“See the USA in your Chevrolet. America is asking you to call,” Dinah Shore sang.

The Interstate Highway System led to family road trips, destroyed railroad travel, and big-rig shipping became a thing.

Still, in Oregon, we see long trains carrying forest products, up to the Port of Portland to be transferred to shipping containers

My first big road trip was from Oklahoma to Yellowstone with my parents, an aunt and uncle, and me and a cousin in one car.

To this day, I love a road trip. Especially If I am driving.

“It was on this day in 1956 that President Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act, which established the Interstate Highway System.

As a general during World War II, Eisenhower was impressed by Germany’s autobahn system, and he decided that the United States needed something comparable. After the war, the economy was booming, and Eisenhower decided the time was right to push through the Interstate Highway System. It was the largest public works project in American history. It took longer than expected to build — 35 years instead of 12 — and it cost more than $100 billion, about three times the initial budget. But the first coast-to-coast interstate highway, I-80, was completed in 1986, running from New York City to San Francisco.”

These days, the only road trip left on my to-do list is to kayak with Elizabeth. On some lazy river with just a few thrills along the way. She can pick the river. No highway system needed.