Took a quick little trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, over an extended weekend. We went there to visit my Tennessee Hunt cousins. My dad grew up in Chattanooga.

And just to make the trip interesting, we didn’t fly, we drove. Don’t ask me why, it just seemed like the thing to do.

I have a couple of observations about the trip. One, there are a lot of semi-trucks out on the highways. And by a lot, I mean lots and lots. They are everywhere. And at rest stops, they are parked everywhere, including the entry and exit ramps in and out of the rest stops.

Two, and it goes along with the trucks, there are a whole lot of huge, and I mean humongously huge, warehouses on the outskirts of many towns and cities. Amazon warehouses are everywhere, but there are many others, as well.

And three, there is road construction everywhere. You get through one area and breathe a sigh of relief, but you only travel a few more miles and there will be a sign that says road construction ahead. And sometimes there are road construction signs but there are no signs of any road construction going on. Go figure.

And four, no matter what the speed sign says, everyone is going a lot faster. Most of the traffic is going about five miles over the limit, but a lot of folks are going much faster. Some are approaching race car speed as they weave in and out of lanes.

So why did we drive? Maybe it was the old saying “See the USA in your Chevrolet” in our minds. Except we drive Fords.

I grew up driving around the USA. My parents took my brothers and me on a month-long road trip every other summer. We left San Diego with our main destination being Winona, Minnesota, where my mom’s relatives were, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, where my dad’s relatives were.

But we never went in a straight shot to those places. We meandered our way and went and saw much of the United States. Places like northern California, Yosemite, Seattle, Black Hills, Niagara Falls, New York, Washington DC, Florida, the Grand Canyon, the Alamo and a whole lot of other places were always on our route at one time or another.

Most of it was done in a Chevy station wagon. I am fairly sure that over the years we hit every state in the Union except Hawaii, Alaska and Maine.

My parents were lucky, as their three boys (and eventually there were four boys) were angels and I am sure it was easy to travel with us, as we never misbehaved or whined.

My wife Pam’s family also did the same kind of car trips and we have continued the tradition. We have driven to Florida, Texas, California, Massachusetts and many other places many, many times. Heck, our honeymoon was a road trip to Colorado and the Rockies, Black Hills and other places.

So why did we drive to Chattanooga and not fly? Well, why not? We have done it before.

In time for the Fourth of July you will find a special America 250 magazine included in the Faribault County Register and the Fairmont Sentinel. We just finished working on it this week. It will include stories about the history of both Martin and Faribault counties as well as other local stories.

But also included is a list of 100 places in the United States which help tell the history of our country’s 250-years.

It was kind of fun for me to read through it and to see how many of those 100 places I had seen as a youngster on my family’s every-other-summer road trips around the USA, in our Chevrolet.

And, while I may not have appreciated it as a kid, I really do now as an adult and am grateful to my parents for having done that.

Maybe you have memories of trips around our beautiful country by car and not just flying from place to place. I hope so. We are blessed to have a beautiful country.

Look for that magazine included in the Register in the next weeks, and do your own checking off of where you have been and what you have seen.

In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed our weekly America 250 features each week. We still have a couple more of those to go, as we help celebrate our country’s 250th birthday.

And safe travels to you all this summer, wherever you may go.