I traveled the entirety of Route 66 as an undergrad in 2004 en route from my home in Ohio to Chicago to LA. The trip changed the trajectory of my life, cementing a passion for roadside architecture and providing the underpinnings of a career in a field I wouldn't properly discover existed for another few years - historic preservation. I've since gotten a Master's degree in preservation (where I did a thesis on neon sign preservation), run a preservation advocacy organization in a major American city, and served on the board of a national roadside architecture preservation organization. And it really started with this trip. Every stop was as intriguing as the next, but the most surprising was California's Mojave Desert, that vast expanse that too many miss because they drive through at night or are told there's nothing there. To the contrary, these stalwart businesses and the evocative landscape surrounding them stir the soul like nowhere else. See it in the daylight!