The Great American Retro Road Trip A Celebration of Roadside Americana

by Pujol, Rolando

• ISBN13: 9781648293719
• ISBN10: 1648293719
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-06-24
• Publisher: Artisan

Summary

Celebrate the nostalgic pleasures of America's vintage signs, quirky roadside attractions, and offbeat fast food relics in this irresistible retro road trip across the country.

The Great American Retro Road Trip is a coast-to-coast journey chronicling retro roadside America. Discover classic giant roadside attractions, from The Coffee Pot and The Big Duck to the World’s Largest Paint Can and the Haines Shoe House. Or iconic signage, like the dazzling Yoken’s neon sign, and the classic Moon Motel sign. Still-standing vintage locations of America’s favorite chain restaurants, from Pizza Hut to McDonald’s to Taco Bell. Through author Rolando Pujol’s anecdotes and clever narrative, readers will come away with a sweeping sense of roadside charm that still exists, as well as a desire to see it all for themselves. 

These lingering traces of America’s past are an archive of disappearing roadside signage and architecture, and they tell a story of American ingenuity, creativity, and community. Whether you pick up this book for the nostalgia-inducing photos, the heartwarming stories, or as a reference for planning your own trip, you’ll be encouraged to, as Pujol says, “Let your curiosity guide you.”  

Author Biography

Rolando Pujol has made a name for himself as a journalist in the newsrooms of several newspapers and television stations in New York City over three decades. 

Fueled by a passion for storytelling and a love of the American roadside, Rolando's adventurous spirit often takes him far from the traffic-choked streets of Manhattan to the bucolic roads of the Heartland. This is all thanks to his long-term project, The Retrologist, where he shares captivating stories and photos from the American roadside. His love of small towns and their history was formed growing up in Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, suburbs of New York City rendered magical by the tales of Washington Irving.  

Pujol created and is at the helm of The Retrologist Instagram account  (@rolandpujol) and his The Retrologist Substack newsletter. When he’s not on the road, Pujol is the executive producer of digital content, innovation, and strategy at WABC-TV Channel 7, the flagship station of the ABC television network. His television work has earned him several honors, including Emmys, and awards like the Edward R. Murrow, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi, and the Deadline Club. He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut)
2. Northeast (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey)
3. Mid-Atlantic (Delaware, Maryland, northern Virginia)
4. Southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, southern Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, parts of West Virginia)
5. Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, parts of Kentucky and West Virginia)
6. South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas)
7. Desert Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, parts of Nevada)
8. Great Plains (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri)
9. Mountain West (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, parts of Nevada)
10. Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington)
11. California 

Acknowledgements
Index