pretty decent guide

it has all the best roads to travel on and the all the destinations you could ever think. border to border and cost to cost.

This book is useful. It makes suggestions about how you might get from Point A to Point B in America if you decided not to use the freeway/motorway system. Because it covers the whole of the US, mean it can't give you more than a little "colour" about the possible route you could take, but the thumbnail sketches will make the places on the route sound sufficiently interesting that you'll want to take time to investigate, and learn about, the places for yourself.

The fact that it gives you colour rather a ton of detail might make it sound like there isn't advice at all in the book. That isn't true. It gives recommendations about where to eat, and what to do in a lot of places, but because of the size of the book, the sort of small town America it covers, don't expect to get lots of ideas for the places it suggests you visit.

Expected full of marginalia, but found it just yet another banal guidebook. I'd rather spend the time diving in Google Maps.

My husband and I wended our way cross country more than once with this book, which tipped us off to some wonderful spots and great experiences. I love it as a gift (along with cash for gas money) for a high school graduate to encourage travel, discovery and seeing it for yourself. The latest edition is a little glossier than the one we started out with (color pictures!), but retains the same tone that makes it a thoughtful resource.