantom Ranch and then back up the same day. So, it was like 24 miles. And I think I was 12 at the time, my sister was 9 or 10, and my older brother was 15 or 16.”
Duffy doesn’t mince words — it was a horrific trip. “We couldn’t walk the next day. And she had no money, too. So she bought us a couple Snicker bars, and we had water out of the pump well.” Still, the trip became a family legend. And the laughter and memories brought by telling and retelling it meant even more to him today, two years after his mother had passed.
Duffy had fond memories of packed coolers, roadside oddities, and games of “I Spy” and counting red barns — things that he made his children do during this family road trip, much to their chagrin. “Some things never changed,” he said with a broad smile.
For over 100 years, Americans have embraced their connection to the backroads and highways of the country, linking that adventurous spirit and wanderlust to the very basic concept of the country. It was, and is, audacious, bold, larger than anyone imagined, and filled with possibilities.
“No better way to celebrate the country on our 250th year than getting out there and seeing it,” said Duffy, who began the ride from the White House lawn heading toward the city where the country was formed and 56 men made the bold decision to sign a declaration of separation from the crown. A decision that meant certain death for acts of treason if they failed.
AAA is projecting a record-breaking summer travel season for our nation’s big birthday, with an estimated 39.1 million Americans taking road trips for the Memorial Day holiday alone.
The auto club, formed in 1902, was established by nine independent motor clubs advocating safer paved roads at a time when only 23,000 cars existed in the United States.
Today, there are around 300 million registered vehicles in the U.S., with AAA forecasting that Americans driving them will take 700 million trips this summer, the overwhelming majority opting to drive to their destinations.
And this is happening despite drivers facing rising gas prices as the summer travel season approaches. AAA reports that the national average price for regular gasoline is $4.53 per gallon.
Duffy is sensitive to that burden and suggests that you don’t have to go far from home, perhaps 60 miles or less in any direction, to get that bonding with your family (messy fights and all), a taste of local history that you may have missed, and refresh your understanding of the region you call home.
“My motto is, ‘To love America is to see America.’ Hit the road, go see your country. It’s beautiful. But you don’t have to go far; sometimes the best adventures aren’t far from home,” he said.
“If expenses don’t allow for a two-day trip, you could do a two-hour trip, and there’s probably places that you haven’t been [that are] two hours from your home. Whether it’s a campsite, a river, some cool part of the country where you live that you could go do that with your family. And you can go for the day, you could camp and stay overnight, which means that could fit any budget,” Duffy observed.
“I think to lean into America is to get off the screen, see your country through the window, and [do it] with your family. And if you get off the freeway, then you get to visit the little diner or the little town that you’ll come across and rediscover, and contribute to, what makes us exceptional.”
Duffy said that on the handful of one- to two-day trips his family made over a seven-month span to 11 different states, he also added work stops such as visiting air traffic control towers and assessing port infrastructure, among other infrastructure projects.
His biggest takeaway? “How unique we are. We’re so diverse. We have so much culture and so much beauty that it should be explored — just go see your country through your windshield. Open the heart up, roll the window down, and enjoy it.”
Seeing the country through fresh eyes can center you on what we have in common, he said. “Oftentimes it’s the places that are closest to us that we don’t go see, which, when we go back to this amazing idea that you could travel a couple hours away from where you live and see something that’s amazing that you’ve never seen before.”
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Duffy said that while all nine of his children didn’t do it all at the same time, there were still plenty of “I spy with my little eye” games that went down. He just lost count.
“I also lost count of the fights. By the way they fight, just like we did,” he said while laughing. “Years from now, those fights will be part of great stories we will tell about how we took little family road trips together the year that our country turned 250.”