“What is more beautiful than a road?
It is the symbol and the image of an active, varied life.”
— George Sand
U.S. Highway 50 runs 3,073 miles across the United States, from Ocean City, Maryland, to Sacramento, California. For much of that distance it is a local or regional two-lane highway, and drivers passing by from distant locations race along nearby Interstates. Nevertheless, it is clearly marked and ready for a cross-country traveler.
Route 50 is thus an anachronism: There is no longer a need for a national highway routed not just over mountains and rivers, but also along rural two-lane roads, down suburban streets and city blocks, and around small-town squares. It is an interesting, and perhaps romantic, notion that all the many people who have houses on Route 50 can pull out of their driveways, turn east and drive to Ocean City or head west to Sacramento, and never leave the road that passes home.
I’ve traveled the entirety of Route 50 many times. Here you will read about places and things that have interested me. The limit is they must be located within roughly ten miles on either side of the highway. Since Route 50 travels over 3,000 miles, that adds up to over 60,000 square miles of potential interest. It’s a lot of territory to cover, and I don’t pretend to have covered it all. I do hope, though, that some of the places I find interesting will also interest you.
This is not a guidebook. Here you will find no evaluations of hotels or tourist sites. And you’re on your own in choosing places to eat, though I will offer one tip: If you’re looking for lunch in a town that is a county seat, head for the courthouse square and look for the place that’s full of lawyers and judges. You’re likely to get some good soup and a fine piece of pie there.
The information and stories I’ve included here are largely based on my understanding of park signs, historical markers, web pages, Wikipedia articles, and other similar sources. Although I think my work is accurate, it should not be construed as authoritative, rigorous research, and you should not be footnoting it in something you write.
Rather, think of this book as taking a trip in a car with another person. That person may be informed and interested, but unintentional mistakes may be made. Of course, on a real road trip, if you don’t like the other person’s conversation, you’re stuck. But in your case you can simply close this book and hit the road on a trip of your own. You could choose Route 50 — there’s lots more interesting stuff to discover on it. Or you could choose one of the other non-interstate highways that cross the U.S., some from east to west and others from north to south.
Before we start on our trip today, you might be interested in how roads such as Route 50 came to be. There are connections between bicycles, the Good Roads Movement, auto trails, and the U.S. Highway system. Those connections are explored here.
And one more thing: The content of this book has been assembled over a number of years. What you read was current when each piece was written. Things may have changed. And new additions are being added to the Internet version. A list of recent additions is here.
But enough talk. Let’s get started. After a brief pause to honor the first person to drive across America, we’ll begin our road trip at Route 50’s eastern origin, Ocean City, Maryland, .
Enjoy the ride!
Scott
“The traveler sees what he sees,
the tourist sees what he has come to see.”
— G. K. Chesterton
Text and photos copyright © 2008-20 Scott A. Seely, except where noted. All rights reserved.