The highway beckons again — and one more time, we need a little direction.
We’re about to embark on something new: Great Drives of North America. And as with last year’s search for the Best Little Town in the Midwest — when hundreds of you gave us ideas via regular mail, e-mail and on message boards linked to the Internet Tribune — you will be involved in the process.
In fact, we’ve set up our own Great Drives message board (chicago.tribune.com/go/drive) so we all can share thoughts and ideas along the way.
Here’s what’s going on:
As you read this, we’re on the road somewhere between Chicago and Orlando, taking what we believe to be the best route (at least for grown-ups) to Walt Disney World, etc.
Next will be a circle drive around Florida, from Orlando down the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf Coast and back. After that, we’ll be driving home from Orlando to Chicago, this time on a route we’ll design (with your help) as the most kid-friendly route.
Beginning with that drive around Florida, you will be an essential part of this, courtesy of the Internet. Through our Travel Web page, we’ll be providing updates on the message board from the road, so you’ll know where we are and where we’re going and even what the weather’s like. We’ll swap messages with readers — and readers can swap messages with each other.
Ultimately, you will help determine where the next Great North American Drives will take all of us. (Regular mail works, too. Write: Alan Solomon, Travel section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. We’ll read everything.)
Now, about the drives themselves — here’s what we have in mind:
Think primarily in terms of one- or two-week drives, the kind that fit into most people’s actual vacation schedules. We’ll avoid ultra-marathons this time; one of those, 48 States in 48 Days — a 1996 project some of you may remember — was enough for this decade.
We’re sure many will begin and end in Chicago. Some undoubtedly will start here and wind up somewhere else. Some won’t connect to Chicago at all — but all should be exciting, maybe even inspiring, ideally a little surprising, and certainly fun.
One may be the drive you’ve always wanted to do — or even the drive you’re considering taking later this year.
So join us on the Internet — and, of course, on Sundays in the pages of the Travel section, where the first Great Drive report will appear on March 22.
You’re invited along for the ride.
