Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Van Life Diaries - 3 Resources for ANY Roadtrip
Every road trip is a story waiting to be told.
In my two years of van life, I’ve gathered three resources that have become invaluable in planning and ensuring successful, safe and memorable road trips.
Discover how the Road Trippers app can guide you to unexpected treasures like Michael Jackson's birthplace, GIANT leg sundials and other quirky roadside attractions—all without spending a dime.
More resources are explored in the episode!
As always, we'll answer listener questions at the end.
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Cruisin' down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodle Dolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey.
Speaker 1:Van Life Diaries three resources for any road trip. Welcome to Van Life Diaries Three resources for any road trip. Welcome to Van Life Diaries. My name is Noah. It's just me and my dog, noodles, talking today in my van. No edits, no scripts.
Speaker 1:So in my over two years of van life, I've gathered three resources that have become invaluable in planning and ensuring a successful and a safe long-term road trip. Whether in a van, a camper or your trusty Subaru, these resources will help you along your travels. I promise I'm at a Cracker Barrel in central Nebraska drinking a mango spankling water. You can't go wrong. Feel free to join me as well. Grab a drink, let's hang out. Let's talk about resources for road trips. Those of you who've been listening to the show for a while know that I'm not much of a planner in life in general, but I'll admit there are times when it's necessary to put the time in and plan, particularly with longer road trips. This ensures that you have a safe, a memorable and a fun journey wherever you're going, however long it takes to get there. These three resources will help you do just that.
Speaker 1:With that said, my first recommendation is the app Road Trippers. I've mentioned this in the show briefly before, but let's get more into depth. This app will help you do two things It'll help you discover unique attractions and experiences along the route that you take. And firstly, discover the route you will take, because, essentially, this app has a built-in GPS system that is designed basically to make sites and attractions, hotels, hikes, most everything else easy to find, read reviews and decide if it's the right stop for you on your road trip. Now there's a paid version that allows you to add multiple stops, access the GPS within the app itself, but for my recommendation, we'll use the free version and only look up sites and attractions along our route, because here is a secret. That's what I use and that's all you need. Let's walk through together quickly what I do for the free version.
Speaker 1:Let's say I'm planning a road trip from Chicago to Indianapolis right, not that long of a drive, but I assure you this will help you find stuff to do along the way. The first thing I do is look up the two best routes to get to Indianapolis from Chicago in my standard GPS. Then I switch over to Road Trippers with those two routes in mind. Once I open Road Trippers, I go to the search bar on the very top and I click on on Sites and Attractions. You can do great outdoors bars, restaurants, activities, whatever you want, but for now let's stick simply with Sites and Attractions.
Speaker 1:Then it's simple. So for my case, chicago to Indianapolis, I could take 90 to 65, or I could take 57 to 65. The problem is I don't know which one has more interesting stops along the way. Or I could take 57 to 65. The problem is I don't know which one has more interesting stops along the way. Starting with 90 to 65, that would take you through Gary, indiana. You could stop quickly at. Got the app open right now. You could stop at Michael Jackson's birthplace. That would be cool. Further down you can stop at Giant Lady's Leg Sundial and I'm reading a little head, but here's the description.
Speaker 1:The Sun Aura Nudist Resort opened in 1933. Around that time the 63-foot leg sundial was created and has stayed put ever since. The Sun Resort is basically a trailer park where the tenants are allowed to walk around in the nude. Yeah, so if that sounds interesting to you, add it to your road trip from Chicago to Indianapolis. This is when you're taking 90. So further down, let's see if there's anything else. Further down, let's see there is Creek Orchard, right off the highway, and if I click on Creek Orchard, and with any location you click on, there'll be something that says nearby trips and if I click on that, articles come up that tell you what you could do in more detail, so you're not feeling like you're doing everything by yourself. It's very nice, all right.
Speaker 1:So for our 90 route, we could stop at Michael Jackson's house, go to a nudist resort with a giant leg sundial and pick some apples. If that doesn't sound great to you, let's check our 57 route. Instead, you'll go through. Let's see Bradley and you could go to the Smiley Face Water Tower. See, that sounds fun, water Tower with the Smiley Face. And See, that sounds fun, water Tower with the Smiley Face. And right by let's see, ooh, there's the Kankakee River State Park, and I actually have been there before. It's very fun, right. So you have the first options. Or stop in Bradley, do a little picnic and then continue on your way to Indianapolis. You get the idea. It's more work if you don't get the paid version right, but honestly, this is all you need and it's invaluable to me and Noodles, and I hope this gives you some value in planning your next road trip. I might skip personally the nude trailer park with the giant sundial in favor of the smiley tower with a little picnic. But hey, to each their own.
