“Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” - Horace Greeley, newspaper editor, 1865. Crossing the continent has long been an American ambition. In the 1840s, covered wagons wobbled west. Train travel peaked in the early 1900s, before motor vehicles and interstates freed us to drive ourselves, faster and straighter with each decade. Convertibles cruised Route 66, crystallizing the glory days of The Great American Road Trip. Wanting to experience a rite of passage, I followed Greeley’s advice 150 years later. Transportation is different now, of course — wagon wheels decorate barns, train tracks rust in silence, classic cars rest in museums.