Speaker 1:Our second recommendation is Audible. I know what you're thinking Everybody knows about Audible, but stick with me, let me tell you, especially if you're a solo traveler like me, but even if you aren't, finding a book that is interesting, well-read, high quality really really makes the time fly by and you feel productive while you're driving. You learn a lot, you laugh a lot, cry a lot. Whatever you're into, it makes you have a better road trip. In my opinion and in Noodle's opinion maybe less so it's essential. They're not a sponsor. Wish they were. That's fine. I've been using them for years, though. I've listened to literally hundreds of audiobooks, traveled thousands of miles and could not have gotten through some of the drives that I've done without a good book.
Speaker 1:In terms of logistics, a lot of people think you have to pay for a Prime membership along with Audible to access Audible, but that's not true. They're separate. It's something like $8 a month for the basic package and if you upgrade to the $15 a month, you get one credit each month which gets you any book you want. And, honestly, that's what I do. I pay the membership. I don't pay for any other books, I just get a credit each month and that's that. I have an episode on my top five best audiobook recommendations from the hundreds, like I said, that I've listened to on the road Early on back in the Backroad, odyssey feed. If you're looking for a place to start, odyssey feed, if you're looking for a place to start.
Speaker 1:Most boring of the three, but most essential, is a AAA membership. It's boring, I know, I agree, but it's nice to drive knowing that you have roadside assistance, towing, battery service, flat tire changes, fuel delivery, especially for those longer road trips. Although it might not happen, don't plan for it not to happen. Again, not a sponsor, I'm just looking out for you. This is what I'd recommend. Classic membership is $71 a year. Just right for what you get, in my opinion. Towing can be expensive, but yeah, that's my recommendation for that. Boring but essential. But yeah, that's my recommendation for that. Boring but essential. And hey, to lighten things up, here's a bonus recommendation.
Speaker 1:The America the Beautiful Pass is awesome. I'll likely do an entire episode on this, but I wanted to include this if you're traveling through one or two national parks on your trip national parks on your trip. So the America the Beautiful Pass is an annual pass for $80, where you get unlimited entrances to any national park in the country from the day that you buy it for a year. So if you look at what it would cost without the pass, entrances to most national parks are around $35 per vehicle. If you pay for an entrance to two parks, that's $70. So even if you go to three national parks in the span of 365 days, you'll be paying right around $100. Much more than what it would cost for paying for unlimited entrances all across the nation for $80.
Speaker 1:A couple practical things you have to order the physical card. You can't pay for it and then print it out or something like that. It has to be physically sent to you. So if you're planning on going to park or to on your road trip, order ahead of time, wait for it, put it right in your wallet and you're good to go To look it up. Just type in America the Beautiful Pass and you'll find it pretty easily Noodles and I have been to 12 parks this year for $80. It's worked seamlessly, every entrance. Again, we'll probably do an entire episode on national park planning in the future, but for now, for your road trip, I wanted to lighten things up from the AAA membership that I recommended and recommend America the Beautiful Pass.
Speaker 1:With that said, let's get to listener questions, shall we? How long did it take to make the Fremont Troll Great question? It took the sculptor, steve I think his name was his artist and a bunch of local volunteers around three months to finish the Fremont Troll. But I'll say this Part of what drew me into the Fremont Troll is the attention that the Fremont community gives it. It's annually maintained and it just seems like it's looked after by everybody that's around it and that is what's really special to me. But yeah, three months is what it took.
Speaker 1:Just listened to the Devil's Tower episode. How can you climb it? From my understanding you should be a technical climber confident in your abilities. You can also get a guide and there's many routes along the tower that vary in difficulty. So if you're newer I'd do not the harder routes. But I will say as well, in the episode we talk a lot about the tribal religious significance of Manto Tapila Devil's Tower. So climb, knowing that significance and being very respectful of the structure and its significance to the surrounding tribes. Thank you for the question.
Speaker 1:Van life question. What's the perfect temperature for sleeping in the van? Great, great, great question. It's temperature and humidity for sleeping in vans generally, which is why the desert and west coast is so much better than trying to camp in the South or even the Midwest during the summer. So ideally low humidity, 55 degrees is perfect, but it depends. You know, some people like it colder, not me, waking up in an Arctic wonderland, but 55 degrees seems to be right at the mark.
Speaker 1:What episode or series took the longest to make? They all have their own difficulties, their own things, I'd say, but the Secrets of the Civil War episode was particularly challenging because I had to put together the story almost in a way that I haven't had to do with a lot of other episodes. There was a lot of connecting the dots, a lot of gray area with what happened, so I had to do research, to be informed, to tell the story in a way that's accurate to what actually happened. That took a long, long, long time, but worth it. I learned a lot and I hope you did too.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the question. It's Noah here. Thank you for listening to Backroad Odyssey, to Van Life Diaries small but very powerful group. Like I say, if you find value in the stories that we're telling with Backroad Odyssey and Van Life Diaries, telling a friend about the show really goes a long way to helping us continue to do what we're doing. We enjoy it. I hope you do. Other than that, I hope in some small way I assist in your next road trip. Be good to each other. Where to next? Backroad Odyssey?
